Migration, continued

After a week of being sick -- during the peak of migration, no less! -- I spent a few hours today at the school playground again. The results: 1 American Kestrel and 1 Osprey. Not what I was expecting, given the northwest wind, which should have made for good migration conditions, especially after days of rain. I'm not sure whether it's the location (in the local sense, perhaps most migrants are over the next ridge; in a larger sense, maybe they're skirting our area altogether, preferring the coast), the time of day (earlier might have been better, because it started to cloud over by late morning), or the weather patterns (as noted). Still, it was nice spying a couple of migrants scooting by.

Also: 8 Monarchs (butterfly), Red-breasted Nuthatches (heard), 1 Eastern Bluebird, 1 Northern Flicker, a male and female Cooper's Hawk -- the female noticeably larger, and they were not migrants, but rather "locals" -- 20+ Turkey Vultures and 6 Black Vultures.

Sneak preview of a future Lakeville Journal column: Black Vultures are an interesting bird because they did not exist in our area 30 years ago, and are now increasing in numbers every year. How to tell BV's from TV's? At medium-to-close range, BV's have the obvious field marks of a black head and a white triangle at the end of each black wing. (On TV's, the head is red, except for immatures, and the entire trailing edge of the wing is pale, contrasting with the black leading edge.)

At long distance, identification is still fairly simple, based on shape. TV's are like flying "T's" and flying "V's" (a handy mnemonic); in other words, from below they have a long tail and long wings, which gives them a more or less "T" shape (though at times the wings appear bent at the elbow, not completely straight). From in front or behind, TV's invariably hold their wings in a "V" and characteristically tip from side to side as if trying to balance themselves.

By contrast, BV's have extremely short tails, small heads, and curiously bow-shaped wings. These traits make them look quite compact. At times it almost appears as if the trailing edges of the wings, at their most "bowed" point, project as far back as the tail. At other times, they hold their wings in a slightly angled relation to the tail. BV's hold their wings level, not in a V, and never rock side by side.

Watch these large scavengers for a little while and you'll get the hang of it. It's worth noting sightings of Black Vultures in our area and reporting them to this blog using the "Comments."

Watching for Hawks

I took my daughter and her friend to the Sharon Center School playground today -- an excuse for me to look for migrating hawks. It's early yet, and the winds were mostly from the west-southwest, but I did spy at least one Cooper's Hawk high overhead. As I followed it, it executed a thrilling stoop, plummeting earthward with wings folded, like a falling stone, before I lost it in the trees. An ample reminder that hawks are predators, and presumably a good meal was had on the wing.

Mostly, there were migrating Tree Swallows. I counted about 30, virtually all of them moving in a west-southwest direction, contra the wind; but migration must happen, after all. It will only be a few more days until the Broad-winged Hawks really get going. I was disappointed not to see any today, but I was only out for a short while, at midday, not the best time, and there are many more prominent lookouts than Sharon School -- which at least affords a fairly wide horizon.

As we pulled out of the parking lot, we stopped to admire a beautiful, large Great Spangled Fritillary (butterfly) nectaring on some flowers.