Broad-winged - Hopefully

Broad-winged Hawk in Phippsburg. Broad-wings are a type of buteo. They are birds of prey and hunt small animals from a perch like this. Shy birds, they usually prefer the woods. They are migratory and spend the winters in tropical forests of South America. They migrate in huge flocks or 'kettles' of hundreds to thousands of birds. At about 15" they are a stocky little hawk.

I'm going to go with Broad-winged Hawk on this identification. After my last hawk fiasco, I'm hopeful that I'm correct this time. I'm going with Broad-winged because of the the thick barring of the breast and the relatively short tail. It also hollered several times, "Look, you! Get it right this time; I'm a Broad-winged. Got that?" I could hear it plainly from my open car window. I had been whizzing my way homeward from a long day of Weeding For Dollars when I spied it sitting on a power line on Rt. 209 in Phippsburg. For those of you who know the area, the hawk was sitting just south of the elelmentary school. I saw the  bird on the wire, but it was actually too close for my long lens. I continued then doubled back around so that when I came back I was across the road. I never got out of the car. While I sat there shooting, lots of people drove by. Many of them slowed down to see what I was looking at, including one of my neighbors. They thought my lens, or "that thing," was protruding too far out of the window into the traffic lane and called to tell me so. I always look to see where my car is in situations like that. I do not want to cause any accidents or even inconveniences for other people. My car was four feet from the painted line on the side of the road, well out of the way. The school bus stopped not too far from me to let out some kids. I thought it would be nice if the bus driver had said to the kids "Look! There's a hawk on the power line and that's a National Geographic photographer right here in your home town!" I would like to think of myself as inspirational to those children even if I'm not a Nat. Geo. photographer. Maybe one day, one of them will be a famous photographer and perhaps I will have helped them on their way one fine day when they were coming home from school.

Thanks to David Allen Sibley's The Sibley Guide To Birds and allaboutbirds.org for the information.