Today was one of the "Bird of Prey" days at the Braddock Bay Hawk Watch. The area of the bay is a major spring migration route for hawks. So far this month alone over 26,000 hawks have been counted passing this area. For more details go to: http://hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=353 .

This particular bird is a Merlin and it wasn't real happy being caught, banded and on display for a bit. I'm not a big fan of banding but having folks see a bird like this up close raises awareness of the birds in the area and hopefully some conservation efforts too.

This time of the month the most frequent hawk is the Broad-winged Hawk and the huge kettles of them are spectacular on days with semi strong (15 mph) SW winds. Today was one of those days with temperatures in the low 80's and south westerly winds!