Hoping For The Flap Flap Glide

Ac·cip·i·ter: a genus of hawks with short, broad wings, long legs and tail, adapted for quick flight through wooded areas, which eats mostly small mammals and birds. Sometimes known as Birdhawks, with over 50 different named hawks in the genus. .....so say the dictionaries and other references that tell how to spell and say the name. Ak Sip u Der. In our neck of the woods, the notable species we count are Sharp-shinned Hawks, Coopers Hawks, and Northern Harrier. Check out the chart below, reprinted here from Bill Haley's brochure about the Hawk Watch, which indicates the usual density of raptors migrating through our flyway, arriving in our area, and when. From the watch we are not looking for a hawk hunting hunting small prey through the trees, to count for migration. Although sometimes they will drop to catch prey when we have watched them come from very far North of us, and maybe later in the day we will see them leave the trees and move on south. But to count them in most cases, we watch them move through high above the trees, and continue South. So we are looking for a specific flight characteristic. The wing beat pattern of Sharpies and Coopers is more of a flap, flap glide cadence. Although a few other birds might have the cadence for a short moment or two, these two migrants will continue to have that cadence any time they are not in a glide, (riding the wind.) The difficulty then becomes telling them apart at distance. The easiest way is often, that the Sharpie appears to have very little head sticking out beyond the wings, and the Cooper's head is often obvious. But also the tail of the Sharpie is squared off. The Coopers' spreads with a rounded edge, and has a white rounded spot near the end from the bands, which can look like a ball, when the sun shines through. The Northern Harriers have extremely long tails, and hold their wings up, in a V similar to a vulture stance when gliding. Even in flight with flapping wings, the overall look from a distance is the bird is a flying V. They look lighter than air for sure. And also have a slow flapping cadence. All three have shown up on our counts already, but this is the month they shine. Bill is hoping their numbers pick up, as weather now cools and the winds die down. He will spend a lot of time looking down the valley lower than the horizon as well to catch many of them. Some will track rapidly across the clouds, and he will be lucky to catch them bulleting through. So to see more of them, he will be hoping for the slower flap, flap glide.

Here's the report for Tuesday Oct. 4: