For 6 days there was an unusual and personally exciting period when birds of prey seemed to permeate my yard and neighborhood during a run of unprecedented raptor sightings. Migrating hawks stopping for moments or longer periods that punctuated the final days of September, including Cooper's Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, a Red-tailed Hawk, Swainson's Hawk, a Sharp-shinned Hawk, plus a Merlin mini-falcon. The Broad-wings provided the biggest surprises and a new species to add to my yard list, and the large group of 21 certainly was a unique sighting in my neighborhood and unusual this far west in the open Great Plains.
It all started with a big female Cooper's Hawk that I happened to see standing in the middle of a side road just 150 feet northwest of home. I enjoyed the opportunity to observe and even photograph the spirited hawk as she drank single sips from a rainwater puddle, then continued as she engaged in a spirited bathing session – what luck! Other sightings of raptors perched within 250 feet of home included the adult Swainson's Hawk 2 days later, and a young Red-tailed Hawk that was approached by a Cooper's Hawk in low flight the next afternoon.
But nothing would compare to the especially surprising find of 21 Broad-winged Hawks that made a stopover, first revealed when I witnessed a Broad-wing land on a pole as I stood in my bay window extension while checking out a late hummingbird feeding a few feet away. Moments later, as I approached the hawk with my camera from afar, a number of Broad-wings revealed their perched positions, while others began lifting off into soaring flights. The ensuing take-off left me speechless as some Broad-wings began to soar only a few feet overhead, some circling in groups of 4 and 5. At the same time, a lone Cooper's Hawk caught my eye as it flew low to the south, and a perched Sharp-shinned Hawk joined the exodus moments later. Last to reveal itself, was a male Merlin perched high in a mighty cottonwood tree that provided some portraits after the flurry of migrating hawks passed.
This is not a typical description of typical backyard birding observations, which most often include small songbirds or hummingbirds as they visit feeders and birdbaths. Indeed, most of my recent yardbird observations have been of migrating songbirds – warblers, vireos, kinglets, finches, thrushes, waxwings, jays. But the diversity and numbers of raptors in my neighborhood from Thursday through Tuesday the previous week was especially noteworthy and I wanted to share it in this Backyard Birding segment to emphasize that we never know what to expect next – or what to imagine next.
At the same time, during late fall and winter, a raptor regularly becomes a part of many yards and neighborhoods, and these birds of prey tend to be of the bird-eating variety – especially an occasional Cooper's Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and rarer – a Merlin. Actually, on an individual feeding station level, all of these bird-hawks are rare, but occasionally individuals will spend a day or week in a neighborhood, suddenly appearing in a low flight to flush small birds like sparrows or juncos, then perching for a minute or 2 for us to get a quick binocular view before the predator resumes its search for feathered food.
Raptors are a part of the time-tested scheme of nature, and while we want to protect our feeder birds, it can be exciting to count a hawk or mini-falcon as a part of our backyard avifauna, if even for a few moments. In the meantime, birds are really on the move now, with fall migration the dominant activity – aside from finding food; so be aware that you may have a chance to see one of the smaller birds of prey in your yard, resting or searching, and enjoy the opportunity to view them as part of the greater ever-changing parade of birds we share our yards and neighborhoods with during the annual cycle.
Postscript: After writing the above article, I stepped outside to water some plants, and as I was replacing rainwater in my birdbath, a young male Cooper's Hawk zipped out into view 40 feet away and just 7 feet high, flying parallel to me across the road and another 15 feet before taking a quick turn behind trees at the 4 foot level. I could see the hawk continuing its flight as it passed across openings in the vegetation and land on a low branch, just as 2 robins burst into the open from the same location – probably even more surprised than I, and much more terrified. This little tract of wooded neighborhood is continuing to attract migrating birds, including feathered predators – right in line with my written words!
Article and Photos by Paul Konrad
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