Pair enjoy bird’s-eye view of hawk It isn’t easy to get an up-close shot of raptors

It’s always the unexpected that yields the best results.

I would not normally expect, for example, to be able to view a wild bird of prey from only 20 feet away. Especially on Stillwater Avenue near the Old Town Shop ‘N Save.

However, that’s exactly what I had the opportunity to do earlier in the week. My friend Gerri and I were returning from Bangor. As we were passing a scraggly line of trees at the edge of a field, she exclaimed, “What is that?”

At the last second my eye caught the familiar silhouette of a raptor. We immediately pulled onto the shoulder of the road and slowly backed up until we were almost opposite the hawk. Using the car as a blind, we were able to observe the bird for quite some time.

It’s not often that people get to observe raptors in this way. Sure, many field identification guides provide photos taken with large zoom lenses, of birds conveniently perched on a branch or fence post. In reality, most sightings are of birds in flight, high above the viewer, and this requires a different method of identification. Or else the birds appear and disappear so fast there is no time to distinguish details and identify the bird.

Not this time. The bird in question – an immature broad-winged hawk – stood on a low, bare branch of a young white pine tree (just like in those photos!). As if to confirm its identity, it let loose with its distinct two-syllable whistle: “peet-seeeeee.” This sound is very un-hawk like and does not resemble any other raptor’s call.

The young bird repeated the whistle several times, and I wondered if it was trying to startle any nearby prey animals into revealing themselves. Prey consists of amphibians, small mammals, juvenile songbirds, or insects if larger prey is unobtainable.

In the early 20th century, broad-wingeds and other raptors were shot by the hundreds, even thousands, as they passed mountain ridges during their migration to Central and middle America. Today, people seek them with binoculars instead of rifles, and hawk watching has increased greatly in popularity.

These birds are perhaps the easiest birds of prey to identify during migration here in the Northeast. This is because they are the only raptors to migrate together in this area of the country. They utilize circulating, rising currents of warm air, and are often referred to as “kettles” of broad-wingeds for this reason. Here in Maine, kettles are small and may consist of fewer than a dozen birds; at hawk-watch sites in Texas and Mexico, kettles may contain tens of thousands of birds.

I hope I get to see such a sight someday. Until then, I’ll appreciate the up-close and personal view I had of one broad-winged hawk as it searched for food and waited for a day that was good for migrating.

Chris Corio, a volunteer at Fields Pond Nature Center in Holden, can be reached at fieldspond@juno.com