DOAS Sanctuary and Hawk Watch on Franklin Mountain

  Thursday was a very “birdy” day at the Audubon Sanctuary. The hawkwatch alert had said that it would probably be the best day of the week for spotting raptors migrating through, but it wasn’t just raptors that were moving through. The rain storm that we’d had the previous couple of days apparently had caused a fallout of birds. Birds were everywhere, especially warblers. I couldn’t decide whether to go up to the hawkwatch as planned or just stay down in the field and practice my skills at identifying confusing fall warblers. Who knows when I’d find this many fall warblers together again. 

  I made my way up the hill stopping every few steps to check out birds hiding in the goldenrod or among the leaves of a tree. At the hawkwatch birds were flying everywhere. Turkey vultures sailed through the sky and chatty ravens floated on the air. I don’t think there was ever a moment when there were not ravens in the air. At one point I counted a grouping of sixteen. 

  There were plenty of small birds in the trees so when the number of raptors going through slowed down I was able to scan around and look at these small birds. A ruby crowned kinglet flew up onto the stem of a plant directly in front of me. It flew away then a black-throated green warbler   flew onto the stem. Phoebes were flycatching. A towee was calling. Flocks of yellow-rumped warblers were all around us. Bluejays flew from treetop to treetop. A brown thrasher flew into a bush and common yellow-throated warblers flitted about nearby. 

  The steady northwest wind was perfect for pushing the birds southward. We spotted a good variety of raptors, bald eagles, sharp-shinned and cooper’s hawks, kestrels, merlins and red-tailed hawks. It was a banner day for osprey. We counted around a dozen. Canada geese were also on the move and many flocks passed by us. 

  Walking back down to the car to leave I stopped to look at the birds in the bushes and goldenrod again. There was a huge flock of white throated sparrows. I’ve been studying the fall warblers. My hopes were high of finding something I haven’t already been able to easily identify, but the birds are still confusing. I’ve got to figure out how to tell the difference between birds like a fall cape may and a yellow-rumped warbler.

  One of the other hawkwatchers showed me a baby snapping turtle he had found. I wondered if a turtle that small could still give a finger a good bite, but I wasn’t about to find out. Down by the pond a tiny wren was flying around among the reeds. I tried to make it out as something other than a house wren, but I couldn’t see enough of it to tell. All in all I had twenty seven species of birds for the day.

  I wondered if the birds would still be there tomorrow. The predicted east wind didn’t bode well for raptor spotting, but if the warblers were still there it seemed like a good idea for me to go up for an hour or so just to check out the warblers.