March 29, 2009 - This weekend, I was at the dog park with the family, about a mile or two from north east Philadelphia, in Cheltenham Township, when all of a sudden the sky ominously changed color, growing dark yet tinged with glowing color…

The wind was blowing from one direction on the ground while the clouds were blowing in from another direction. It was kind of spooky. It seemed like it was going to rain or maybe hail and in the distance we could hear some thunder… My wife and kids began talking about tornadoes.

All of a sudden my wife said, “oh my God, that’s cool.” I was looking at the clouds at the far end of the dog-run when I agreed with her, but she said, “no that” and pointed in the other direction at the trees over by the parking lot…

And there in the sky were hundreds of hawks, all at tree level, about 30-50 feet off the ground, weaving in and out of the branches. Wave after wave of hawks came winging by, riding the thermals, looking for something to eat or looking for a place to mate, or maybe just digging the suburban landscape.

We watched and watched. Finally the sky and the thunder got too scary, and so we went back to the van. Just as we got there the last ones went by. As we were driving out, in the opposite direction from where they were headed, we saw a few hundred more! Amazing!

What are all these raptors doing in suburbia? What are they looking for? What are they going to eat? Why are they here? Could they have been eagles? (They didn’t look like vultures.)

Whatever the reason, whatever the answers, it was amazing. In all my travels in the wild, I’ve never seen anything like it! I just wish we had brought our camera.

If anyone has a clue as to why there were so many hawks (or eagles), so close to Philadelphia, please let me know!