Contests & Special Counts
Reports:   200720052003Seasonal Totals by Year UPDATED 1/10/08

Summitville Hawk Watch 2007 Posted 11/7/07>      


Bald Eagle,  photo by Stephen Davis
Click photo to enlarge

This year we will have completed our fifth season of watching hawks at the Summitville fire tower, and what a banner year it has been.  We started the season on September 6th, and since that time we have logged nearly 150 hours at the tower and seen a spectacular number  of birds.  For the first time we have tallied over 3000 hawks, osprey, eagles, vultures and falcons!

As of this writing we have doubled our highest previous count in a season.  Ideal conditions, wind and weather, have produced an  abundance of hawks passing by our area.  Highlights of the season thus far include one GOLDEN EAGLE, by far our highest count of BALD EAGLES,  and a total of over 1700 Broad-winged Hawks.  Black Vultures have  again been seen daily, most just hanging out, and a few migrating.

We don’t just get to see hawks on the watch either.  We have seen  many other species migrating.  American Robins, Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers, Red-breasted and White-breasted Nuthatches, Yellow-bellied  Sapsuckers, Canada Geese, Common Loons, Blue Jays and Common Ravens abound.  The ravens are not truly migrating, but large numbers do pass by.  On the 16th, over thirty ravens passed in one group.

We also added a new county bird this year.  On 9/29/07, I spotted  sixteen AMERICAN WHITE PELICANS passing over the ridge and directly over the tower.  This is not just new to Sullivan County, it is a  record number of White Pelicans for New York State.

I would like to thank Renee Davis, Kelly Sheridan, Valerie Freer, Mary Collier, Ruth Shursky and Lance Verderame for the time they have spent at the watch.  With the mild weather, this was not just a productive season,  it was truly an enjoyable time.  With spectacular views, warm winds and great birds, it is hard to imagine a better birding experience.

John Haas
Warblings, November-December 2007

Hawk Count 2005               Posted 12/22/05      

October 31st brought the end to our third year of hawkcounting at the fire tower in Summitville. The weather was much milder this year than in past years, so just being outside five stories up made many of the days very enjoyable. Don't get me wrong, there were days when it was downright dangerous being at the top of the tower in winds that were maxing out our wind gauge. We had not had an incident at the tower until the end of this year, when vandals broke one of the panes of plexiglass that we use to block the wind on bad days. We were fortunate that they didn't break all four; the one pane can be replaced.

We ended the year with 1547 birds, up from 1225 in 2004. On the list were 140 Turkey Vultures, 16 Bald Eagles, 54 Ospreys, 11 Northern Harriers, 211 Sharp-shinneds, 58 Coopers, 8 Northern Goshawks, 13 Red-shouldereds, 660 Broadwings, 307 Red-tails, 1 Rough-legged, 6 Golden Eagles, 24 American Kestrals, 4 Merlins, 8 Peregrines, 5 Black vultures (new for our site this year) and 21 unidentified raptors. John Haas had a high count of 254 Broadwings on Sept 23rd.

Speaking of John, he did a terrific job again this year coordinating counters and observers. All data was given to him, which he then reported to HMANA (Hawk Migration Association of North America). The data can be viewed at their website. It is a big undertaking; we appreciate his hard work and endless enthusiasm in this project.

Thank you, John. Special thanks also go to Kelly Sheridan, Ruth Shursky, Arlene Borko, Patrick Dechon, Fred Fries, and Valerie Freer for their part in making this a successful and fun project. Thank you all and here's to looking up!

Renee Davis
Warblings, December 2005 - February 2006

Hawkwatch Continues (2005) Posted 10/21/05      

Fall is the time for hawkwatching, so we are again observing them from the Summitville fire tower. Late last fall the tower was turned over to the NYS DEC by the NY-NJ Trail Conference. Fortunately, the DEC felt that we were doing a good job and wanted us to continue with our efforts. After the paperwork was completed and our permit was granted, off we went a-counting. Although we had fewer counters this year, this year’s totals are close to last year’s.

Kelly Sheridan and John Haas had high counts of Broadwing Hawks of 250 on Sept. 18th, and 254 on Sept. 23rd. In September, 656 Broadwings migrated past the tower on their way to Mexico and South America. Add to that list another 100 hawks, consisting of Bald Eagles, Ospreys, Northern Harriers, Sharp-shinneds, Coopers, American Kestrals, Merlins, Peregrine Falcons, and 9 unidentified raptors, which brings our total up to 756 birds.

