Migrants Seen From Our Deck- Two

     Fall migrations can be enjoyed anywhere, including from our deck in a suburb of New Holland, Pennsylvania.  I've watched the sky for migrants for a couple of hours at a time from our deck from late September until late October of 2018.  I mostly look for migrants on days of south or southwest winds when I know migrating hawks and eagles scatter off the southwest-running ridges of Pennsylvania and could be spotted almost anywhere.
     Apparently there was a southbound migration of blue jays late in September because I saw five flocks of them in one afternoon, with 8 to 30 jays in a group flapping over our neighborhood in the jays' characteristic way.  I learned later that more blue jays than usual passed over mountaintop, raptor lookouts at the same time I was seeing lots of them.  Perhaps a scarcity of food in Canada and New England this fall chased them out of their breeding ranges in greater numbers than usual. 
     One afternoon, while "on duty" on our deck, I saw, and heard, two V-shaped flocks of high-flying Canada geese heading south over our deck.  They very well could have been geese that nested in eastern Canada and were heading for the Chesapeake Bay area for the winter.  There they will spend the winter feeding on waste corn kernels and green shoots of winter rye, and resting on the bay between twice-daily feeding forays. 
     One late afternoon, early in October, a couple dozen south-bound chimney swifts cruised and swirled swiftly over our neighborhood as they fed on flying insects.  These were migrants catching a meal on the wing when they could.  After several minutes of feeding on insects, the entertaining swifts vanished as quickly as when they first came into view.  They were continuing their passage south to northern South America where they will spend the northern winter in an abundance of flying insects they can consume.
     Another day early in October, I saw a few small groups of lovely tree swallows swooping and diving after flying insects as they meandered south.  One second, I could see their white bellies and the next second I saw their iridescent blue backs and wings as they quickly tilted this way and that to catch their prey.
     At different times through October, I saw a few migrating hawks passing over our neighborhood.  One swiftly-soaring, stream-lined hawk I identified as a merlin, a raptor related to peregrines and known to catch and eat horned larks and a variety of sparrows in fields harvested to the ground around New Holland.
     Another time, in mid-October, I saw a stream-lined sharp-shinned hawk zipping over our deck.  Some birds of this species winter in suburban areas where they prey on small birds, particularly those around feeders.
     And I saw an immature harrier hawk soaring and pumping slowly and low over our neighborhood.  This kind of hawk hunts mice, small birds and grasshoppers in fields and meadows by soaring and wing-beating slowly into the wind, while watching for prey.
     But not all bird migrants were in the air when I saw them from our deck.  A few kinds of birds were eating invertebrates on our lawn, or in our trees and shrubbery.  They were resting their wings and taking on calories for the next part of their migrations.  A few migrant American robins and a yellow-shafted flicker were eating invertebrates in the short grass of our lawn.  The handsome flicker was stationed over an ant hill, where the bird jabbed his beak into the soil to stir out ants, which he snared on his long, sticky tongue. 
     And for a few days in early October, two red-breasted nuthatches and an eastern phoebe hunted invertebrates in our big pussy willow bush that was nearly devoid of foliage.  The birds were all attractive, and interesting to watch while they were here, but they were too-soon gone, continuing their migrations farther south for the winter.
     I also saw a couple species of insect migrants- several monarch butterflies and a few green darner dragonflies, mostly during late September and into early October.  The darners were quick on the wing and hard to spot, but the monarchs drifted along easily, making their beauty and grace quite evident.  Every monarch, particularly, was a thrill to see migrating south.
     Anyone can see fall migrants from any point of land in the northeastern United States, as elsewhere, even from one's own deck, porch or lawn.  Next year, get out during September and October, wherever you happen to be to see one of the grandest shows on Earth.