Thousands of broad-wing hawks?

[Arlon Motsch]

Amazing sight this evening, we saw thousands of what I believe where broad-winged hawks. Can anyone verify the ID from the pic? I guess the migration is underway. First time I've ever seen anything like it over Houston..

Thousand of them: HERE

Hundreds of them: HERE

Larger ID shot: HERE

Medium ID shot:


D90, 500mm AF-S hand held, F6.7, 1/500s, cropped a lot.

[Roy Priest]

I have seen lots of Swainsons together but never as many as this. Truly amazing, but I think one of them is a Redtail.:D

[Arlon Motsch]

There where three seperate flocks of thousands each that I saw. The "thousands" shot linked above shows about half of one flock. Couldn't get wide enough to cover a flock and still be able to see the birds...

[Roy Priest]

Wow. that is awesome. Is it usual for you to see big flocks like this at this time?

[Arlon Motsch]

I live just west of downtown Houston, I never see flocks of anything but pigeons. We used to see a few flocks of geese in the fall but I haven't seen one of them in several years. They may well fly by every year but this is the first time I've seen anything like this. I think 5000 birds would have been a conservative estimate..

[Axel Hildebrandt]

Amazing sight, especially the first one.

[Harshad Barve]

Fascinating scene specially 1st one
TFS

[Paul Lagasi]

I've never seen the southerly migration but at Hawk Cliff Hawkwatch, in Port Stanley, Ontario the count of Broadwing Hawks is up to over 22 thousand for this month alone. That's only one Hawkwatch....cool photo, must have been something to see so many hawks....I've seen it in spring but nothing like your photo.

[Arlon Motsch]

It's was a pretty impressive sight that's for sure. I'm curious how that many birds can compete for food in such a small area on the way down or do they just not eat during the migration?

[John Chardine]

Very nice to see.

We see Broad-wing migration over ridges here in the Maritimes of Canada (e.g., over North Mountain, Annapolis Valley, Nova Scotia). Locally, groups of hawks spiraling upwards in a thermal are called "kettles". Not sure of the etymology.

[John McNamara]

I've seen large flights (4000 in one hour) at Hawk Mountain. Seen kettles of 800 at Cape May. Never seen one 'kettle' of 1000+ at one time. A birder at Cape May tells about seeing 250,000 Broadwings in one day in South Texas. Veracruz, Mexico has had flights in excess of 500,000 in a day. You were lucky and privileged to have experienced a flight like that. Nice photos too. Sure, the first one looks like specks in the sky, but that is a LOT of specks.

[Arlon Motsch]

Here's a stitched view of two files that shows a lot more of the kettle. This is still only about 2/3 of the birds in that kettle. There where 2 smaller kettles earlier..


http://www.pbase.com/image/117894312/original.jpg

[arash_hazeghi]

Wow, amazing sighting of so many hawks at one place, I wonder what happens when they get hungry??

[Juan Carlos Vindas]

Wow, I also want to see this! Great shots. Thanks for sharing.