Last month, as we drove along 390 from Avon to Dansville, we counted 17 hawks. By the time we got to Cohocton, we had four more.

*This was that starving time when spring had not yet truly stirred. The hawks were desperate by then, with prey so scarce. Leaves were at their thinnest, and when combined with that desperation it made the hawks plenty in number and easy to spot.

*How many types of hawks (or raptors) do we have on a regular basis? More than most of us would think.

*There are four species that each form a “class” of its own, beginning with the BALD EAGLE, far and away our biggest “hawk.” The size, along with the distinctive white head and tail, make them hard to miss and easy to identify. They tend to hang near water, as they really go for fish – I once saw a pair of them fishing on the icy flats of the Chemung River, just east of Corning. They nest, among other places, in Bath, appearing near Lake Salubria, the Conhocton River, and Mossy Bank. The Chemung, Conhocton, and Canisteo Rivers have all become growth areas for them. I’ve also seen them near Cohocton, and they’re famously found at Hemlock Lake, Montezuma National Wildlife Refuge, and near Lawrenceville, Pennsylvania.

*The there’s the OSPREY – smaller than the eagle, but big enough to be confused with it. The fact that osprey are also fish fans only adds to the confusion, as they’re often found together, or a least in similar spots. Old-timers even called them fish hawks.

*A pair of eagles and a pair of osprey nested within sight of each other in Bath for years. While the eagle does a lot of scavenging, the osprey circles high, spots a fish, and then dives like a rocket coming in. It disappears for a few seconds and then suddenly flies – there’s no other way to describe it – directly up from underwater. It’s one of the great wildlife sights in our area.

*Both of these great birds have made an incredible comeback within easy memory. Both were crashing toward extinction thanks to overuse of DDT, which is a persistent broad-spectrum pesticide — it stays in the environment, and it kills everything. Thanks to runoff it concentrated in fish, and then in the bodies of eagles and osprey, thinning out the eggshells until they nearly all broke before hatching. Limiting DDT, along with release and relocation, has created a population boom. Steuben County has more eagles now than it did 150 years ago.

*The TURKEY VULTURE is also a huge bird, and the only vulture we have. Like the eagle it has long broad wings. Like the eagle and the osprey it often soars, holding its great wings steady with only occasional flaps. All three birds are avatars of our area’s soaring and gliding heritage. We have LOTS of vultures! I counted 36 from the parking lot at Bath’s Dormann Library a few weeks ago, all circling and cycling upward on rising air.

*Vultures are scavengers, plain and simple… part of nature’s clean-up crew. Scanning from their great heights they spot road kill or other carrion and slide off toward it, riding the winds on their great wings.

*All of these are very big birds, but the NORTHERN HARRIER, or marsh hawk, is a “normal-sized” hawk that’s also in a class by itself. It has a long tail, wide wings, and a white rump, making it fairly easy to spot. It’s not unusual to see a harrier gliding slowly along, just above the tall grass in fields or by roadsides, checking out prey from up close and personal. Curiously all four of these “class by itself” hawks share one habit. All of them will hover – manipulating their wings on the air currents to hang in one place.

*COMING SOON – buteos, falcons, and accipiters!