Head outside and watch the great hawk migration

Today’s question:

This time of year I noticed the hawks seem to be back. When we’re out driving around I tell my kids, “Look, the hawks are back.” My question is: Do the hawks actually go somewhere during the summer or do they just kind of lie low like other desert animals? The hawks aren’t back and they haven’t been hiding out for the summer. Along with lots of other kinds of birds, they are migrating.

Raptors from farther north pass through Arizona on their way to Mexico or Central America and are often joined by some of our locals.

If you put your mind to it and keep your eyes open you might see ospreys, Northern harriers, sharp-shinned, Cooper’s hawk, Swainson’s, zone-tailed and red-tailed Hawk, American kestrel, merlin and peregrine falcons and turkey vultures.

The problem, or at least the problem I always have, is that looking up into the bright sky it can be hard to tell one raptor from another. There are guidebooks for the dedicated raptor watcher.

One option is to see them on telephone or power posts in the early morning while they are waiting for the air to heat up and form those thermals they soar on.

Hawkwatch International maintains a post for monitoring raptor migrations at Yaki Point at the Grand Canyon. If you are interested in volunteering — or just interested in raptors in general — go to hawkwatch.org.

If you have never seen migrating hawks you are missing a good show. Raptors are often solitary creatures, but when migrating they gather in flocks called kettles because they as they rise and fall on the thermals they sort of resemble water boiling in a kettle. It’s something to see. Has a woman ever been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor? Only one. Dr. Mary Walker, a surgeon during the Civil War.