Tuesday, September 20, 2011

Kettle of Broad Winged Hawks

For my World Bird Wednesday and Nature Notes post I am showing the Broad Winged hawks.

During my walk on Sunday at the Soldiers Delight park hubby and I were almost back to the car when I looked up and spotted the largest flock or kettle of hawks I have ever seen. They were high in the sky and there had to be fifty or more in the kettle. I was excited to see my first kettle of Hawks, a very cool sight to see for a birder.

Sorry the photos are not the clearest but I wanted to show it anyway because it shows just one little part of these hawks as they were flying along. I did not really count them, I was too excited just seeing them.




The word kettle is another word for a flock of migrating birds. Since they were high in the sky I am adding a link to wikipedia's Broad Winged hawk so you can see what they look like up close.


The Broad Winged Hawk is brown above chestnut below and a white tailband. Wings appear full but rather short and they have dark tips.


I was checking out my listserve and the Broad winged Hawks were seen in the thousands over the weekend.  According to my guide book during migration flocks of hawks can sometimes number in the thousands in eastern and central North America. I was so excited to see the kettle I saw. Apparently as the day went on more were seen flying over the same spot.

I hope you enjoyed seeing my kettle of hawks and to see more awesome birds
 check out Springman's World Bird Wednesday  and to see more wonderful nature scenes
please visit Michelle's Nature Notes  Thanks to Springman and to Michelle for hosting these fun memes.

Also, thanks for stopping by my blog and post. I appreciate all your visits and comments.

28 comments:

  1. A lovely post... an amazing sight to see.

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  2. Wow Eileen, I would love to see this in person! The Golden Gate Raptor Observatory does a Hawk Watch every fall in the Marin County headlands. I can't believe I haven't participated in the count yet but they see 60 - 70 raptors an hour this time of year, sometimes seeing a dozen species in a day! Thanks for the great post!

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  3. what a thrill....i know the excitement these sightings evoke!!

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  4. I'd probably have been too excited to snap the picture at all. A wonderful thing to see.

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  5. Wonderful that you could get these beautiful shots of the kettle Eileen. How grand it would be to see this beautiful migration in person. I can not imagine that many hawks flocking. They seem like solitary birds

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  6. It must have been wonderful to see that many hawks all flying overhead and great that you could get photos of them as well.

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  7. Hi there - what a great extension to the vocabulary!

    Would be a great thing to see.

    SM

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  8. nice of you to explain the word "kettle" even if I guessed it. So many of them, such a marvel.

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  9. What a beautiful bird! Thanks for these photos. It looks a bit scary: all those birds of prey circling around. It calls up the association of a dead or dying animal lying there, waiting to be attacked by these birds. I like the word kettle of migrating birds. I knew the expression: a kettle of fish.
    A very interesting post, Eileen.

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  10. Thanks for these photos and the link with Wikipedia, which showed a beautiful hawk.

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  11. Great sightings!! Boom & Gary of the Vermilon River, Canada.

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  12. Wow, what a sight, it must have been so exciting! Great shots!

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  13. Wow that's a whole lot of birds up in the sky. Very lovely.

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  14. Eileen, I didn't know they would migrate together in a flock.
    What a sight to see that many at once!

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  15. What an amazing sight! Great capture!

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  16. I like the shot. I have some like these of Ravens. They are just for me, to stir the memory of the event.
    What a thrill Eileen!
    I am green with envy! LOL!
    Hope you are having a great week!
    xx

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  17. It must be kind of overwhelming to see this many hawks all at once! It reminds me, I haven't been up on our hawk watch mountain this fall - now I have to go!

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  18. I enjoyed it very much, and what a lovely lesson:)
    Hugs
    j.

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  19. You captured so many in your shot. What a great sighting.

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  20. I have only seen one kettle of migrating hawks since I have been birding and it was from some distance. However, it was still very breathtaking!

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  21. That must have been very exciting! When you see something like this it's just not possible to get a photo that would really do justice to the experience, but yours will be a reminder to you of an awe-inspiring event.

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  22. Looks like it was a hawk convention! I once saw starlings all grouped like that.

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  23. I would be so excited to see so many hawks like that! And I just learned a new meaning for the word "kettle." :)

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  24. What a wonderful sight, I have never seen more that two or three hawks at the same time. I can understand why you were excited. Thanks for sharing this experience.

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  25. Amazing sight and what a beautiful place to be.

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  26. That is amazing and I love the name kettle...I have never seen that type of hawk here..although I think we can have them here...

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Have a happy day, Eileen

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