Driving on Northeast interstate highways in winter, I often notice large hawks perched in trees on woodland edges at regular intervals along the road. With the stark landscape providing better visibility and many bird species gone for the winter, this is a great time of year to hawk-watch.
The raptor I see most along the highway has a white breast with a band of dark brown streaks across the belly, a brown back, and a reddish tail. This is a red-tailed hawk, North America’s most common hawk. [Read more…] about Northeastern Hawks Soaring through Winter
The next time you’re outside in 
Each fall, 
Not far from my parents’ house in Wellfleet, MA is the pedestrian-accessible Great Island. Part of the Cape Cod National Seashore, it draws both hikers and birders. My mother, an enthusiastic birder herself, says the birds most commonly seen there at this time of year are migratory waterfowl (Red-breasted mergansers, White-winged scoters and Common loons) as well as shore birds such as the Black-bellied plover, the Greater yellowlegs and the Sanderling.
