LIFE

Bird watching: A record year for bald eagles and hawks

Jim Wright
Special to NorthJersey.com

Every autumn, I write about the joys of visiting our local hawk watches. For me, the quantity of raptors is secondary to the camaraderie, the great looks at individual raptors, and the sights of the season.

But this fall, the totals from the region’s top hawk watch in Alpine were so noteworthy I thought I’d pass them along. State Line’s annual fall raptor count officially ended yesterday, but by the end of October the 16 volunteer counters and other observers had already tallied new records for five species: 954 ospreys, 339 bald eagles, 506 Cooper’s hawks, 680 American kestrels and 121 merlins.

More than 330 bald eagles were counted at  State Line Hawk Watch in Alpine in fall 2018, a new record for the site.

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“It's been an exciting year breaking records and seeing these magnificent birds coming past the lookout,” says Karl Soehnlein, who has been a counter at State Line since 2012.  

According to Soehnlein, more than 11,000 raptors have passed the hawk watch on their way south this fall.

 At a time when there’s often grim news about birds and the environment, this is a breath of fresh autumn air. But a little perspective is in order.

More than 675 kestrels were counted at  State Line Hawk Watch in Alpine this fall, a new record for the site.

These figures are for one hawk watch out of hundreds nationwide. As a result, when Soehnlein points out that State Line surpassed its previous American Kestrel record by 40 percent, he tempers it: “We’re hoping that this signifies a reversal of the 20-year decline of kestrels, but we are only one site. We’ll have to wait until the 2018 (national)  report is published.”

The Mount Peter Hawk Watch in nearby New York State, for comparison, tallied 158 kestrels this fall — “encouraging, but still a far cry from our record 592 in 1981,” says Judy Cinquina, who has run the raptor count there for the past 41 years.

The biggest factors in this year’s record numbers at State Line are likely the short time that raptors have been counted there and the vagaries of this autumn’s weather. The Montclair Hawk Watch, for example, has been counting raptors daily each fall for almost six decades, while State Line has been keeping track full-time for eight years.

State Line Hawk Watch in Alpine had a banner autumn, with more than 11,000 raptors flying by.

“It’s really too soon, with too little data, to look for trends,” says Soehnlein. “Looking at the other five hawk watch sites in the area, there’s definitely an ebb and flow from year to year. However, the sites that have been around the longest — Mount Peter, Montclair, and Quaker Ridge in Greenwich, Connecticut — have shown an overall decline in the total number of raptors over the years.”

Another key factor in the raptor totals for any given site is blowin’ in the wind. Soehnlein speculates that State Line does best when the winds are out of the north, northwest or northeast, which pushes the raptors past State Line instead of other locales.

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“For example, on Sept.  22, Quaker Ridge had 5,907 broad-winged hawks, Hook Mountain (in Rockland County) reported 1,709, State Line reported 1,618 and Greenbrook Sanctuary (5 miles to the south of State Line) reported over 2,500 on that afternoon,” says Soehnlein.

“It appears that some of the broad-wings passing through Quaker Ridge went to the west (Hook), some to the southwest (State Line) and more went south-southwest through Yonkers and the Bronx, crossing the Hudson below Greenbrook Sanctuary. Montclair, which is further southwest of Quaker Ridge, reported 3,035 broad-wings that day.”

More than 500 Cooper’s Hawks were counted at State Line Hawk Watch in Alpine this fall, a new record for the site.

Because State Line Hawk Watch is located on the Palisades, right next to a popular place to hike and enjoy terrific views of the Hudson River, lots of people stop to see what everyone with binoculars or cameras is looking at.

"The No. 1 question that’s asked is, ‘How do you know you are not counting the same bird twice?’ " says Soehnlein. “The answer is they are flying with altitude and attitude, flying with purpose to the southwest.”  

And even more so at State Line this autumn.

“The Bird Watcher” appears every other Thursday. Write to Jim at celeryfarm@gmail.com.