Watchers Viewed Hawks from Teneriffe Mountain

Recently Moose Mountains Regional Greenways (MMRG) held a free guided walk and hawk watch outing on Teneriffe Mountain in Milton. MMRG Executive Director and long-time birder Virginia Long led the event, which was co-sponsored by Strafford Rivers Conservancy (SRC).

At 1100 feet, the top of Teneriffe Mountain is bare rock and low alpine cover with superb vistas to the north and west, excellent for hawk migration viewing. It sits on about 100 acres of conserved forests and blueberry fields with a conservation easement held by SRC. Steve Panish, the landowner and former Chair of the MMRG Board of Directors, donated the easement in 2006 in order to protect his land forever from development.

The more than 20 attendees provided many pairs of eyes and called out when they saw something; the perfect weather cooperated with a light breeze out of the north, which provided a tail wind to migrating hawks. The many hawks were heading south and passed the mountain on different sides. Viewers saw a small kettle of broad-winged hawks ("kettle" is the term for the formation of these birds as they spiral in higher and higher circles on rising thermal air currents); a mature bald eagle with a bright white head and tail; a couple of turkey vultures; an osprey which flew right overhead and a group of 3 buteos.

A useful handout to help in initial species identification was given to the watchers. It showed the silhouettes of the turkey vulture, osprey, and bald eagle as well as three main families of hawks: buteos, accipiters, and falcons.