Friday, September 19, 2008

Skywatching for hawks

I know it's a Raven, but it's the best bird pic I got today during a couple hours spent at the Montclair Hawkwatch. The hawkwatch site is NJ Audubon's smallest sanctuary and the second oldest continuous- running hawkwatch in the country, second only to Hawk Mountain in Pa.

Finding hawks at a ridge site, as opposed to a coastal watch like Sandy Hook or Cape May, is really difficult and requires a lot of patience and much better eyesight than I have. We were looking at speck birds for most of the day! I did get to see a few kettles of Broadwings way up in the clouds (yesterday
they counted 4437 Broadwings), some Osprey and Sharpies, a couple Kestrals and had a nice look at a Peregrine.

We had to be glad for all those clouds in the sky cause they gave us landmarks to help locate the birds soaring high above. A fun day, but I prefer coastal hawkwatching that doesn't require quite as much imagination!

I met
this guy there who has some fantastic hawk pics on his Flickr site.

Visit
here for more Friday Skywatch posts.

16 comments:

Horsoon said...

A fantastic shot of the hawk! Very beautiful with the cloud and blue sky.

dianasfaria.com said...

This is the second skywatch today where there were Hawks pictured. Is this a special time of year for that? Yesterday I was at the beach where there is a special deck for Hawk viewing and though I have passed this many times before (and it was always empty), yesterday there were about 10 people with cameras and binoculars looking up to the sky and we saw a Hawk fly right above us.

chrome3d said...

They were both excellent in their own way. I liked the town in the distance more. Like a row of teeth with some gaps here and there.

Dar's Foto Faze said...

Great shot of the hawk and beautiful blue sky. I agree with crome3d about the second picture.

Woody said...

Awesome Photo!!

Arija said...

Nothing like differing opinions, I personally like that big white cloud collaged onto the deep blue sky best with or without sparrow?

SandyCarlson said...

Bird shots are definitely not easy! I admire what you accomplished. Thanks!

Merisi said...

You caught that bird well, great picture! Amazing, how many birds can pass through an area in a day.

NCmountainwoman said...

There's just no getting you shoreline people away from the sea, is there? Glad you had a sort of nice time anyway.

I'm going to a hawkwatch today. If I don't get some good shots, I will put the camera down and switch to binocs and just enjoy the show.

Anonymous said...

Beautiful skyhawkwatching shot.

Luiz Santilli Jr said...

Marvelous sky!

Perfect capture!

Santilli

Anonymous said...

Pretty coll - despite the absence of Hawks! Great Manhattan Skyline picture though!
Cheers, Klaus

amarkonmywall said...

Good clouds! I was going to write more about this post but then I wandered down to Luka and the money. That's a very very funny photo and story.

Guy D said...

Awesome pic of the hawk, thanks for sharing

Cheers

http://reginainpictures.blogspot.com/

Anonymous said...

nice post for skywatch

Carrie and Troy Keiser said...

Very pretty against the white of the cloud.