Sunday

 

Exciting morning.  Having late coffee on the patio, at 9:30, we got a hawk liftoff.  The Turkey Vultures were first.  A few Turkey Vultures rising from the thorn forest outside the resort; not that remarkable.  But they kept rising; more and more vultures.  10, 15, 25 rising on a morning thermal.  That’s unusual.  That’s a migration.

 

Then the Swainson’s Hawks came up from the agricultural fields to the north of us.  More hawks than vultures.  After ten minutes we had 50 Turnkey Vultures and 75 Swainson’s Hawks in the sky.  They rose on the thermal and drifted south right over us as they got higher and higher.  We got a half hour hawk show!

 

We didn’t get our own picture of it, but here is one I clipped from the web.  This is what it looked like.

 

Earlier this morning, Judy and I had been talking about how often we stay in state parks and wake up every morning right in a wildlife refuge.  We were comparing that to waking up here, which is not a wildlife refuge but is special in its own right.  We sit outside in the mornings and listen to Curve-billed Thrashers and Great Kiskakees announce the day, and now we get this: a close-up view of a hawk migration!

 

 

Tomorrow morning’s excitement, back to the doctor to get some of our stitches out.