August 28, 2011 - Rising Kettles
Welcome to the Nature Notebook.

Start watching for kettles in the sky. Don’t worry about iron pots falling on you. These “kettles” are flocks of broad-winged hawks. Although not particularly social, broadwings flock to make it easier to find thermals and updrafts necessary for migration. Flocking might also provide an advantage in orientation and navigation. Their need to use thermals puts the peak of broadwing migration in the middle two weeks of September. Some broadwings start before that time while stragglers move later in September. Juvenile birds in particular tend to follow adults on the trip to Central and South America. When these small woodland hawks take to the autumn sky on a sunny day, it can be quite impressive to see a kettle of several hawks to thousands circling overhead.

This is PPL's naturalist, Jon Beam, with the Nature Notebook for WVIA.