Hawks!

So because yesterday was my birthday, my mom drove me to Hawk Cliff. My targets were Red-shouldered Hawk (a long, long long overdue lifer) and Golden Eagle (a fairly long overdue lifer). When we arrived around 9, lots of birders were already set up in Sharpie Alley. There wasn't much (anything) going over, so I wandered around, finding Kinglets and Creepers galore! The Kinglets were all quite tame, but quick and erratic as they are.

This Golden-crowned Kinglet sat still just long enough to get it's picture taken

After getting over the cuteness of the Kinglets, I looked up just in time to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk shoot overhead - the first of many. I slowly walked back to Sharpie Alley as 3 more birds went over. For the next few hours, Sharpies came fairly steady, with a good number of Cooper's Hawks mixed in.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

After we'd been there for about an hour, I noticed a larger, bulkier bird coming towards us, at treetop level. Someone called it out as a Cooper's, I got my camera up, and fired away as it flew over us, just as I did so, someone called out a Red-shouldered Hawk, but I was too interested in the bird that had just flown over. I looked at my pictures and shared them around. Everyone who has seen the bird seemed to agree that it was much to big for a Cooper's, and Goshawk was eventually decided on. But when I got back and downloaded the photos, it is clear that the streaking is way too fine for Goshawk, so it was disputed again as being an incredibly rare hybrid between the two, also known as a 'Gooper's Hawk'. But as hybrids can almost never be confirmed, I decided to leave it as Cooper's/Goshawk on my eBird checklist.

Juvenile Hawk sp.

After that, variety began to pick up. Red-shouldereds began coming through, my first lifer! Most were too high to photograph, but eventually one bird was low enough.

The crescent windows didn't come out to well in this picture, but that is one of the best ways to ID Red-shouldereds

The crescents on the wing tips are more visible in this photo - Red-shouldereds are such pretty birds!

Birds kept coming at a steady pace, and diversity began picking up. Two light morphs Rough-legged hawk went through, a few Harriers went over, and then Turkey Vultures started passing by in big numbers. 

Rough-legged Hawk - the Crows also seemed to like the number of hawks, and would chase the odd one.

The influx of Turkey Vultures brought new Raptors, and soon the dominant bird in the sky was Red-tails, with a few Red-shouldereds mixed in. After about an hour of counting Turkey Vultures, someone called out a large Eagle way out. I got my scope on it, and it was soon identified as a Golden. It didn't seem to come any closer for a while, but then eventually it came out of no where a little bit above tree height! 

It wasn't the best lighting, but it was good enough for me!

Small amount of white in the tail and the characteristic white 'windows' on each wing means that this bird is either in its 3rd or 4th year

But just as it was there, it was gone - but with more to come. From then until when I left, Eagles continued to go over every few minutes. Most were Bald, but there was a good mix of both species! 

At one point both species were in one picture. The size difference is obvious in this picture, with two Balds on the left and a Golden on the right.

The Golden nape is kinda visible on this photo.

After a few more Eagles went over, we decided to pack up, and head to Long Point for ducks. On the way there, we saw plenty more Turkey Vultures on the way, and a juvenile Bald Eagle in a tree.

          The Inner Bay was filled with waterfowl, most were too far out to ID, but the vast majority were Redhead. There was also really good numbers of American Coots, and lesser numbers of American Wigeon, Pied-billed Grebe and Gadwall. I was looking for Canvasback, and most of the ducks were too far away to be certain, so we drove around to the BSC headquarters on the other side. I only had 20 minutes so I speed walked out to the platform and set up my scope. There was a small flock of ducks close to shore and I scanned through them, finding multiple Canvasback, Redhead, Teal and Black-duck. But as I scanned to the right, I noticed some duck hunters sitting in a boat behind the reeds. At first I thought they were going to shoot the ducks, but then I realized that the Duck variety seemed a little too good, and too close to shore. And my suspicion was confirmed when the guys started their boat and roared right past they decoys, on their way to another spot I guess. I didn't know that hunting was aloud on the BSC property... Interesting. I scanned through the real flock of ducks farther out on the bay, and found one female Canvasback in with the countless Redheads. There was likely many more, but I was almost out of time.

Overall it was a pretty great birthday present!