Fall is an exciting time of year for raptor enthusiasts, as many species of hawks are heading south for the winter. The new raptor migration observatory in Peterborough is ideal for many birders.
Hi, this is Iain MacLeod from New Hampshire Audubon, bringing you Something Wild.
Fall is an exciting time of year for raptor enthusiasts, as many species of hawks are heading south for the winter. Mountaintops are great places to watch these birds, because peaks tend to create thermals. Hawks soar in these rising columns of warm air to gain altitude and coast south. A group of hawks circling in the same thermal is called a kettle.
Along with broad-winged hawks, which are migrating by the thousands right now, you might see species as common as red-tailed hawks or kestrels, or something as rare as a golden eagle. If you know what you are doing, these birds can be identified from a distance, sometimes from a very great distance, based on their silhouette, or the way they fly.
Although there are many locations in New Hampshire where you can observe hawk migration, there is a new raptor migration observatory at the top of Pack Monadnock Mountain in Miller State Park in Peterborough. This location is ideal for many birders because of its accessibility.
Visitors can drive their cars to the top of the mountain and then follow a newly constructed and easy path to the raptor watch ledges. A New Hampshire Audubon biologist will be at the observatory each day during September and October to speak to the public about raptor conservation and to help identify species.
The biologist will also gather critical data about the birds. This information will be submitted to the national raptor migration database, which is coordinated by the Hawk Migration Association of North America. The data will help biologists assess and track the status of raptors throughout the United States, Canada and Central America.
Hawk watching is best on a warm, sunny day, with high pressure and a northwest wind. For more information on hawk migration and the observatory, go to www dot nh audubon dot org.
Something Wild is a joint production of New Hampshire Audubon, New Hampshire Public Radio and Society for the Protection of New Hampshire Forests. For Something Wild, I'm Iain MacLeod.
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