For those with some time and an interest in raptors, especially observations of migrating raptors and other birds moving south each year at this time through the month of November, a good watch-site location which has been actively peopled with observers for well over 40 years could use your skills and a little of your time - the Hook Mountain hawk-watch located in Rockland County, NY about 10 minutes drive north of the Tappan Zee bridge and I-87.
The Hook Mt. hawk watch, fairly near the coast (with a view that includes Long Island Sound and the heights of the NYC skyline, as well as the Ramapo Mountains and lower Hudson Highlands of New Jersey & New York and, most especially the Hudson River estuary - the wide Tappan Zee that the bridge is named after (zee means sea in old Dutch) - this hawk-watch site which has potential for over 15 raptor species each season and has counted up to 10,000 to 20,000 hawks in a fall migration - along with 100+ other species of birds & 20+ butterfly species - is looking for a few dedicated volunteers who might spare a day, whether on a weekly or an irregular basis, or perhaps just once to be a part of a great tradition in NY & northeastern bird observation. The watch is atop the peak of Hook Mt. just north of Upper Nyack in eastern Rockland County & has several trails leading to the peak, the shortest of which takes most folks under 70 or so about 20 to 30 minutes to walk, one-way. (Some younger &/or more active folks do the walk in a bit less time), and the walk is mostly in deciduous woods until the dramatic views of the peak are reached. The views are roughly 300 degrees or so in total with only a small piece of the east/ southeast view towards the river below blocked by a bit of the immediately adjacent ridge, and a bit of the west/northwest view blocked by taller trees, until late autumn. These views offer a very good view of approaching and passing raptors, including some that pass below and roughly at eye-level at times. While it won't happen at all times and on all days, usually there are very close-up views of at least some, and sometimes many of the raptors. There are no facilities either at the peak or that can be assured at any trailhead, although one trail begins within Rockland Lake State Park in the upper edge of the parking area for the "Executive" golf course in that park & there is no charge for parking at any trailhead at any time. The watch is typically done from early morning until as late in the day as raptors continue to be seen, but most often from about an hour or so past sunrise until about 2 to 3 hours before sunset, depending on weather & flight conditions for the birds. In recent years, Trudy Battaly has been the coordinator and compiler for this watch, and anyone interested in volunteering a while at this site may contact her, at: merlin [AT*] pipeline.com *NOTE: Please replace the [AT] in this email address with the @ symbol. This is done to cut down on unwanted spam. A PDF-file calendar of Sept.-Oct.-Nov. 2010 may be viewed with the dates which are open & you will see that there are many dates open as of now. Those dates with initials are the ones for which volunteers have already committed their time and skills to be on Hook Mountain this fall season. Here is the URL to the Hook Mountain hawk-watch fall 2010 calendar: http://www.battaly.com/hook/watchers/coverage.pdf and again, please contact Trudy Battaly with any offers to help, at her email address listed herein. Good birding, Tom Fiore, Manhattan -- NYSbirds-L List Info: http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsWELCOME http://www.NortheastBirding.com/NYSbirdsRULES ARCHIVES: 1) http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.html 2) http://birdingonthe.net/mailinglists/NYSB.html 3) http://www.surfbirds.com/birdingmail/Group/NYSBirds-L Please submit your observations to eBird: http://ebird.org/content/ebird/ --
