Monday, August 16, 2010

Fall hawkwatching is heating up!

The floodgates of hawkwatches for the fall season are starting to open! A total of 8 hawkwatches reported sightings yesterday (Sunday). Waggoner’s Gap, near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, opened for full-time counting on August 1, though Second Mtn., Hawk Mtn., Allegheny Front (all Pennsylvania) and Pitcher Mtn. in New Hampshire have all recorded at least one count day since then, too.

So how do these early season results look so far? Waggoner’s has now tallied at least one of everything you could expect to see this early in the season, with the possible exception of Merlin. August 14 was their best day so far and brought 10 Bald eagles, including 5 in one kettle. Derby Hill, near Mexico, NY, counted for the first time August 14 and their count of 146 currently tops the list for the most raptors seen on one day in this fledgling fall season. They saw 72 Broad-winged hawks and 34 Red-tailed hawks in what counter Bill Purcell called a “modest dispersal flight of juvenile raptors.”

Second Mountain at Ft. Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, took honors of a different kind on August 14 with the first marriage proposal (and acceptance) of the new hawkwatching season. Congratulations go to Jason Book and Ashley Harris.

Currently now open for hawkwatching are also Rockfish Gap (Waynesboro, VA), Bake Oven Knob (Germansville, PA), Wildcat Ridge (Hibernia, NJ), Chestnut Ridge (Bedford, NY) and Hawk Ridge (Duluth, MN). Stay tuned! Those hawkwatching floodgates will open wide on September 1!

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