Hawk Migration

Hi Friends…I’ll be traveling the remainder of March and a lot of April, so I think organizing trips to Fort Morgan in an attempt to understand what, if any, sort of Spring raptor flight we have along this coast will be difficult–I’d hoped to participate in HMANA’s RaptorThon, but I just don’t think there will be time. There are quite a few accipiters wandering through, that much is evident. I haven’t seen my kites (MIss. or Swallow-tails) return just yet, although they should be getting close…we’ve had some good flights of black vultures (and TVs) in the last couple of weeks that were interesting to watch, too.

We’re going to really work hard next Fall, and spend a lot more time studying this migration corridor along Alabama’s Gulf coast. We hope y’all will keep us in mind, and check in periodically. Until then, Keep Lookin’ Up!

(Saturday, Oct. 24; 9:30 a.m.) I haven’t been able to tear away from the office this week, so I’m not in tune with the migration; however, a co-worker just called and said she noticed a large kettle of 200 or so birds over the sod farms adjacent to the Foley Beach Express, just north of Orange Beach.  From what she described, it sounds like Broad-wings, although I would’ve thought this is late for them.  Hopefully, someone will get out to the Fort and look “up” for migrating raptors!

Things weren’t as dynamic as Sunday the 18th, with all the broad-wings flying low to the ground and generally being inqusitive and accomodating, but they remained most of the morning, anyway, although with lighter winds, today, all birds were higher.  And, the accips were still moving in numbers, although we saw more Coops than sharpies today in 3.5 hours of watching (38 to 17; yesterday, 20 to 44).  Still, it was a very respectable flight for the morning, with 8 species observed (and also two wood storks).    We still averaged nearly 41 birds per hour!  However, yesterday was really great, averaging 125 birds per hour, and 9 species.  Get out and watch a hawk!

wow….wow.  What a GREAT morning wathcing hawks just outside the Fort at Ft. Morgan.  I only had two hours to observe (from 9 a.m. until 11:00 a.m.), but what an exciting two hours!  Before I even got to my “spot”, I had to pull over and watch a kettle of broad-winged hawks cross the Mobile ship channel toward Dauphin Island, along with some accipiters, small falcons and a few general unidentified raptors…things started happening fast (couldn’t even keep my reporting sheet updated!)…everywhere you looked, you’d see raptors.  When I got to my post, i’d barely got out of the truck when a sharp-shinned nearly took my head off!  I love that!  Even the cliff or bank swallows were flying around this open piece of ground buzzing me, which was a lot of fun…but the hawks!  Unbelievable!  Streams of sharp-shins, Coops, kestrels, an occaisional merlin, and broad-wings were everywhere, it seemed.  Even got to watch an immature bald eagle eat a (nasty) stiff-as-a-board hardhead catfish (gross) about 100 yards away…fun.  There were about 50 Broad-wings (BWs) just hanging around the Fort, drifting west, then east, then west, then south, then east, first high, then looow, then right over head—all morning.  Loved it!  I saw four species within 25 feet of me today: BWs, Coops, Sharpies, and kestrels.  The gusty, windy day had them playing with ground effect lift, i guess, and they were just “intimate”.  Anyway, for me, the highlight came in the second hour, when, amongst a kettle of BWs, one big bird looked “different”…sure enough, it was a Swainson’s hawk…but, almost (to me) unbelievably, another came by about 20 minutes later.  And later, a small group of red-tails (9 in all) came in to end the morning (for me)…birds were everywhere…Awesome!  I’ll digress, but in two hours of observing, I counted 10 species, and 249 individuals!  What a day….

Saturday, Oct. 17th: Spent most of the day at Coastal BirdFest in Fairhope, AL…gave a presentation on the Hugh S. Branyon Backcountry Trail, but also gave a pitch about this “new” raptor migration that really excites me.  Funny moment: while talking to my neighbor at our tents/booths, noticed one then two then three birds (raptors, that is)…then a “swarm” of broad-winged hawks was drifting over downtown Fairhope, Alabama!  I quickly walked around saying “broad wings!” to no one in particular, but to everyone in general, but no takers…finally, stopped, and shouted “EVERYBODY LOOK UP!!”.  THAT got everyone’s attention, and we all shared a beautiful sight of about 100 BWs drifting over the downtown…point is, keep looking up–the Alabama coastal (and interior!) raptor migration could be happening right above you!

