They feel it-- yes!  The atmosphere ballooning, this cold front's pressure dome buoyant to their airy bones.   They are launching from every New England ridgetop.   All week they've preened drizzle-heavy plumage, their taloned grips fidgeting, eager to leave perches but held to their boughs by sloppy air.   Each day's shorter allotment of light has goaded:  be gone!   The spanking high surges in and they ride its bow wave surfing across its northerly blow, flocks scudding southwest.   When mid-day builds thermals, they'll seek the towering airs and swirl, a jubilation of hawks mounting without a wingflap into the cumuli, and beyond-- Panama, Colombia, Ecuador.

	"The Big High" was originally published in the COA Bulletin (Connecticut Ornithological Association). Polly Brody has been published in many literary journals and has received numerous awards for her writing. She is the author of three books of poems:  Other Nations (poetry), The Burning Bush (essays with poetry), and At the Flower's Lip.

 NEHW   Map   Hawk Migration Reports   Membership  NEHW Board    HMANA

Updated  10/27/09