Wondrous Sightings No. 6 -- Broadwing of the Badlands

For several years now, it has been my pure luck to develop something of a relationship with a beautifully fierce broadwing hawk who, for reasons not yet known to me, chooses to display itself in this part of the mountains. The first time, it danced out of a tree along the graveled road we live on, gracefully dipping ahead of the truck for several hundred feet before lighting on another tree. This has since happened so many times that I usually stop the truck, roll down the window and observe this handsome bird for as long as it will let me.

Sometimes, it appears to dive bomb at the truck head-on, its talons dangling beneath its stocky rib cage. Other times, it makes a perfect sine wave, swooping ahead and away, displaying the characteristic black-and-white bands on its tail feathers. The Broadwing of the Badlands, named after this tortuous part of the north Georgia mountains, is a perfect predator, as I also learned one afternoon. For several years, we had a family of wild rabbits that comfortably chowed down on the native plants and hostas around the house. The paterfamilias of this rabbit gang acted like he owned the place, barely raising his head from a tasty meal when we singled him out in headlights at night. The rabbits did what rabbits do -- make more rabbits. That is, until the broadwing discovered what a tasty morsel junior rabbits could make. It dove straight down from heaven that afternoon, turned at the last moment to grab a baby rabbit and carry it off in front of me. I was witness to real power that day. We don't see as many rabbits anymore.

In more recent years, it has set up an observation post in the tall pines and oak trees that surround the vegetable garden, signaling its presence with a loud screech/whistle that is very hard to duplicate. So far, I am having a hard time mimicking broadwing talk, but it pleases me enormously that this impressive bird finds it to its liking to guard the garlic and beans and cukes and tomatoes from the rabbits, polecats, deer and wild hogs who also like to visit this open field. Birding literature describes these hawks as no more than the size of pigeons, surviving mainly on snakes, insects, rodents and frogs, but I can tell you that this hawk is much bigger -- a true guard bird.

How do I know this is the same hawk that returns here every year, one might ask. These hawks migrate thousands of miles southward every winter. Believe me, I know. This feel like a bird who knows his home. I welcome him to the neighborhood.