Burlington. ON. April 21, 2023. There are a couple of moments in the yearly cycle, mid-late April and mid-late September, that go largely unheralded. This is when Broad-winged Hawks make brief, overhead, migratory appearances. For us they’re just passing through. They are birds of Central America during our winter, and northern nesters through our spring and summer. Those who have a summer residence, or otherwise spend time in northern Ontario’s lake-dotted landscape, would know the Broad-winged by its piercing whistle, but may not be very familiar with it by sight.
Their fall departure takes place in mid-September right after the passage of an early cold front. If you happen to see it, the flight is a spectacle: hundreds of Broad-wings sailing high overhead as if on a smooth, straight, south-bound highway. It usually happens over a very few days and if missed well, there’s always next year
The spring migration is a little more relaxed but Broad-wings make a social event of it, passing through in the last couple of weeks of April; about now. They were my Bird of the Day today. I watched as swirling kettles of dozens circled up on warm-air thermals, spiralling until they’d gained enough height to slide off the top and drift northward in a long stream of ones and twos. 
It’s difficult to get a decent photograph of one of these gatherings but here is the sight that stopped me in my tracks this morning.
That was the highlight, but this fresh spring morning delivered a few nice bird sightings. A pair of Pileated Woodpeckers took flight at my approach but one diverted to investigate a collapsing tree as a possible food source.
An Eastern Screech Owl has become something of a celebrity, I have noted it several times on these pages. Today it was out taking full advantage of the sun’s warmth and was encouraged to stick its neck out a bit.
Coming to the end of my long hike I checked what a week ago was an American Robin’s nest under construction. I had thought it rather too exposed to predators and a risky choice of nest site, so I was pleasantly surprised today to see the female apparently incubating a clutch of eggs. We’ll see.