Trips

Fall Hawk Migration Hotspots

September 29, 2018 by Angela Minor No Comments

Our favorite birds of prey fly south

“Delicious autumn!

My very soul is wedded to it,

and if I were a bird

I would fly about the earth

seeking the successive autumns.” (George Eliot)

Appearing now (or very soon) at a Flyway near you – fall raptor migration!

Thanks to HawkCount.org for sharing tallies from over 300 North American (and Central American) sites. Click the link and watch near real-time data from fellow hawk watchers in your area!

North American Migratory Bird Flyways. Photo courtesy of USFWS and Sibley Nature Center

Broad-winged Hawk. Photo by © Michael Todd
Super Hot-spot: Corpus Christi, TX – Central Flyway
Fall count to date: 58,444
Super Hot-spot: Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, Waynesboro, VA – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 18,417
Super Hot-spot: Veracruz River of Raptors, Chichicaxtle, Mexico – Central Flyway
Fall count to date: 122,624

 

Osprey. Photo by © Robin Edwards
Super Hot-spot: Cape May Point, NJ – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 3,895
Super Hot-spot: Little Crawl Key, FL – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 1,402

 

Crested Caracara. Photo by © Michael Todd
Super Hot-spot: Toledo District, Belize – Central Flyway
Fall count to date: unknown

 

Peregrine Falcon. Photo by © Mark Schraad
Super Hot-spot: Little Crawl Key, FL – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 608

 

Swallow-tailed Kite. Photo by © Michael Todd
The STK families will be departing the panhandle of Florida, with flights possibly hugging the Gulf coastline.

 

Mississippi Kite. Photo by © Mike Blevins
Super Hot-spot: Corpus Christi, TX – Central Flyway
Fall count to date: 12,928
Super Hot-spot: Veracruz River of Raptors, Chichicaxtle, Mexico – Central Flyway
Fall count to date: 128,941

 

Northern Harrier. Photo by © Mike Blevins
Super Hot-spot: Hawk Ridge, Duluth, MN – Mississippi Flyway
Fall count to date: 227

 

Sharp-shinned Hawk. Photo by © Robin Edwards
Super Hot-spot: Rockfish Gap Hawk Watch, Waynesboro, VA – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 366
Super Hot-spot: Cape May Point, NJ – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 1,045
Super Hot-spot: Goshute Mountains, NV – Pacific Flyway
Fall count to date: 3,707

 

Swainson’s Hawk. Photo by © Michael Todd
Super Hot-spot: Corpus Christi, TX – Central Flyway
Fall count to date: 260
Super Hot-spot: Commissary Ridge, WY – Pacific Flyway
Fall count to date: 421

 

Cooper’s Hawk. Photo by © Mike Blevins
Super Hot-spot: Goshute Mountains, NV – Pacific Flyway
Fall count to date: 2,698
Super Hot-spot: Yaki Point, Grand Canyon, AZ – Pacific Flyway
Fall count to date: 442
Super Hot-spot: Commissary Ridge, WY – Pacific Flyway
Fall count to date: 605

 

Gray Hawk. Photo by © Michael Todd
Super Hot-spot: Toledo District, Belize – Central Flyway
Fall count to date: 30

 

Red-tailed Hawk. Photo by © Mike Blevins
Super Hot-spot: Goshute Mountains, NV – Pacific Flyway
Fall count to date: 2,291
Super Hot-spot: MPG Ranch, Florence, MT – Pacific/Central Flyways
Fall count to date: 390

 

American Kestrel. Photo by © Mike Blevins
Super Hot-spot: Cape May Point, NJ – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 1,839
Super Hot-spot: Goshute Mountains, NV – Pacific Flyway
Fall count to date: 1,335
Super Hot-spot: MPG Ranch, Florence, MT – Pacific/Central Flyways
Fall count to date: 241

 

Merlin. Photo by © Robin Edwards
Super Hot-spot: Cape May Point, NJ – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 1,025
Super Hot-spot: Little Crawl Key, FL – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 216

 

Bald Eagle. Photo by © Mike Blevins
Super Hot-spot: Hawk Mountain, Kempton, PA – Atlantic Flyway
Fall count to date: 164
Super Hot-spot: Hawk Ridge, Duluth, MN – Mississippi Flyway
Fall count to date: 2,053

 

These fall migration hotspots only represent a few highlights; and many raptors are seen in equally amazing numbers across a wide variety of locations. Dig into the data at HawkCount.org. They have detailed daily counts, migration timing, graphs, long-term summaries, and other cool info for my fellow bird data nerds!

Thanks to the Hawk Migration Association of North America for their efforts in conservation, research, migration counts, data, resources, and hundreds of other small and large efforts “to promote and conduct studies of the migratory patterns and behavior of diurnal birds of prey.”

(Featured image – Harris’s Hawk. Photo by © Krisztina Scheeff, KS Nature Photography)
You’ll have to catch the Harris family when their flights leave from south central Texas and southern Arizona.

Written by Angela Minor
Angela Minor’s first avian adventure involved a 1000-mile road trip just to look at hummingbirds. As a lifelong vagabond, she has lived, traveled, and birded across the continental U.S., Alaska, the Caribbean, and seven European countries over the past three decades.Freelance travel writer is her third career, following teacher and small business owner. She’s a regular contributor to several travel publications including Blue Ridge Country and Smoky Mountain Living, and writes feature articles for Ft. Myers Magazine, 3rd Act, and international cruise sites. She serves as a field editor with Birds & Blooms, the “Park Watch” Beat Writer for 10,000 Birds, and authors the state park birding series for Bird Watcher’s Digest.