I saw my first kettle of migrating hawks today, October 21, 2010. They were too far away for me to identify the species, but it was a large kettle. I will be looking up over the next few days.
Meanwhile, the native, non-migratory Chachalaca, similar in size and form to a female Ring-necked Pheasant, are abundant in South Texas and well known for their loud clacking calls; they are even considered a nuisance in some neighborhoods when early morning activity comes a little too early. I first saw the birds while visiting my husbands parents in La Feria, Texas I had never seen a bird this large or this loud before.
For information about the chachalaca visit
I am now quite familiar with these wonderful birds. I have lived in my house for fourteen years and for most of that time we have had a nesting pair of chachalacas in our neighbor’s yard; we are separated by a brick fence. We see them most active when they are nesting. We have always had dogs in our yard, and as you may guess, the combination of baby chachalacas and dogs is not ideal. We learned soon enough that nature has its own ideas and we no longer try to rescue the babies if they happen to waddle and fall off the wall into our yard — typically everything turns out the way that it should. Our nesting pair has become part of the fabric of our neighborhood and we chart the course of the year with them.
Photo courtesy oh the Audubon Society
If you are interested in seeing chachalacas in native habitat within a city, I recommend late spring.
I have a private apartment at my house that I rent to birders and I can almost guarantee chachalaca sightings. Just this past summer, my husband and I heard a loud, totally unfamiliar call from our back yard; when we looked we saw that it was the chachalacas being harried by a hawk. These birds are fierce breeders, easy to identify and frequently willing to stay awhile for some prime watching.
Birding Mecca 