If I were a betting man, I would be giving long odds on there being a good day this weekend.  That’s not because I don’t think there will be a good flight — I think there probably will be good numbers, especially on Saturday.  The factors that normally produce a good flight have lined up well, but a week early.  So, there you have it, a useless piece of non-commital advice.  That said, watching even a modest showing of hawks compete in an awe-inspiring natural spectacle as old as the hills seems like an oddly appropriate way to mark the 10th anniversary of 911 – I am not sure why, but I feel that communion with the natural world is one good way to deal with the lunacy of that terrible day.

The following graph places every one of the 41,104 broad-winged hawks counted from Pack every September since 2003 (only 166 birds in October during the same period), with apologies to the hawks for reducing them to an excel graph.  Thanks Iain, Clifford, Julie, Lance, Henry, Phil, and a few others I will remember in the morning.

Each and every broad-winged hawk to have been counted from Pack during September since 2003