A shrill whistle

July 31, 2018  •  Leave a Comment


The Broad-winged Hawk was my "gateway drug" into the world of raptors. I was introduced to these medium-sized hawks, which were once ubiquitous in northeastern woodlands, at summer camp in eastern Massachusetts nearly 60 years ago when the natural history counselor I'd glommed on to heard the bird's characteristic shrill whistle and led me on a hunt to find the whistler. Amazingly, the Broad-wing, whistling back to the counselor's calls, stayed in one place and let us approach so close we didn't need binoculars to see the bird in fine detail. I was hooked right then and there, and the hawk-magic never wore off. The bird's numbers are in decline in our locale, so, when I dropped my granddaughter off on a play-date today, I was close to ecstatic when the woods around her friend's house were ringing with Broad-wing whistles. As was true more than half-a-century ago, Stasia and I were able to get very close to the whistler. I wonder if the sighting will have a similar impact on my granddaughter.


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