Birdland

Bon Voyage, Swainson’s Hawk

Autumn is here, and that means it’s time to say bon voyage, and see you next year, to the Swainson’s Hawk. These slim and graceful hawks are a common sight in Colorado in the summer months. But now that they’ve eaten their fill of grasshoppers and dragonflies, they’ll head far south for the winter. Groups of soaring or migrating hawks are called “kettles.” And, as the Cornell Lab of Ornithology notes, when it comes to forming kettles, Swainson’s Hawks are overachievers. They form flocks numbering in the tens of thousands, often mixing with other hawks and vultures, to create a virtual river of migrating birds headed to southern South America. This Swainson’s Hawk was photographed near the Rocky Mountain Arsenal National Wildlife Refuge by Park Hill resident Mark Silverstein.