Fall migration report - late August

More hawkwatches are opening almost every day now, and the hawkwatching is improving just as fast. Corpus Christi in south Texas already has had at least one banner day when 1,054 Mississippi Kites headed south. Counters reported several kettles of more than 200 kites at a time on August 16, though with a temperature of 104 in the shade, that might not count as fall hawkwatching.

In the eastern U.S. rain has hampered more than few days of counting so far. One thing that can be said for rain is that hawkwatching the day after it is usually pretty good! The best days so far this season were August 20-21, when Hawk Mountain was the first site north of Corpus Christi to post more than 100 raptors. They counted 104 on the 20th and just missed that mark the next day with 94. On the 20th their count included 14 Bald Eagles and 17 Osprey.

In non-hawk sightings, a few red-breasted nuthatches have already been reported, and a few south-bound ravens as well. Warblers are moving in fairly good numbers as well, at least when you consider it's still August.  Overall, migration seems a tad ahead of schedule for this point in the month, even with the days lost to rain and fog.

In another week, September 1 will be here and most hawkwatches will be up and running and in full swing. Here in the mid-Atlantic, the weather will clear for tomorrow (Thursday) and bring a nice northwest wind. It just might be a good day to play hooky.

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!

"You Might Be Getting Excited About Migration, But Not Me!"

“You might be getting excited about migration, but not me” might well express the sentiments of a pair of Red-tailed Hawks that I have been observing closely this year. For the past few years I have been following several pairs of Red-tailed Hawks breeding in the close suburbs of Boston. One pair has been followed year round, as this pair does not migrate. This March I started following another pair nesting on an exposed ledge in a suburban strip mall, and have been observing them and their fledged young very closely.

In late July I was surprised when early one morning we saw the adult male, known as Buzz, break off several tree branches and carry them to a large nest that the pair might have used in 2009, or rebuilt but did not use in 2010. (Data suggests the nest that they might have used in 2009 blew down in October of that year, but a completed nest was discovered in the same tree this March.) Buzz, the adult male, broke off at least three branches and carried them to the nest where they were worked into the foundation by his mate, Ruby. This was unexpected, and I haven’t found any references in the general literature to Red-tails refurbishing or maintaining empty, unused nests in July.

This behavior was reconfirmed a week later when we spotted Buzz breaking off branches and carrying them to the nest where they had raised three young this year. No one in a rather large corps of observers had seen either of the adults back in the nest since the last chick fledged in early June, but Buzz carried several green, leafy branches into the nest and did some point work on the entire nest. He did this under the watchful eye of an unidentified hawk that was occupying a “pillar perch” high on an apartment building overlooking all the territory that Buzz and Ruby had worked this year. Then Buzz and Ruby sat up on the end of the building, facing the unknown Red-tail for about an hour.

Later that same morning we saw both adults break off twigs and carry them into the top of a thick white pine tree, where their behavior suggests they had another, previously known, nest. That would mean they had been working on at least three, possibly four different nests in the month of July, little more than six weeks after their last chick had fledged.

Have readers observed or read about similar behavior in other Red-tailed Hawks? My expectation is that with a very dense population of breeding Red-tails in suburban Boston, this pair will probably not migrate, preferring to stay near their nests all year long. It looks like I will be much more interested in hawk migration this year than they will be.

Fall 2010 Hawkwatching Officially Begins

Fall Hawkwatching season is now officially open!

Three hawkwatches opened for the new migration season on August 1, all three in Pennsylvania. Waggoner’s Gap near Carlisle, Second Mountain near Ft. Indiantown Gap and Chester County hawkwatch (Chambers Lake at Hibernia Park) all were open for business this past Sunday.

To perhaps no one’s surprise, early season hawkwatching is not known for its high level of activity. Waggoner’s Gap saw a single American Kestrel, Chester County saw a Bald Eagle and an Osprey, and Second Mountain posted no migrating raptors seen in 4 hours on the lookout but did find a handful on non-migrating vultures. Given the southerly winds, rain, fog and haze, the results are not unexpected.

Still, it’s the start of the new season. Another handful of watches will put binoculars in the sky around August 15, and by September 1 most sites will be at full speed again. What will this new migration season bring? Great numbers? Disappointing results? More American Kestrels, perhaps?

Stay tuned to Hawk Migration Notes for regular updates on how the season is progressing. Who had a big day?  Where was that rare raptor seen?  We'll provide regular highlights of the season as it is occurring.  Until September, highlights will be posted weekly, unless something really exciting happens.  Starting in September, the highlights will become more frequent, as will, we hope, the hawks. 

Kittatinny Roundtable

On Saturday I attended the 2010 Kittatinny Roundtable at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a really fun day that I always look forward to. Could anything be better on a sweltering midsummer day than sitting in cool surroundings with a group of hawkwatchers talking about the 2009 hawk migration season?

Hosted by Hawk Mountain and newly-minted PhD. Laurie Goodrich, their senior monitoring biologist, this year hawk counters came from as far away as Allegheny Front hawkwatch in the west to the northern New Jersey sites in the east. I think Picatinny Peak had to drive the farthest but I didn’t do the math on that. In any event, counters from Rose Tree Park, Scotts Mountain, Montclair, Bake Oven Knob, Hawk Mountain, Waggoners Gap, Jacks Mountain and Militia Hill were also there.