Get out and watch birds–there are literally hundreds, if not thousands of broad-winged hawks “staging” on the Fort Morgan peninsula, right now…also saw many, many eagles, but they also didn’t appear to be in a hurry to get anywhere, at the moment.  The BW hawks may be waiting for lighter winds, because today, there was a stead 25 mph NW wind–tough watching conditions, and probably tough for those light little buteos, as well.  However, some birds did make the jump across Mobile Bay, as did a merlin, a couple of red-tails and a harrier.  However, after watching for a couple of hours, the drive back toward the east revealed a very concentrated number of birds in some places.  I saw one kettle of BWs closer to Gulf Shores, of about 75 to 100 birds.  Yesterday, a group said they saw two separate kettles of broad-wings of about 100 each.  So, that may be indicative of a “late” migration, since BWs usually migrate sooner, or so I thought.  Time may tell.  Thanks to J. Dube for sitting in the howling wind watching for hawks, today.

Wednesday: Spent an hour at Fort Morgan yesterday, from 11:00 to 12:00 noon, and saw surprisingly few birds migrating–only 3 small falcons, two of which were kestrels (the other not sure).  Did have fun watching two peregrines in some sort of mock “dogfight” for a while, so that was fun…There were a lot of birders (passerines) at the Fort, as well, but no one seemed to be watching the skies for raptors.  Am going out there tomorrow for a few hours (9 a.m. until noon), so I hope we’ll have some birds moving through with the passage of the cold front we’re expecting…Y’all join us! 

Sunday would’ve been the day to sit all day at Fort Morgan or Dauphin Island!  I made it out to the Fort at 11:00 a.m. and could only stay for 30 minutes…however, the birds were really moving after the cold front north of us.  The (very short) time I spent watching was rewarded with 12 birds (In about a 20 minute period), with an adult Sharpie being the first on the list, followed by a sub-adult bald eagle.  Shortly after, more accips, red-tails, an imm. Northern harrier, 2 merlins and 2 kestrels were also recorded.  Even though I had to leave the Fort, as I sat in a dove field in east-central Baldwin County (about 12 miles northeast of Elberta, AL), there were clearly birds moving to the southwest.  After 2 hours of “viewing”, several small falcons (merlins and kestrels), accips and buteos were seen moving headlong toward the Fort’s direction, and we must have counted over twenty individual birds–not bad for some random peanut field in the middle of the county.  So my point is, get out and keep and eye on the skies over the next few weeks–the hawks are arriving!

3:25 p.m.: Took a few days off to camp in the foothills of the Apps (Oak Mountain S.P.), where I did see a few migrating birds, but couldn’t identify any concentrated corridor, per se.  I understand the weather had been lousy here in Orange Beach over most of the weekend, and this morning a heavy fog hung around until 10 a.m. or so.  When I finally got outside, however, I did spot a female (imm.) Cooper’s hawk heading west, followed by an adult Peregrine falcon a few minutes later (11:50 a.m.).   Still, haven’t seen very many birds today during the few, brief forays outside.  Hopefully, things will pick up over the next few days…(30 minutes obs.; 2 birds/2 species).

Friends: it is a beautiful day here on the Alabama Gulf coast, with light winds, fair skies and moderate temps…but, that means the birds are HIGH!  Took a short trip out to Fort Morgan, and the spotting was difficult.  The migration has begun in earnest, but we’re still probably several weeks away from any sort of peak. However, even with the difficult spotting conditions, we counted 15 birds over a two and a half hour period–there is no telling how many we missed.  The day got started nicely with a Peregrine heading west at about 60 m.p.h. , followed by a sharpie and some other “unid. accipiters”. (2.5 hours observing; 15 birds, at least 3 species).