Vermont Rare Bird Reports 2021

n/a

60 degrees with a warm wind, sunny

none

Annually since I lived in Hartland from 2003, I've had broad-winged hawks nesting near my home. Juvenile calls, adults floating in the sky, and experiencing them frequently gliding silently in the clearing by my home is a familiar sight during the summer. I am always suspicious of their calls when I don't see them because blue jays will mimic their calls. This gives me pause, until I either spot a blue jay or the broad-winged. I'm becoming more familiar with red-tailed hawks as I live in Windsor since 2012. They are much larger and have more of a screech to my ears. Bald eagles are also much larger and call. Most around our home are skimming the tops of the trees or flying along the roadway. In the past few years, I've seen Cooper's/Sharp-Shinned Hawks around our feeders. They are smaller than the broad-winged and behave differently by perching on the shrubs or wires in our neighborhood and much closer to houses than the broad-winged.

Blue jays and crows were the only birds noted in the surrounding trees of the hawk. I was on the road in our neighborhood looking at the tree line between our neighborhood and Route 5 South in Windsor. Those trees are tall and mature mixed type. It was perched on the side that overlooks a row of houses beyond which is a field that stretches to the Connecticut River.

Slow circles from, presumably, its perch on the opposite side of the tree from me as it gained altitude instead of a straight up flight.

While perched, it called out with a high-pitched short note, maybe 3 at a time. High-pitched with a few short notes at the end while it flew off.

I heard a broad-winged call 3x while I was walking. The call was high-pitched with 1-3 notes. It would repeat every few seconds. I looked in that direction to see 3 blue jays sitting in a maple tree about 50 feet away midway up the tree. I had my binoculars (Nikon Monarch M511 8x42 6.3 degrees) & could see none of the blue jays were calling. I continued to hear the board-winged but couldn't see it. Getting to a position to see the hawk would have required me to walk down to VT 5 & the opposite side of the street. A few minutes later, I heard and saw 4 crows flying low over trees on river side of neighborhood in same area I heard broad-winged calls. The crow calls were loud and alarming. Within a few seconds after they started to call, I saw a light morph broad-winged hawk fly out of and low over the trees in slow circles as it gained altitude. It was moving up and away from me towards the Connecticut River with the 4 crows calling and following. It was the same size as the crows. The hawk was white (light morph) underneath, broad & flat tail with a white band on the tail, dark borders around wing and tail tip. After the hawk disappeared within seconds, I realized I wasn't using my binoculars to watch. The calls were of a broad-winged hawk. The size was right for a broad-winged. I ruled out the red-tailed hawk by the size and white tail band. The blue jays were quiet, and the hawk didn't sound like a blue jay mimic.

The hawk was about the same size or slightly longer wingspan than the crows flying with it.

I didn't get a good look at the head as I was concentrating on the size and wing/tail markings. I didn't observe with my binoculars.

I didn't notice the feet or bill. Again, I was making a quick analysis without my binoculars. I was quickly trying to decide if I was looking at a red-tailed, which I would have expected.

The upper body was not visible to me at any time.

Again, this part of the body was never visible to me.

The wings were the same or slightly wider in span that the crows chasing it. I noted it was a light morph with a dark border around back of the wings.

I noted the body had brown streaking, but that is all I wrote about it.

It was held flat at the end and open slightly to see the white bar. It wasn't fully open.

This is a repeat from an above question:
Annually since I lived in Hartland from 2003, I've had broad-winged hawks nesting near my home. Juvenile calls, adults floating in the sky, and experiencing them frequently gliding silently in the clearing by my home is a familiar sight during the summer. I am always suspicious of their calls when I don't see them because blue jays will mimic their calls. This gives me pause, until I either spot a blue jay or the broad-winged. I'm becoming more familiar with red-tailed hawks as I live in Windsor since 2012. They are much larger and have more of a screech to my ears. Bald eagles are also much larger and call. Most around our home are skimming the tops of the trees or flying along the roadway. In the past few years, I've seen Cooper's/Sharp-Shinned Hawks around our feeders. They are smaller than the broad-winged and behave differently by perching on the shrubs or wires in our neighborhood and much closer to houses than the broad-winged.

It was an adult.