Broadwing Week II

Mother Nature can work like clockwork, ot she can ba a bit fickle and do whatever she dang well pleases. This is the “Big Week” for Broadwinged hawk migration and we always anticipate big numbers coming through the Hudson Valley during this week. Well, last year did not work out that way. We had one of the slowest Broadwing migrations in our area in years. Other hawkwatch sites around us were not doing as well as previous years either, but they were putting Bear Mountain to shame. So we figured that was an anomoly and we surely would do better this year. Did I mention Mother Nature doesn’t always play by the rules? Here is a photo of our Broadwing migration in 2023. This was just one of the kettles that formed overhead allowing for great photograph opportunities and easy counting. That year, we had a total of 2412 Broad-winged hawks counted in September.

Broad-winged hawk kettle Bear Mt Hawkwatch 9/21/23

This is what a typical day is looking like in 2025! Granted, we still have 10 days of counting left this month, but so far we have a total of 26!

Broad-winged hawks Bear Mt Hawkwatch 9/18/25

Are there fewer hawks overall? Or are they choosing another flight path south which excludes this part of the Hudson Valley? If so, why? Are prevailing winds pushing the birds further west and away from our site? Or are the hawks choosing to stay closer to the coast? This is why the HawkCounts are so important. Comparing the numbers over the next several years may well yield answers to these and other questions. We are still getting hawks moving through, so it is not all “gloom and doom”. We’ve been getting Sharp-shinned hawks beginning to pass through our site. Below is an image of a “Bear Mt Sharpie”, one of a decent number showing up recently.

Sharp-shinned hawk Bear Mt Hawkwatch

And other hawks like the Red-tails which are generally giving us good looks each day are generally still around in good numbers. Some of these are migrating, but most at this time of year are “residents” which will hang around for another month or more.

Red-tailed hawk Bear Mt Hawkwatch 9/17/25

The hawks will continue to migrate through our area be it in a flood or a trickle. We naturally hope for the deluge, but we’ll take what Mother Nature offers. There is a “dance card” that the various species usually adhere to. Following the Broad-wings, we generally can expect the following birds in the order seen below…..

Late Sept-Mid October: American Kestrel, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, Osprey, Peregrine Falcon

Late October to Mid-November: Northern Harrier, Golden eagles, Red-tailed hawks

For a more detailed graphic of the expected peaks of the raptors moving through the area, here are projections for the hawk migration season.

Graphic from the web site of Rockfish Gap Hawkwatch

And so we will continue to monitor Bear Mountain and the mid-Hudson Valley looking for and counting the migrating hawks. Let’s all hope the birds decide to pay us a visit and not stray elsewhere!