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Site plans

Plans and fundraising efforts are still underway to improve accessibility and add educational programs at the site, including wheelchair accessible areas and an amphitheatre.

These improvements are being done in honor of Cliff Jones, a noted conservationist who held a variety of state cabinet positions in several administrations. Jones died in May.

For more information on the Audubon Hawk Watch at Waggoner’s Gap, visit www.waggap.com

By Jason Scott, Sentinel Reporter, August 14, 2008

Last updated: Thursday, August 14, 2008 8:43 PM EDT

The Audubon Hawk Watch at Waggoner’s Gap continues to be one of the best places in the state to spot hawks and raptors.

Located on Kittatinny Ridge (also called Blue and North mountains), where Route 74 crosses between Cumberland and Perry counties, the site averages about 19,000 migrating raptors every year.

Last year, the count hit 26,126, which was the highest total in 20 years and second most in the 55 years of official season statistics at Waggoner’s Gap.

“This is the place to see numbers of birds,” said Don Orris, a six-year volunteer counter from New Bloomfield, noting that the site sees more golden eagles than anyplace else.

Observers keep tabs on everything from vultures, ospreys and bald eagles to northern harriers, peregrine falcons and a whole host of hawks, including the sharp-shinned, red-tailed, red-shouldered, broad-winged, rough-legged, Cooper’s and northern goshawk.

“Protocol is we watch nearly every bird,” Orris said, so they also keep tabs on monarch butterflies and hummingbirds migrating through the ridge.

Data collected during the season – Aug. 1 through Dec. 31 – is geared toward entry in The Hawk Migration Association of North America’s HawkCount Data System. It is also sent to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, where it is compiled with numbers from other hawk watch sites.

That information is available to anyone who may want to use it if they are looking at trends or to pinpoint high migration times of a particular species.

Slow start

So far this season, as is customary for August, it’s been pretty slow, according to Orris.

“It starts real slow,” he said, which may mean seeing nothing or maybe counting 40 birds in a day. “By September, it picks up. In October, there is lots of good diversity, and in November and December, that diversity continues.”

Right now, watchers are spotting American kestrels as well as broad-winged, sharp-shinned and Cooper’s hawks, he explained.

“There are a number of birds using this ridge as a major flyway. It’s just exciting to see the numbers,” Orris said. “You will see thousands of broad-wings in one day if you can hit it right.”

It can be a handful keeping track of the birds, but fortunately Waggoner’s Gap has at least six to eight regulars that run the official observation. Someone is up there on the ridge from dawn to dusk.

Dave Grove of Dickinson Township is one of those observers. Grove, the official data compiler since 1994, started coming up to Waggoner’s Gap in the mid-1980s.

“Even if we weren’t doing the count, I would come up,” he said, noting the benefit of being outdoors as he looked out across the Cumberland Valley.

It’s a continuation of a longstanding tradition, he said, as hawk watchers come together for five months out of the year to share in this activity.

Common interest

“You develop friendships and camaraderie,” Grove said.

Some may come back strictly for the migration, while others venture up for the sights or the people they’ve met, Orris explained.

In addition to the counters, school groups and known visitors, a total of 2,615 others visited the site last year. People come from far and wide to be a part of the yearly migration.

“People actually gear their lives to witness this migration,” Orris said, which is driven by food supply and not weather. “When supply starts to decline in their nesting area, they move south.”

Each bird has its own niche as far as a winter destination. A lot of ospreys and broad-winged hawks may go in September to South America, while the bald and golden eagles that go later may opt for Florida weather.

The motto at Waggoner’s Gap is “bitter is better,” with the cold, windy conditions in the later months of the season producing the greatest numbers of birds, especially eagles.

“You learn to layer clothes,” Grove said, adding that it’s also important to wear a good pair of shoes to make the trek up the rock trail to the viewing site, which is a large rock pile.

Many spend hours up there spotting raptors with their binoculars, so a lunch and a cushion to sit on are also important items for the ridge, he said.

“The fresh air and the sights here are fantastic,” Orris added. “It’s quite peaceful.”