Bear Mt Hawkwatch
Archival image of a Golden eagle over Bear Mt Bridge as viewed from the Bear Mt Hawkwatch site…..
This week marks the beginning of the 2025 season of the Bear Mountain Hawkwatch. Each year, a group of experienced birders gather to observe the seasonal migration of raptors along the Appalachian Flyway. As the name implies, our site is located in Bear Mountain State Park, New York. Here, we have the opportunity to witness a variety of hawks, eagles, and other birds of prey as they soar overhead during the fall migration. The Hawkwatch operates with the help of dedicated volunteers who count and identify each bird, contributing valuable data to conservation efforts. The data we collect on the mountain is submitted daily to HawkCount Raptor Migration Database where daily counts are recorded for over 300 Hawkwatch site across the country.
While we admit that we do not get the highest counts here “on the mountain”, we maintain we have one of the most beautiful vantage points of all the watches. Particularly on days when the wind is coming from the southeast, the birds take advantage of “thermals” or updrafts of air against the Hudson Highlands. These updrafts allow the migrating birds to easily rise and soar southwards with a minimum of effort.
Immature Bald eagle
It is early in the season, but we did get some wonderful views of a couple of migrating American Bald eagles flying overhead and a few at almost eye level. We have to follow the path each eagle takes for there are resident eagles in the valley who may or may not migrate as the season progresses. We watch each bird and make sure it soars to gain altitude and then makes a “bee-line” south without turning back. If the bird simply soars around in circles and keeps coming back, it is probably a resident. The image above is of one of today’s migrants, an immature bald eagle. Below, another eagle, this one an adult bird with its totally white head and tail feathers was also seen heading due south.
Adult Bald eagle
We get a number of birds flying by who are simply taking advantage of the air currents to “enjoy” a leisurely flight and are not migrating. The most common of these are the vultures. We have two species of vulture which visit the Hawkwatch site, the Turkey vulture and the Black vulture. Today’s winds were quite strong, much more-so that is usual. The Black vultures are much stronger fliers than the Turkey vultures and perhaps for that reason, all our vultures today were the Blacks like the one photographed flying by today.
Black vulture flies by
Unfortunately the birds are not constantly flying by, so we are always looking for any other natural wonder to observe and photograph. An invasive species that has shown up in the past several years was here in large numbers today….the Spotted lantern fly. While it is actually quite a pretty insect, it can be devastating to crops and flowers, so they are not welcomed with open arms. Apparently they really like grapes, so the folks over in the Finger Lakes wine country are really upset about their presence.
Spotted Lantern fly
As the fall continues to roll on, we will see a number of new different species of hawks arrive on the scene and then depart only to be replaced by a new array of different hawks. The first major influx we expect will be in about two to three weeks. That is when the Broad-winged hawk migration should peak. We’ll continue to monitor the skies and watch for and hope for good numbers of hawks passing through. So, stay tuned and we’'ll see what this season brings.
Tech Tips - For folks interested in photographing hawks (or any other birds) in flight against a bright sky background, overexposing is the key. Your camera will want to expose for the bright sky and the real object of your photography, the bird, will tend to be underexposed. So unless you plan for that condition, you will end up with a totally black image with no discernible fine features agains a perfectly exposed blue sky. To compensate for this, I usually begin my photographing sessions by setting my camera to totally manual and aim at a neutral colored object like a gray rock that is in the same direction away from you as you expect the bird to be. Set the speed for at least 1,250 to 2,000th of a second, set the aperture to f/6 or f/8, and set the ISO to give you the proper exposure for taking a perfectly exposed photo of that rock. Then leave the settings there while you photograph your bird agains the sky. The sky will be overexposed (too bright), but the bird will be nicely exposed with lots of detail. For those who want the best of both worlds, you can take a few separate shots of the sky at the proper settings and then using your computers superimpose the bird image over the correctly exposed sky. With practice, you’ll find you can get nicely exposed bird shots against a beautiful cloud-filled sky. For more information about techniques for properly exposing birds agains a bright sky, click on the button below.
