Hawk Watching on the Hook

     When I was first dating my husband, what seems like now, eons ago, I remember the first hike he took me on to Hook Mountain, better known as "The Hook." Little suburban Long Island me, was super impressed by being in the mountains, surrounded by woods, and less impressed by the steepness of the climb, but for my husband, it got him points for helping me up the scary steep parts. The top of the hike gives you 360-degree views of the Hudson River, Rockland Lake, the Tappan-Zee Bridge, Westchester, the town of Nyack below, down to Piermont, and beyond, even the skyline of Manhattan is viewable, off in the distance.
     Hook Mountain has a trail accessible off of Route 9W, the trail is rocky and steep. It is not a long hike to the top, but for those who are not good with hills, this hike may be challenging. With leaves already falling from some trees, the marked paths (I followed the yellow marked trees) can at times be slippery. Just wear a good pair of shoes or boots, and take your time, being mindful of where you put your feet. Chipmunks will greet you along the way, and if you're lucky, you may see some deer.
     This time of year is big for migration, birds are making their way from their breeding grounds to where they will remain for the winter (Mexico, Central, and South America). Not only do little song birds get a move on, but raptors, birds of prey, need to move too, especially as much of their food (the little birds) fly south!
     Hook Mountain provides a clear space to view hawks and other raptors as they move from the North, pass overhead, and continue South. Devoted locals and visitors compile data of the birds each year passing over The Hook, and have been doing so since the 1970's. Much of that data can be viewed on the Hook Mountain Hawk Watch website. I had the pleasure of viewing birds today with Trudy, the maintainer of the site, and Drew another devoted naturalist. I spent over 6 hours on top of Hook Mountain today and in that time learned much about the birds we watched, the ecology of the area, the history of the area, and the geography. It was an awesome experience, and the totals for the day (migrants only) can be viewed on the HMHW site and my totals (I counted all views) on ebird.
     The total number of birds for the day was well over 100, and just for broad wing hawks, over 150!

On the way up, the tree just to the left of the middle has a yellow dot, a trail marker that leads you both up to the top from 9W and back. This isn't even the steepest parts of the trail.

At first, birds were slow going, but this one bird, a B29 from WWII flew over us quite close. These planes, I learned from Drew, were the first with pressurized cabins and are bomber planes, the same type responsible for dropping the atomic bombs in Japan. During the lulls of birds, we found plenty of things to ID and talk about, planes being one of them.

Soon, we started seeing broad wings, they seem to have these wings that are nicely boarded by black and a white band across the tail, when viewed from below. Immatures, look a bit darker than the mature birds.

We viewed two main types of hawks today, buteos (like this broad wing and red tails) and accipiters (like Cooper's and sharp-shinned). Buteos has larger wings and these wide shorter tails.

Another buteo hawk, a red tail, surveys the construction on the Tappan-Zee Bridge over the Hudson River. The hawk watch was recording migrants only, migrants tend to fly VERY high up, many red tails are residents, and if they do migrate, may leave later in the upcoming weeks. This red tail, being at eye-level from at the top of the mountain, was not counted as a migrant, but probably holds territory in this area.

Turkey Vultures, also not migrating (yet), have that red-pink head and hold their wings so when looked at straight on, appear to take on a V-shape. These birds soar, using thermals to gain altitude, barely ever needing to flap. Vultures were good guides in finding hawks, who also used the thermals to gain altitude before soaring south ward, to reduce energy use in their many miles that lay ahead of them.

When broad wings migrate, they tend to do so in groups. These groups will, like the vultures use thermals to gain altitude, this gathering within a thermal is called "kettling" and in one of the kettles we saw, 50 birds, if not more were counted. As they reach the top of the kettle, the highest altitude, you then see them peel off and just glide South. These groups, I learned, follow one another; hawks have amazing eye sight and one kettle of hawks will look for (and see!)  the kettle ahead to reach the next thermal to once more gain the altitude they lost when soaring from their last thermal.

Between birds, we saw mantis fly into the grasses atop the mountain, ID'd butterflies, song birds, or just talked about our collection of wildlife stories. 

My husband says there has been a faux owl on top of the Hook for years, well today I learned how that owl proves useful... Sharp Shinned hawks despise owls. Apparently red tails go for it too!

More between birds wildlife, a black swallowtail. We also saw some migrating monarch butterflies, ABOVE us on the mountain! They really get high up! 

A black vulture, which hold their wings more horizontal than turkey vultures. They are also identifiable, because they have lighter color under their wing tips, and sometimes dangle their feet in flight. 

Black vulture.

Quiz yourself- black or turkey vulture?

Another sharp-shinned hawk flies by inspecting the owl. Unlike the broad wings, sharpies are accipiters, unlike buteos, they have stubbier wings, for flight through the forest to hunt smaller birds. They also have a longer tail.

One last mantis, and after over 6 hours in the sun, its time to go.

     This was my first hawk watch ever, my first viewing of wild broad wing hawks, and a full day of raptors. Bald eagles, osprey, peregrine falcon, and merlin were also viewed and very cool to see. If you get the chance, hawk watches happen all over the area, even out on Long Island and in New Jersey, anywhere along the migration route, it's a great way to learn, meet people, and socialize, the old fashioned way over a common interest.

Wild Brooklyn Encounters

     I feel so lucky to have Green-Wood Cemetery in such close proximity to where we live. It brings so many creatures right near where we live to the point where we have had warblers out front, hawks out back, and parrots all around. I also swear there are skunks around, I swear I have smelt them, and it wasn't just the usual kids outside smoking funny things. Sometimes to see some unusual things though (for the middle of Brooklyn), you have to venture within these wild oases.
     Upon biking in I was welcomed a hummingbird at the front gate, I dropped my bike gently, slowly made my way up, without trying to look too weird to the security guard. Thankfully he too was watching the hummingbird too. Aside from the lovely hummingbird sightings, as I found a second one just moments later- I found quite a few really interesting things, some completely new to me, which thankfully were documented in photos:

Great egret on the Valley water.

