Photo: Broad-winged Hawks, Matt Felperin
Tina Dudley
Hawk Mountain view, Sophie Bodrog
Fourteen participants met up at the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Visitor Center on Saturday, September 18, 2022, to witness and learn about a migration hawk watch. The group was a lively mix of new and long-time ASNV members, including Nextgen members. Professor Tom Wood oriented everyone to what we would be seeing at the North Lookout. He explained what to look for and how to follow along with the hawk counters’ calls. He provided each participant with a helpful cheat sheet on what to look for in making an identification. He also explained how the weather could affect the number of hawks that might be on the move that day. Studies over time have shown that the number of migrants passing through can increase during the one to three days after a cold front.
The migration spectacle begins somewhat late in the morning, because ideal conditions occur when the sun heats the ground enough to cause rising currents of warm air. When warm air hits cooler air, the warm air rises up, forming thermals, which are like elevators to the hawks. When they catch one, they can soar up effortlessly, letting them then drift south from on high while they look for the next thermal. When the air is heating up in the morning the hawks circle one another, looking for a bird catching a thermal. A “kettle” forms when a number of hawks catch the same thermal, rising on the warm air in big circle.
The hike up was moderately challenging, but the view at the top was stunning. After we all got situated on various rocks, we were able to observe a distant kettle of Broad-winged Hawks. The photo of Broad-winged Hawks that accompanies this article is from a different hawk watch, but it’s a good image of what we were able to see. On a few occasions, a Broad-winged flew close enough to our lookout to give us a clear view of its distinctive black-and-white-banded tail and the dark border of its wings.
While we were at the North Lookout in the morning, we saw 30-40 raptors along with some resident turkey vultures. As Nextgen member Sophie Bodrog described it, “[K]ettles of Broad-winged Hawks began to form in the haze on the horizon. The specks appeared and disappeared in the clouds as they were buoyed by currents of rising warm air. In mere minutes, the birds would be gliding overhead, heading for the next thermal” to continue their journey. All About Birds reports that Broad-winged Hawks migrate an average of 4,350 miles to northern South America to over-winter, averaging 69 miles each day.
In addition to raptors, we saw an unsettling number of Spotted Lanternflies. We could see them in the air all across the valley in front of us. Dozens of them landed on us and skipped around the rocks we sat on. This invasive species can damage native plants, trees, and agricultural crops significantly. It has already been found in Loudoun County. Learn how to identify and combat this invader here.
Most of the participants were on the road back to Northern Virginia when a large number of hawks passed through later in the afternoon. Although it was frustrating to miss them, participants who came down from North Lookout before the busy afternoon were treated to an entertaining live raptor show in the Sanctuary’s amphitheater. Volunteers showed off two of the raptors cared for at the facility, an American Kestrel and an Eastern Screech-Owl. None of the resident raptors can be released because of injuries or, in the case of the Kestrel, its imprinting on humans instead of its parents.
Hawk Mountain Sanctuary was founded by Rosalie Edge in 1934 to combat the over-hunting of hawks on the Kittatinny Ridge. In the 85 years since its inception, Hawk Mountain has welcomed and educated thousands of visitors. Edge originally leased 1,400 acres for the Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Association, and it has since grown to 2,600 acres, with over 60,000 visitors per year and more than 9,000 members that keep the Sanctuary’s mission alive. The two Kestrel boxes ASNV is donating to encourage nesting birds at the Lorton Landfill come from the Sanctuary’s gift shop.