Broad-winged Hawk — Wings of NH

What you notice first

In September, a swirling column of hawks a thousand feet up — a "kettle" — all circling the same thermal, then peeling off south in a line.

Voice

A thin, high, piercing whistle, "pee-teeeee," the second note drawn out and descending — often the first clue there's a nesting pair in the woods.

Where & when

Interior deciduous and mixed forest for nesting, statewide, quiet and easy to miss. Then mid-September, especially the 10th–20th, streaming past the ridge hawk watches on northwest winds.

A crow-sized buteo — chunky, broad-winged, with a boldly black-and-white banded tail and, from below, a dark border to a pale wing. Common as a breeder and almost invisible doing it: a pair on territory in the woods is quiet, still, and easily overlooked all summer.

Then they leave, nearly all at once. Broad-wings are extreme migrants, wintering in South America, and they travel by soaring — riding thermals up, gliding down to the next one, barely flapping. Thousands can move through New Hampshire in a few days if the weather cooperates: a cold front, then clearing skies and a northwest wind.

Pack Monadnock’s count regularly logs single-day flights in the thousands in that mid-September window. Pick a bluebird day right after a front, bring a chair.