Pretty lily and mini frog on the Valley water.

Fairly sure these are young bullfrogs - they are all over the Valley water, if you move, you hear squeaks and splashes. You can see the small ones scatter all over the lily pads.

I thought crocus were only a spring thing, well apparently there are several varieties of fall flowering crocuses- and they are very beautiful. These were by the Valley water, but there were some other areas where I saw them as well.

A red-eared slider (non-native species) basks and powers up for the day. This slider is shedding the scutes (pieces) on it's shell. The outside layer of the shell is made of keratin, bone in below, alive with blood vessels, protecting all its internal organs and systems. Just like lizards shed their skin, as the turtle grows, it too sheds its skin and scutes.

A great blue heron on Sylvan water. The ripples in the water looked really great behind him.

That beak is it's killing tool, it spears fish, frogs, heck even baby ducks. I know from friends who have worked with herons in rehab or in zoos that the beak of a heron is terrifying in close range.

Now, one thing I never, ever, ever knew-- there are woodchucks in Brooklyn?! In Green-Wood?! I thought this was a raccoon out past its curfew, then as I got closer, I was so surprised! Do note this woodchuck is not chucking wood, but an apple. I found this guy alongside the Dell water.

In all my visits, I had never seen woodchucks!

Woodchucks are rodents, like mice, squirrels, and chipmunks. Note the incisor teeth. Those teeth grow continuously for life, its why rodents need to gnaw to maintain their teeth.

It was like the woodchucks said, "hey, lady, you think I'm a sight to see? Well, wait till you see this!"

That chunker of a chuck led me over to what was a snapping turtle, that shell was almost if not 2 ft long. I had to put something next to it for comparison-- my size 9 shoe. This turtle was probably quite old (these turtles can easily live 50 years, if not more, if things are right) and probably weighed 40lbs if not more, again, depending on how well it ate.

The Dell and Crescent waters both had small minnows in them. The water was very choked up with algae and these fish were gathered and gulped air for access to oxygen that they do, in fact need. Normally fish get dissolved oxygen from the water, but when water is blooming with algae and algae lives and dies, the decay of the algae uses up the oxygen in the water that the fish need. Since the fish were so close to the surface, anytime a plane flew over you'd hear a loud "SWSHHH!" all the fish, simultaneously ducking for cover.

Around the Dell water, I saw lots of flitting in the trees, and saw a few of these birds looking at me, another first, red-eyed vireos. These birds do have red eyes, as their name implies, but they vary from bright to dark, younger birds tend to have darker eyes. This one is probably a younger bird.

While giving a curious appearance and seemingly wondering what in the world those winged contraptions are, this bird is actually foraging for caterpillars and insects that may be hiding on the underside of leaves.

On my way out I head lots of blue jays and aggravated robin calls... well, here is the aggravator. A red-tail having a rest in a pine tree.

Biking and Birding!

     I picked up a bagel breakfast and got out early on my bike. I ate my bagel in Sheepshead Bay on a pier with envious onlookers. I think they mostly were envious of that smoked salmon lox spread. The morning was cool, cloudy, and windy, with rain threatening later on in the day.

A great black-backed gull gives me the eye, for not sharing my bagel.

Juvenile herring gull on a dilapidated dock.

With Brighton Beach behind them.

     After breakfast, the next stop was Plumb Beach. Tide was high and still coming in, which made there little too see. I still got the pleasure of getting a lifer and enjoying an egret in flight.

I have been seeing a male black scoter at Dead Horse Bay, but another male plus a female-- plus two additional females have been reported at Plumb Beach, and all four were there. A boat came by and spooked this female into flight, after a quick circle, she was back with the male and two females. 

Female black scoters lack the orange knob on the bill and have white cheeks and neck, while males are over all dark.

Here is the male, straightening up out of the water. With the wind, the water was choppy!

The salt marsh that fills up at high tide between the beach and the Belt Parkway.

This was a great surprise, a juvenile Northern harrier, a first for me! 

Great egret fishing at high tide in the marsh. 

This egret flew from place to place, when it finally settled it began catching fish. 

A semipalmated plover is looking a bit frazzled in the wind, and dwarfed by the washed up horseshoe crab.

     Since I didn't get much of a show at Plumb Beach, just a short ride away is the Salt Marsh Nature Center in Marine Park. Didn't see too much more there, but as always, a very enjoyable place to walk and explore.

Was greeted by not one but at least 4 monarchs feeding and fluttering around the garden containing butterfly bushes near the bike racks.

2 osprey were constantly circling the area. 

A Canadian goose become much more than a Canadian goose when captured in flight. Geese tend to be the poster child for migration, because of their picturesque "V" formation and their honks of encouragement when in formation. Many Canadian geese do migrate and pass through the area, but some are residents to the area, remaining here, 

Love love love the wings of birds in flight! 

In the world of birding, sparrows casually are sometimes referred to as LBJ's- little brown jobs... and this LBJ has me stumped. I am very sure it is not a song sparrow. It looks close to a savannah sparrow, but has no yellow above the eyes. It also looks like a Lincoln's sparrow, but has no buff color to its breast or a buff colored "mustache" from its beak to under its cheeks, my last guess is perhaps a juvenile swamp sparrow... any ideas? Give your input in the comments!

This is the time of year also when birds are on, or are about to get on the move-- MIGRATION! If you would like to help birds have an easier time on the wing, here are some very simple things you can do -- http://www.birds.cornell.edu/citsci/take-action/2014/09/the-one-thing-you-can-do-to-help-migrants/