Spring

The weather finally broke at the start of May and since then the days have been warm and the flight has been steady, with Broad-winged and Sharp-shinned Hawks making up the bulk of each days flight. Rough-legged Hawk had a season high of 41 on May 2nd, while the high for Broad-winged currently is 462 on May 4th (I suspect that won’t last very long), 95 Sharp-shinned Hawks on May 6th is a nice count, but not quite up to a high count status. A sure sign that we are edging towards the later half of spring is that immature Bald Eagles and Red-tailed Hawks are starting to become the common age in each days flight (you know the season is waning when the Broad-winged flight shifts to the immatures). Common Loons have also been moving, with a nice count of 55 on May 5th.

With the Broad-wingeds came the first Swainson’s Hawks of the season, with an adult light morph winging east with an adult dark morph on the 4th, and two west bound light morph adults the afternoon of the 6th.

When your a small bird that lives in the open country you spend a lot of time looking up

Highlights of the last week off the mountain include a Night-Heron (poor lighting prevented identification to species) and the first Keweenaw Peninsula record of Eurasian Collared-Dove! Other local sightings and recent arrivals of late include Am. White Pelican, Solitary Sandpiper, Wilson’s Snipe, Lesser Yellowlegs, Great-crested Flycatcher, Orange-crowned, Nashville, Palm and Pine Warblers, White-crowned and Lincoln’s Sparrows, and Eastern and Western Meadowlarks. Dragonfly’s have been emerging with Common Green Darner and Variegated Meadowhawk seen over the last few days.

As long as these southerly winds prevail there should be hawks flying, but don’t get too comfortable just yet-the forecast is calling for snow next week!