Spring Migration Wrap Up: Breaking Records!
Posted on in On the Mountain by Gigi Romano, Communications Specialist
The official Spring 2017 Migration Hawk Watch at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary has come to a close. With this season, which runs from April 1 to May 15, we saw record numbers and plenty of flourishing wildlife from the lookouts.
Our counters, volunteers, and trainees have done a respectable job counting all of the passing raptors, a total of 1222 migrants! The spring conservation science trainees have finished their time up at the Lookouts, but they're time has not concluded yet; you can still catch them on the trails willing to share their accrued raptor knowledge.
This spring migration, Hawk Mountain saw a continued trend from the fall: breaking species count records! We saw a new high record amount of bald eagles, 75, and golden eagles, 8. The total tallied broad-winged hawks also tied the past record amount, 642. The highest one-day count was on April 23, when 302 broadwings soared past the lookout. The last raptor of the count was an osprey.
And with that, another successful spring migration is in the books! Make sure to check out our Dunkadoo profile to see up-to-date visuals of all of the spring count data, and you can see the final count numbers of all of the spring count by visiting our Raptor Count page.
While the official count has ended, the fun atop the Mountain never does! Visit our event calendar at hawkmountain.org/events to see what you attend this summer and fall. We can't wait to see you soon, and the Autumn Hawk Watch will come before we know it.