Birding is America's second-fastest growing hobby. It's a lot like hunting, but with binoculars. Most birders are not competitors like the ones described: most are people like me who just like to know what's around them and who like to walk and clamber around outdoors. I don't even keep lists anymore, and just enjoy seeing the critters.
It's the beginning, or middle, of hawk migration season in North America, and there are always plenty to be seen on the ridges and shorelines of the Northeast.
Bird guides are not too useful for identifying migrating buteos, eagles, ospreys, falcons, and accipters because the light in nature is rarely perfect, the birds can be quite high and in just dark silhouette, the birds can be immature birds of the year, they could be color morphs, or they might dash past low (like a Sharpie or a Cooper's) without time to get a good diagnosis.
It takes time with an expert to get the hang of it and to get the feel for specific hawks but in time anybody can learn to recognize them as easily as recognizing people.
These three are easy because their details are so well-illuminated in these pics, and because they are not flying at altitudes of 1000-2000 feet as they often do:
In New England, the most common migrating raptor is the Broad Wing, but I rarely see them in breeding season. They seem to hunker down quietly in the woods, like Cooper's, and hunt from a perch. Kettles of Broad Wings can number in the thousands as they ride the thermals to South America for the winter.
