Hanging Out At Hawk Mountain -- Part One

A few days ago I headed up to Hawk Mountain. Right now we are in the middle of the fall migration of the eastern raptors and this year has been pretty spectacular, just this weekend they broke their record for sighting of bald eagles [251 and still counting]. Since it was a weekday the crowds of birders would not be overwhelming and the weather was great -- a perfect day for just hanging out at one of the lookouts to see what could be seen.

Here's some of what I saw:

The first two shots are of an American kestrel

The next two are of sharpies, sharp shinned hawks.

There were lots of other birds in the sky, but they were too far off to photograph and I didn't have my long lens with me. Too bad, but there will be other days.

Mostly what I saw, though, were these things -- stinkbugs. Thousands of them swarming across the mountains. They have been a major annoyance all over the mid-Atlantic region.

I couldn't stay for long so after an hour I headed back home, stopping for a few minutes along the way to visit the sanctuary native plants garden.

All in all a very enjoyable break for the middle of the afternoon.