First Annual September 15th Lynn's Birthday Hawk Watch at West Campus

Sue and Lynn hawk-watching at West Campus

What a fantastic day we had - for what we dubbed our First Annual Lynn's Birthday Hawk Watch.
So, Happy Birthday Lynn from all of the raptors that flew overhead today!
Which were...

Bald Eagle, Haliaeetus leucocephalus
Turkey Vulture
Black Vulture
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Merlin
American Kestrel

and four or five Buteo sp. - which probably were our still uncertain Broad-winged Hawk
and a few Accipiter sp. - which means probably a Sharp-shinned Hawk

Mid-September is the peak of hawk migration, and hawk watches spring up at strategic locations all along the favored flyways.
Lighthouse Point Hawk Watch (New Haven Bird Club) and Migration Festival (City of New Haven Parks Dept. - Sunday September 26th)
Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch (at Audubon Greenwich)

So, get out with your binoculars under a big patch of sky and watch for tiny black dots against the blue and white of a September afternoon.  Tiny black dots - that's why we list Buteo sp and not the actual species - cause we can't tell what it is!