Someone, sometime, somewhere has probably asked you to go bowling. To accompany them on a hike. To go paddling, play disc golf, chess, or tennis, or maybe even bake a batch of cookies.
But to help them count traffic?
If that doesn’t sound nearly as enjoyable, you’re imagining the wrong traffic.
Each fall, raptors – birds of prey ranging from kestrels the size of mourning doves to golden eagles with wingspans exceeding 7 feet – migrate south, often following ridgeline air currents as reliably as tractor-trailers follow interstates. Their destination: anywhere from the lower United States down through Mexico to Central and South America, depending on the species.
As they go, counters at almost 200 hawk watches across the Americas – including Second Mountain Hawk Watch in Lebanon County – identify and tabulate the birds they see. It’s part hobby, part citizen science project.
The information collected is forwarded to the Hawk Migration Association of North America (www.hmana.org), which, together with others, uses it to develop a periodic Raptor Population Index showcasing how healthy these bird populations are or aren’t. It’s the largest migration monitoring database in the world, said Julie Brown, raptor migration and programs director for the Hawk Migration Association.
As such, it’s vitally important, she added.
“It’s tricky. Birds spend a good chunk of the year on migration, so it’s really valuable to have this database that reflects their movements during the fall,” she said. “And it’s mostly volunteers that submit that data, so it’s impressive that we have information we have now.”
Such data didn’t always exist. In the early decades of the 20th century, in fact, people gathered at places like these not to count birds but to shoot them. They were considered vermin; often, states paid bounties for each one killed. Things didn’t start to change until Hawk Mountain Sanctuary (hawkmountain.org) in nearby Kempton, Berks County, became the world’s first refuge for birds of prey 90 years ago.
Even then, it wasn’t until roughly 50 years ago, in the early 1970s, that hawk watching really took off, Brown said. That’s when counters and researchers began collaborating, developing standard monitoring and reporting protocols, among other things.
These days, some hawk watches use paid counters; others rely primarily or strictly on volunteers. That’s the case at Second Mountain, on the border of Fort Indiantown Gap and State Game Lands 211. Volunteers have been counting birds there since 1984, said Frederick Wilcox, president of the Second Mountain Hawk Watch.
The group has one designated counter on site every day of the week from Aug. 15 through Dec. 15. But it’s not uncommon to have more than a few other observers on hand, too.
Often, all those eyes are needed. Counters have documented about 7,600 raptors per year at Second Mountain, on average, over the past decade. But there can be more. In 2012, the site set its record, with 15,407 raptors. Last year, it incuded 299 bald eagles, another record.
That’s a lot more birds than some places, if a lot less than at others, Brown added.
“Some of the sites will count two or three million raptors in a fall, while some might count just a handful,” she said. “It’s all over the map how many raptors are counted each year.”
Things at any one site can vary from season to season, too, she added. Her “home” hawk watch in New Hampshire is this fall on pace to count its fewest number of birds of prey ever, likely for reasons tied to weather.
Some raptors rely on their own wingbeats to cover ground, she said. Others follow ridgelines and ride air currents to conserve energy. So, if the winds aren’t right at one site one autumn, it may not get the same kind and number of birds it did previously.
But when birds do come, they can come in tidal wave fashion. That’s especially true of broad-winged hawks, the most common raptor counted each year at Second Mountain.
“It’s a very small hawk that lives in forested areas,” Wilcox said. “And when they migrate, they mass. The bulk of them come through in two or three days, and then they’re done. We won’t see them for another year.”
Counters at Second Mountain have so far recorded more than 4,400 broadwings this fall, he noted. Almost 4,300 of those passed by in September, though, with more than 2,000 counted on just one day, Sept. 15.
By comparison, northern harrier numbers peak in mid-October, while bald and especially golden eagles are at their most common in November and December. Ospreys, not as common as some other birds, peaked in September, are rarer in October, and are generally gone by November.
