The River of Raptors!

Broad-winged Hawks & Turkey Vultures in flight (cropped) from The Crossley ID Guide Raptors via Wikimedia 30 September 2026, WINGS at Veracruz: Day 2, Veracruz River of Raptors hawk watch plus shore and marsh hotspots On migration from North to South America raptors choose routes that require the least exertion. Avoiding open water they use thermals and tail winds for lift and push as they follow the edges of mountain ranges and coastlines. Inevitably there are geographic pinch points where they’re funneled into a narrow corridor. That’s where the best fall hawk watches are. Southbound raptors leaving Texas for eastern Mexico fly over a wide coastal plain that increasingly narrows to a bottleneck between the mountains and the sea north of Heroica Veracruz. To their west is a wall of mountains where Mexico’s Sierra Madre Oriental meets the Central Volcanic Belt. To their east is the Gulf of Mexico. They stream through the gap by forming a river of raptors. Topographic map, Gulf coast…