The format of the roundtable discussion is that for selected species we look at the peak migration day of the season and the total season count for that species. Was the peak day earlier or later than usual? Who got the big Broad-winged Hawk flight? Did one site have a terrible result but the neighboring site do well? How did weather impact this past season? How do the results look when compared with previous years? The discussions help to provide a more regional perspective on the past season than is possible when only looking at results from a single site.

A few sites claimed “bragging rights” this time around. Militia Hill near Philadelphia tallied more Broad-winged Hawks for the season than any other eastern site with their 13,436 and 7600 on their big day. Allegheny Front posted more Golden Eagles than any other eastern site with 204. The 2009 season turned out to be a bit lackluster for most of the sites. Nothing looked disastrous, with even the American Kestrel posting numbers a bit higher than we’ve seen over the past few years. The Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon are major successes virtually everywhere. Overall, the seasonal numbers looked about average, perhaps a tad below average, but only a tad.

But even a lackluster migration season can’t dampen the enthusiasm when you put all those hawkwatchers and counters in the same room for a day. It’s not often that we get a chance to get together and talk about hawks all day with other hawkwatchers, and that alone is well worth the drive.

Palm Trees and Peregrines - HMANA’s Hawkwatching Exchange Program

Are you a fan of “destination hawkwatching”? For some people, (me included) there’s nothing more exciting than incorporating a little hawkwatching into your vacations...or better yet, planning your vacations around hawkwatching. Lots of us make annual pilgrimages to the Texas coast, or to Veracruz to see the large-scale migration. Some migrate all over the continent to favorite spots each spring or fall like Cape May, Hawk Mountain or Hawk Ridge, hoping to catch a stellar broadwing day or an invasion of goshawks. And of course to catch up with all your other migrant hawkwatching friends!

It’s all about networking. Years ago, while planning a trip to Sweden, I was able to connect with some great Swedish birders through http://www.birdingpal.org/. We met up and spent some wonderful days birding together. Well, why not do something similar with hawkwatching? Although plenty of sites are thriving, there are many struggling to stay afloat and face challenges finding funding or enough volunteer support. Could tapping into this reserve of sun-seeking or raptor-seeking travelers be a good way to help with this problem? HMANA feels that a Hawkwatcher’s Exchange Program may be a great way to connect these willing destination hawkwatchers with struggling sites.

Our goal is to create a posting board through the HMANA website for sites to connect with hawkwatchers around the country, or even the world. Sites can post announcements for paid or volunteer counting positions, or a note requesting a fill-in counter over a long weekend. Use this page to place an ad for a volunteer counter for a week-long stint of counting in coastal Virginia, or for someone to brave the cold and count golden eagles for the first week in November in New Hampshire.
Likewise, people hoping to get away to watchsites can use this page too. “Raptor enthusiasts looking for hawkwatching getaway in coastal New England for first week in October”.
The site will have a HMANA moderator who will work to connect people with sites. This is a new idea that we are still developing. We feel this job board may become a valuable resource to watchsites, a way to connect hawwatchers with positions and an opportunity for travelers to discover new and exciting places.

The Hawkwatchers Exchange site is currently a work in progress so stay tuned for more announcements. We hope to have it up and running for the upcoming fall migration season.

But while you’re waiting.....how does a week of counting peregrines sound in the Florida Keys? The Curry Hammock State Park Hawkwatch on Little Grassy Key is the perfect example of incorporating volunteer support to a site that needs assistance.
From September 15-October 31, 2010, HMANA will be staffing the site with all willing volunteer counters! Some volunteers live locally in the Keys and will help count or enter daily data reports. Others will come to volunteer their support from Miami, and as far away as New England. What could be better than planning a week of counting thousands of peregrines during peak migration? How about a planning your trip around the Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival which takes place onsite from September 22-26. If you would like to get involved at Curry Hammock, please contact me for more information at tilden@hmana.org.

Gearing up for fall!

Although I am wilting in the summer heat, I am hard at work on the fall issue of Hawk Migration Studies. I can already tell you that the new issue will be a good one, with some great articles, and I’d like to give you a short preview of what you can expect.

Frank Nicoletti has written a piece summarizing and analyzing his years of hawkwatching at West Skyline hawkwatch near Duluth. If you were lucky enough to attend HMANA’s conference there in April and attended Frank’s workshop, you’ll have an idea of what the article is about.

How would you like to count hawks at Curry Hammock on Little Crawl Key in Florida and help HMANA continue the important data collection there? We’re looking for a few good hawk counters (and those hoping to get better). The Curry Hammock site is being restarted as an all-volunteer site. In case you need any more enticement, the site boasts the highest fall count of Peregrine Falcons in the country and the second highest in the world. HMANA’s Julie Tilden gives you more details in the fall issue of HMS.

Have you ever thought how breeding bird atlas information can help determine the current state of raptor populations and distribution? Now that many states are working on their second atlasing project, the differences found between the first and second projects can be quite interesting. Paul Roberts discusses some of those differences in his own state of Massachusetts and gives some ideas for the rest of us.

We’ll be printing a lot of photos and a wrap-up of our successful conference in Duluth in April, a short piece on what the Turkey Vultures did to an opossum, the usual reports from all the North American flyways and lots more!