Other species, meanwhile, are becoming scarcer all the time, both regionally and at the site itself. American goshawks are one.
“We used to see them in numbers,” Wilcox said. “But now we might get one a year, or maybe one every two years. Whereas maybe 30 years ago, we might have had 70 or 80 in a year.”
All raptors can be difficult to count, in different ways. Kestrels sometimes fly fast and low to the ground; they can cross the hawk watch site in a matter of seconds, Wilcox said. Other raptors fly very, very high, perhaps a mile above the ground, so counters must learn to identify them by shape, he added.
“Eagles, for example, appear just very, very flat. Their wings spread out, and the whole body just looks like a straight line,” Wilcox said. “Other birds, the wing tips might be curved up.”
“It takes a while to learn what you’re looking at. If we have new people up there, we like to call things out and tell them what it is and why it is that, what we’re looking for, to help them out.”
Second Mountain gets its share of visitors. Not all arrive understanding the raptor conservation work that goes on there, though, he noted.
Brown said that’s not surprising. She said keeping a hawk watch site running for 40 years, like Second Mountain, is getting harder all the time, the challenge being getting younger people involved. That’s why the Hawk Migration Association – that will be its new, shorter name as of Jan. 1, at the start of its 51st year – has a junior hawk watcher program, complete with an activity book, for children (email her at brown@hmana.org for details about ordering copies). The association is trying to reach a new generation that can keep raptor data rolling in.
She’s hopeful they’ll come. The attraction of the birds is as powerful as ever, she believes.
“It’s pretty fun to be at a hawk watch and see someone catch a glimpse of a golden eagle for the first time. You know that they’re going to be back again,” Brown said. “It’s [a] great way to connect people to nature.”
Wilcox agrees. He’s been visiting Second Mountain Hawk Watch for close to 30 years; he’s been an official counter for 15 or so. He’s not alone that way. His group, admittedly small, is made up of dedicated volunteers, people who are passionate about the watch and the raptors that fly over it.
That, as much as anything, makes being a part of Second Mountain Hawk Watch special, he added.
“It’s like a family, actually,” Wilcox said. “You get to know people so well for so many years.”
Who knew counting traffic could be so fun?
If you go…
Second Mountain Hawk Watch is open to the public from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily from Aug. 15 through Dec. 15, depending on weather. It’s closed to foot and vehicle traffic the rest of the year.
If you plan to visit, it’s best to take a high-clearance vehicle. The mile-long dirt road leading to the ridge is steep, featuring an 11% grade.
But once you’re there, the Second Mountain Hawk Watch group maintains a portable toilet on site and has a nice, large, flat parking lot where people can get out, set up a lawn chair, and watch birds or just take in the view. Few other hawk watch sites can say that, as many require strenuous hikes to reach.
Take binoculars and an extra layer of clothes. Located 1,259 feet above sea level, Second Mountain isn’t as high as some watch sites, but it’s still high enough to be a few degrees cooler than the surrounding countryside.
And be prepared to see other wildlife. Frederick Wilcox said that, over the years, counters have spotted wild turkeys, bobcats, black bears, coyotes, fishers, porcupines, rabbits, squirrels, Canada geese, loons, assorted songbirds, groundhogs, and his favorite, ravens, as well as monarch butterflies.
“You’re liable to see anything up there,” Wilcox said.
To reach Second Mountain, put Second Mountain Hawk Watch, Jonestown, PA 17038 into your phone’s mapping app. You can also click here for turn-by-turn directions.
If you want to join the Second Mountain Hawk Watch Association, annual memberships are $10 per family. Applications are available from counters on site. You can also reach out to the group on Facebook.
And in the meantime, if you’d like to keep track of what’s flying over Second Mountain from home, visit the HawkCount database. There, you can see, by day, the variety and number of raptors identified and counted. Those records are searchable back to 2001, so you can examine how things have changed or not, too.
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