While it didn’t quite rise to the nemesis stage, a broad-winged hawk had been one of the species I’d been itching to add to my life list. One of them has again taken up residence near an overpass on Interstate 295 only a few miles from my home.
My birding buddy Jim Parris had spotted the broad-winged hawk in that spot last year and found one there again within the last several days. Primed with his directions, I drove there Saturday morning but found only a crow perched in the dead trees along the overpass where the hawk has been hanging out.
Disappointed, I drove to Costco to gas up my car for a five-hour drive to Morgantown, West Virginia, where my friend Sheila McEntee was to hold a book signing late in the afternoon at the West Virginia Botanic Garden. After a nature walk led by a friendly and knowledgable naturalist, Sheila read two essays from her book, “Soul Friend,” and answered questions from the audience.
Sheila and I met up again this morning at the botanic garden, reclaimed from Morgantown’s original water reservoir, for some full-attention birding. After being doused in the parking lot by a passing shower, we headed down the main drive to see what we could see.
We were immediately serenaded by several red-eyed vireos and a chime of Northern house wrens. We stopped to take close looks at many of the trees, plants and flowers in the diverse habitats of the park. We had heard an Acadian flycatcher (a lifer for me) on the nature walk the day before.
Early in our walk today, we got dive-bombed by a tree swallow that flew within inches of my head and on a second pass skimmed the top of Sheila’s cap. We hustled along the Reservoir Loop Trail after that until out of harm’s way.
Farther along, Sheila spotted another lifer for me, a Louisiana waterthrush skittering in the understory along a creek paralleling the trail (as depicted at the top of this post).
Then a crazy thing happened.
Above us, a bird began calling or crying loudly. Whatever it was, Merlin lit up repeatedly and left no doubt that what we were hearing was … go ahead, guess! … a broad-winged hawk. We couldn’t spot it in the treetops, but we soon caught a glimpse of the big bird flying off.
The irony was obvious. I couldn’t find a broad-winged hawk a little more than three miles from my house, but I did find one about 24 hours later, 330 miles away.
Birding can be funny like that. Isn’t that marvelous? 🦅
The Jersey Birder 
Indeed, birding IS marvelous, my friend!! It was great to roam that botanic paradise with you and make many avian and floral discoveries!
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