Minnesota and Serendipity

Minnesota and Hawk Serendipity

Minnesota Colors

September 30, 1997

In our quest for fun and the excitement of new places, we continue to make fortunate discoveries by accident.  Such was the case when we arrived in Duluth, MN.  Checking into the Indian Point City Campground, the receptionist explained that we could have full hookups only for a single night — they were booked-up-solid for the weekend.  Wondering what attraction would fill an RV park in Duluth, I queried the receptionist.  She explained that it would be filled with birders.  They come from all over the world to watch migrating raptors on Hawk Ridge National Reserve.  This reserve overlooks downtown Duluth and provides a great, panoramic view of the coast and Lake Superior.  On cool, clear days when the wind is in the north, hawks migrating south out of Canada, approach the coast of Lake Superior and choose not to fly over the water.  Thus, they are funneled along the coast and are concentrated at Duluth.

The excitement of raptor aficionados is contagious.  These seasoned veterans of such well-known hawk-watching locations as Hawk Mountain Pennsylvania become excited whenever they see something unusual.  On this Friday in mid-September, unusual events seemed to occur fairly frequently.  The chief naturalist on this Audubon property, exclaimed “I just counted more than 900 ‘sharpies’ and ‘broad wings’ in that one ‘kettle’ and now they are beginning to ‘river.’  He was speaking a foreign language that was unintelligible to us until a few terms were defined.  Sharp-shinned (sharpies or shins) and broad-winged hawks are the two most abundant hawks counted on the ridge.  A “kettle” is a group of circling hawks that are gaining altitudes on uprising thermal air currents.  When they reach the top of the thermal, they stop circling and sail downwind in a single direction forming a “river” heading south.  There were about 900 hawks in one group, all heading south after they formed a “river.”  When we left the ridge about 6 P.M., the count of broad-winged hawks alone was about 20,000 for the day.  The record for a single day is more than 100,000.  Obtaining records is very important to these hawk watchers.

The challenge was to try to figure out how these experts can identify a hawk that is little more than a mere dot in the sky when viewed through 7X binoculars.  Broad-wing hawks have a fairly distinctive shape.  Their wings and tail are broad.   Sharp-shinned hawks can easily be confused with other accipiters (bird hawks) such as goshawks and Cooper's hawks.  But, the subtle differences are enough for the experts.  After looking at several thousand, we can begin to see the difference, but not with great confidence.  The profile of each species is slightly different.  Viewed from the front or rear, a northern harrier often holds its wings in a V-shape.  A broad-winged hawk holds its wings flat.  Viewed from below, the osprey forms an M-shape.  The other 11 species commonly observed on Hawk Ridge can be identified by various modifications of these characteristics.

Hawk Experts

Recognizing that we were rank amateurs at identifying migrating hawks, our first challenge is to overcome the timidity factor of being surrounded by experts.  When we first arrived on the ridge, it was Thursday evening and only two hawk-watchers were present.  Few hawks were flying so I felt free to pester them with my questions.  The first question was “What is the best raptor reference for the identification of hawks?”  They looked at each other and grinned.  The heavy, bearded one named Frank responded by reaching into the front seat of his pickup truck and handing me a copy of the “Peterson Field Guide - Hawks” by W. S. Clark and B. K. Wheeler.  “You can have it,” he said.  I protested and dug out the listed price from my wallet and handed it to him.  He took the money but then changed his mind and insisted that I take it back.  Then he introduced us to his colleague Brian Wheeler, the illustrator and author of the book.  We were in heady company.  He autographed our new but slightly worn copy.  We will treasure it forever — at least until we accidentally leave it on a stump after trying to identify some difficult hawk.  Hopefully, identifying hawks will be slightly less intimidating in the future.

 

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