High Gap Hawk Watch - Fall Count 1999

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High Gap Hawk Watch

Every fall, tens of thousands of hawks, eagles and falcons fly south along the long, straight ridges of eastern Pennsylvania on their way to wintering grounds anywhere from Virginia to South America. And every fall since 1974, members of our county bird club have climbed up to a pile of white sandstone boulders on the top of the Kittatinny Ridge that we call High Gap, sat down on the rocks, and counted every one of them.

I'm Bonnie Dyson. On weekdays I teach seventh- and eighth-grade science at a middle school in the valley. On fall weekends I'm on the rocks, and every night from August 15 to November 30 I'm the count compiler, which means the day's counters call or e-mail me their numbers and I check them, add them up, and post them here. I've been counting at High Gap since 1986 and compiling since 1993. I still get goosebumps every September. You'll see why.

Season Totals Through Sunday, September 26

Species	1999	1998 to date
Broad-winged Hawk	9,611	10,476
Sharp-shinned Hawk	513	588
Osprey	426	402
American Kestrel	391	371
Turkey Vulture	177	164
Northern Harrier	55	52
Bald Eagle	53	41
Cooper's Hawk	45	47
Red-tailed Hawk	33	31
Merlin	21	17
Peregrine Falcon	11	9
All raptors	11,336	12,198

We're a little behind last year on broad-wings, mostly because Floyd cost us a day right at the peak, but ahead on ospreys, kestrels and bald eagles. The bald eagles are the story of the decade. When the watch started in 1974 a whole season might bring two or three. Fifty-three by the end of September is our best ever to this date. Every day's numbers, species by species, are on the September count page.

The Big Day: Saturday, September 18, 1999

4,212 broad-winged hawks
4,364 raptors of eleven species in one day · the third-best day in High Gap history
I was on the rocks that day with Peter Dana and Carlos Pinkerton and about forty visitors, and I don't think I'll ever forget it. Floyd had gone through two days before and left behind a cool, clear morning with a good northwest wind. Nothing much moved until about 10:30. Then Carlos said "kettle," very quietly, and pointed north, and there they were: a slowly turning column of broad-wings rising off the far ridge on a thermal, a couple hundred birds circling up and up like leaves in a draft until they were specks. At the top they peeled off one by one and streamed south right over our heads, and then the next kettle formed, and the next. From 11:00 until 2:30 there was never a minute without broad-wings in the sky. Our best hour, from 12 to 1, was 1,630 birds. We were counting by tens, then by fifties, clicking our counters as fast as our thumbs would go. A family from New Jersey who had come up "just to see what it was" stayed until four.

Broad-winged hawks are crow-sized buteos that nest in the woods all over the East and spend the winter in Central and South America. They migrate in big flocks, which most hawks don't, and they ride the thermals instead of flapping. That's why, on a few days each September, a hawk watch can see thousands of them, and why on other days, even in the middle of the peak, you can see almost none. You have to be there on the right day. On September 18, we were.

Hurricane Floyd

What was left of Hurricane Floyd came up from the Carolinas and soaked eastern Pennsylvania on Thursday, September 16. We had more than four inches of rain in the valley, the creeks came up over the roads, and nobody climbed the ridge that day. It's the only day this season we've missed. The birds didn't fly either; they sat it out in the woods north of us, and that's part of why the next two days were so big. Our thoughts are with everyone in North Carolina and New Jersey whose homes were flooded. Our little washed-out count is nothing next to that.

What's Still to Come

The broad-wings are mostly through now. But a hawk watch is a whole season, and each part of it has its own birds:

When	What to look for
Now to mid-October	Sharp-shinned hawks, our most numerous bird after the broad-wings, often 100 or more a day at the peak, zipping low over the rocks. Kestrels peaking now. Merlins and peregrine falcons on cold, windy days in early October. Ospreys tapering off.
Mid-October	Cooper's hawks and the most variety of the season. This is the best time for a beginner to come up: lots of birds, lots of kinds, and the leaves are at their peak.
Late October into November	Red-tailed hawks by the hundreds on a good northwest wind, plus red-shouldered hawks. And the bird everyone waits for: the first golden eagles. They come down from northern Canada, and our best days for them are usually in the first half of November. Dress warmly. It can be 25 degrees on the rocks.
Late November	Red-tails, golden eagles, a rare northern goshawk if we're lucky, and the end of the count on November 30.

Why Here?

I ask my students this one. Migrating hawks are trying to travel a long way using as little energy as they can. They have two tricks. The first is thermals: on a sunny day, the ground heats the air above it, and bubbles of warm air rise. A hawk can circle inside a thermal and gain hundreds of feet without flapping, then glide south, losing height slowly, until it finds the next one. The second is updrafts: when a wind from the northwest hits a long ridge like ours, it is pushed up and over the top, and a hawk can ride that rising air along the ridgeline for miles like a surfer on a wave. Our ridge runs for a long way from northeast to southwest, which is the direction the birds want to go anyway. So after a cold front, when the wind swings around to the northwest, the ridge becomes a highway, and High Gap is right on it.

Who's Counting: The 1999 Volunteer Schedule

The lookout is covered every day of the season, 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m., by volunteers from the bird club. Each day has a lead counter who keeps the official tally sheet, plus whoever else comes up to help spot.

Day	Lead counter(s)
Monday	Ivan McCloy
Tuesday	Kenneth Hathorn and Suzanne Beauford
Wednesday	William Menchaca
Thursday	Leslie Overcash
Friday	Gary Thomas
Saturday	Bonnie Dyson, Peter Dana and Carlos Pinkerton
Sunday	Rita Hope and Lori Cochran

A special thank-you to Kenneth Hathorn, who started this count in 1974 with two friends and a borrowed pair of binoculars, back when they could only get up here on weekends. He's 73 now, he still counts every Tuesday, and he can still call a sharp-shinned hawk at a mile while the rest of us are fumbling with our binoculars. Ken, we'd be nowhere without you.

Want to help? You don't have to be an expert. Spotters are always welcome, and the best way to learn is to sit next to someone who knows. Write to me and I'll match you up with a day. And on Friday, October 8, my seventh-graders are coming up on their annual field trip, so if you're there that day, be ready to answer a lot of questions. They're good spotters. Young eyes.

Visiting the Lookout

Everyone is welcome, and there's no charge. The trail from the parking area is about three quarters of a mile, uphill and rocky, and takes twenty to thirty minutes. Wear real shoes. The last stretch is a scramble over boulders. From the top, on a clear day, you can see thirty miles north across the valley toward the Poconos.

What to bring:
• Binoculars, 7x or 8x is easiest for following moving birds
• A cushion or a folding stadium seat. The rocks are hard, and by October they're cold
• Layers. It's always colder and windier on top than in the parking lot, sometimes 15 degrees colder. A hat and gloves after mid-October
• Water and lunch. There's nothing up there but rocks and hawks
• Sunscreen and a hat with a brim, for looking up into the sky all day
• A field guide, or print out our Hawk ID for Beginners

Lookout manners: Keep your voice down, so the counters can hear each other. If you see a bird, point and use the landmarks ("one over the radio tower, high," "low, coming at the left-hand boulder") rather than "up there!" Please leave your dog at home. And carry out everything you carry in.

Count reports, questions, and "what was that bird?":
[email protected]

birders have stopped by since August 1998

Last updated Sunday, September 26, 1999, 8:40 p.m.