Hawks are classified into three main groups; the falcons, accipiters, and my topic this week, the buteos. Buteos have broad wings, somewhat shorter, broad tails and are probably the best hawks at using thermals and breezes to efficiently move about or migrate. They are not exceptionally fast as the falcons, nor can they dart through the trees as effectively as the shorter-winged accipiters.

Buteos seen in our area are the broad-winged hawk, red-tailed hawk and, occasionally, the red-shouldered hawk. The latter’s populations have been diminishing due to loss of their favored wooded wetlands. The southern red-shouldered hawk is faring better though.

Broad-winged hawks are the smallest buteos, only reaching 15 inches in size. They are the most numerous raptors recorded at the local hawk-watching areas including Bake Oven Knob, Little Gap, Furnace Gap and Hawk Mountain.

They are forest birds, rather quiet and shy, spending most of their time below the forest canopy looking for small mammals, reptiles (they like to feed on snakes) and amphibians. In summer, and during their migrations, you may glimpse them as they fly off a perch along an old logging or dirt road.

They live in Pennsylvania and into New England and southern Canada, but winter from southern Mexico to the forested hillsides of Bolivia, Peru or Brazil. In migration, it is possible to observe 3,000 to 4,000 “broadies” in one day as they mass in big flocks called kettles. I’ve been at the “Knob” a number of days when thousands were recorded. It is quite a natural spectacle.

This week’s column was timed so you could have a chance to witness this. Last year, Bake Oven Knob counters logged 8,180 from Sept. 9-21. Only 3 “broadies” were recorded in October. They migrate the earliest since they travel so far to their wintering areas, and their favorite food snakes begin hibernating. They nest once a year raising three or four young.

Red-tailed hawks are the second-largest buteos in the U.S. Old-timers, like me, may have known them as chicken hawks because they had a propensity to perch near farms where they found a nice supply of rodents, not chickens. The “redtail” has a whitish belly, and in some a few dark feathers across its lower chest, giving it a faint belly band. The tail of an adult is not red but rather a burnt orange color. (Broad-winged hawks in flight have alternating dark and white bands on their tail.)

Anyone who travels the Pennsylvania Turnpike can probably (especially in fall and winter) see a dozen or more “redtails” perched on the metal power towers or roadside billboards. The mowed grass along this highway makes it easier for them to spot their favored food, the meadow vole (mouse).

“Redtails” will also eat some rabbits, chipmunks, rats and occasionally a few birds and carrion. They nest once a year, usually keep the same mate (until one dies), and raise two or three young. Great horned owls are a big threat to the young, and automobiles take a toll, too.

Red-tailed hawks do migrate, so many of the “redtails” seen in the Times News area in winter may be birds that migrated from areas to our north, which experience even tougher winter conditions. Early November offers you the best time to see them migrating past the lookouts I referred to earlier. They prefer a cold, northwest wind to migrate. I sat through a number of snow squalls and watched them “trudge” through those elements. Bake Oven Knob counters recorded 500 “redtails” and 40 golden eagles on a blustery Nov. 3, 2012.

Nature tidbits: hummingbirds are migrating south at this time. Keeping your feeders full can offer needed calories to them.

Test Your Outdoor Knowledge: _______ owls are declining in numbers in the northeast. A. barn, B. short-eared, C. long-eared, D. all of these

Last Week’s Trivia answer: A pitcher plant or sundew catches and digests insects, not for food, but to get needed nutrients they lack in their marshy, poor soil habitat. (Mostly nitrogen)

Contact Barry Reed at breed71@gmail.com.