August 23, 2009 - Soaring Southward

Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Look up on a warm late August day and you might see a group of birds circling and spiraling upward on the rising air. Although they could be turkey vultures, you might discover the banded tails and wide wings of broad-winged hawks. These forest dwelling birds are just beginning their southward migration. Designed to ride the wind, they take an elevator ride to higher altitudes by riding columns of warm air aloft. There they catch air currents or coast to the next thermal. One soaring broad-winged hawk seems to attract another until soon there is what biologists call a “kettle of hawks” circling overhead. Gaining altitude, they set their wings toward the south and move off on a journey of over 4,000 miles, ending in northern South America where they spend the winter months before returning next spring.
 
This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.