Date: 9/19/25 4:43 pm From: Michael M. Melius via groups.io <pingothenbingo...> Subject: [sd-birds] Hawk watch highlights
I watched from 11:30 to 3:30 yesterday on Skyline Drive. It was cloudy with light wind until about the last hour. By the end it was mostly clear in the immediate area.
I counted eight Ospreys, all migrants. The first came in rather low from the west, so perhaps a local bird. Then it circled overhead, higher and higher while drifting south. I followed it as far as I could. My assumption that it was a migrant is borne out I believe because the next 7 Osprey were all fairly high up and heading directly south.
Around 2:30 I spotted a kettle of birds to the north. They were soon soaring southward and passed directly overhead. Some were fairly low and easily ID'd as Swainson's Hawks. Others higher up I went by wing shape, rather long and pointed. That was a flock of 70, followed soon by another 20.
A few other buteos were seen, and a scattering of accipiters.
From the first, swifts were visible high overhead. I'd be looking at a hawk and they'd be zipping around the field of view. It took awhile to make sure they weren't swallows. Shortly after the SWHA passed I was following several hawks, and was seeing swifts overhead as well as to the west and south of me. Really hard to count, but I think 50 is a conservative estimate. As skies cleared they came lower, visible directly west of the ridge, some close enough to ID as White-throated. By 3:30 I couldn't find any.
Two flocks of AW Pelicans also, some 80 birds flying south about a mile east of Skyline.
