Bird watching is a different kind of sport. It is also a hobby, and recreational and educational too. It opens your eyes to the natural world right in your own backyard and in far away places. You can do it all year round. You can do it anywhere: at home, in the car, on vacation, at work. It’s cheap. Every season, every month, brings some new bird event: hundreds of shorebirds at the beaches, jeweled hummingbirds sipping at flowers, hawks soaring over marshes, gold finches in your yard. Spring is the peak of bird watching fervor, the time when the colorful migrating birds come back north through our area. But bird watching in the fall brings tens of thousands of birds migrating south for the winter, and is an exciting time for bird watchers.
Thousands of hawks are migrating through Connecticut right now. Look up, they are there. Volunteers even count them at they move from one state to another. One good place to see them is the Audubon Greenwich Hawk Watch every day from now until the end of November. A hawk watch counter is there every day and will give you the scoop and help you identify the majestic birds. The hawks are also perched on highway light poles waiting for a good meal to walk by. In a few weeks, ducks and geese will be on our waterways by the thousands too. It is a spectacular site with snow geese flying in like, well, like snow. As winter approaches there will still be much to see. Winter brings eagles, and time to observe bird behavior close range right in your yard. It is a whole year round cycle. Continue reading
