Nemesis No More!

The "nemesis" bird is that one bird that you spend hours looking for but just can't seem to find even though everyone else around you can find them seemingly in your own backyard. Such has been the case for me with 2 birds in my short birding career: the Broad-winged Hawk and the Black-billed Cuckoo. The Broad-wing has been seen in Lake County by at least 4 different people since May and more than that since April this year. For some reason I can never seem to find them during migration even though my neighbor (literally!), Rich Biss, will report seeing over 100 of them streaming by his house! Since I started birding pretty seriously in '07, I have seen Broad-wings in Lake County twice, but not since '09. Interestingly, both of those sightings were at Grant Woods North. If I were smart, I would have concentrated my energy on finding them there this year as well. Those sightings were in the fall, though, so I wasn't thinking they would be around in the summer here. Well, Barbi Fotland and her husband, Skip, fortunately are ebirders and record their sightings on ebird. I was able to see Barbi's report, and so I went there this morning to see if I could find some Broad-wings. I got to the the Grant Woods North parking area at 5:24am and was on the trail quickly. I made the circuit once, heard a few good birds like a PINE WARBLER and an OVENBIRD, then got my bike and rode around back to the west to work off-trail. I stopped at an open area just past the bridge and parked my bike. I noticed a few birds in the air, mostly Tree Swallows and Ring-billed Gulls, but 2 of the birds looked a little different.....HAWKS! I got my bins on them as they circled overhead and had beautiful looks at 2 adult BROAD-WINGED HAWKS....WOOOHOOO!!! Finally, after tracking this bird for almost 3 years, I got some great looks. You just can't beat the exhilaration at that moment. I tried to get photos, but since I'm very clumsy with the camera, and the birds were steadily drifting north, I came up empty. Still a memorable experience. Thanks again to the Fotlands for posting their sightings!