I was lying in my hammock in the backyard at about 5pm on the last Saturday of the summer holiday, when a large but definitely brownish bird landed on a wire about 20' from the ground, running thru our maple trees. At first from the size I thought flicker, but it was the wrong colour and shape. My kid said "mom, I think it's a hawk". We looked hard into the setting sun - it did have a hawk head. A merlin? I wondered. It seemed a little small for a hawk, like a merlin, but it still gave an allover brownish impression, It suddenly flew to the ground and showed a fan-shaped tail with a white stripe at the end. Looking in my books I came up with the broad-winged - small, brown-ish, streaky, just beginning to make themselves visible migrating in large groups at the end of August. After my research I went back to the hammock, looked up, and there it was again, on a branch not far above me. I got to confirm the look of it, noticing it had alternating brown and dark brown stripes on the back of the tail, a tight round head with short curved beak, and dapples of white on its back. I did get some pictures, which I will post when I get to it.