Results are posted on the website of the Hawk Migration Association of North America. Scroll to the bottom and click on Hawkcount; from there you can access our reports in the day or monthly summaries. Our count site is Summitville, NY. Not only can you see our results, but you can also access counts from around the country and North America and Mexico. It's truly amazing to see just how many hawks fly by some of the major flyways, some counts reaching thousands every day. Don't believe me? Check out Veracruz River of Raptors in Mexico. I think you'll be amazed.

Renee Davis
Warblings, October-December 2005

Sullivan County Hawkwatch 2003Posted 1/26/04     

We have always wondered if there weren’t somewhere within the county that could serve as a good location for hawkwatch. We certainly had hawks migrating through and it seemed that there should be a spot that would offer us a vantage point to count them as they passed.

Late in September, Valerie Freer received a call from Ed McGowan of the New York/New Jersey Trail Conference inviting her to check out the fire tower on the Shawangunk ridge as a possible hawkwatch site. Valerie and Phyllis Jones went up on October 3 and saw a number of hawks, making it an intriguing site. Valerie spoke to several of us from Sullivan Audubon and we decided to participate in a part-time hawkwatch for one season to see if the site had any real potential. We began covering the site on October 4, 2003. Good results came almost immediately in the form of Peregrine Falcons, Merlins, Bald Eagles, Northern Harriers, etc. We soon became engrossed in the site and spent more hours there than we initially anticipated.

The site is located on the Shawangunk ridge overlooking Orange County to the east, Sullivan County to the west, the valley along the ridge going both north to Ulster County and south along the Orange-Sullivan border. Panoramic views of the mountains, valley and Bashakill are a bonus of the site. The Trail Conference currently owns the site and wants to maintain it as naturally as possible, with the goal of eventually transferring it to the state as a protected area.

Valerie Freer, Renee Davis, Diane Sheridan, Mary Collier, Marge Gorton, Arlene Borko, and I all spent time manning the tower. This was no easy feat! Unusually cold weather for October made some days on the tower difficult, if not impossible. On one occasion, after only a few minutes, high winds caused us to vacate the tower! On another occasion, lightning did the same, but most days were just beautiful!

Overall, the experience was very rewarding and resulted in some good Hawk migration data for our records. We spent a total of 45.5 hours and logged an average of 7.1 hawks per hour over the course of 20 dates from early October to early November. These are excellent results. Some of us were able to add new county birds; I even got my life Northern Goshawk!

The site proved to be a decent migration route; our results often exceeded some of the other hawkwatches in the northeast on given days. Drew Panko. Southeastern New York State compiler for the Hawk Migration Association of North America, contacted us and asked if we would mind submitting or results, as the data seemed promising to them as well. We happily complied.

In the end, we had seen a total of 321 raptors, 191 Turkey Vultures, and 27 Ravens! As a result of our efforts, several people have shown an interest in the hawkwatch; it appears we will be back next fall with some additional volunteers to man the site. Hopefully, we will see some of you up there next year!

John Haas
Warblings, January-March 2004

  Summitville Fire Tower Hawkwatch
Seasonal Totals by Year
Counters: Sullivan County Audubon Society  

Year
TV
BE
OS
NH
SS
CH
NG
RS
BW
RT
RL
GE
AK
ML
PG
UR
BV
TOT
HRS
Days
HPH
2003
191
3
9
15
71
27
2
3
0
150
2
2
5
6
6
20
0
512
46
20
11
2004
112
9
20
2
131
50
4
5
788
64
0
1
12
11
2
14
0
1225
87
32
14
2005
140
16
54
11
211
58
8
13
660
307
1
6
24
4
8
21
5
1547
79
20
20
2006
49
12
76
14
310
52
4
13
839
84
0
7
26
3
8
21
4
1522
108
29
14
2007
213
28
83
55
996
140
16
16
1710
476
0
6
27
14
5
39
26
3850
174
44
22

TV=Turkey Vulture, BE=Bald Eagle, OS=Osprey, NH=N Harrier, SS=Sharp-shin, CH=Cooper's Hawk, NG=N Goshawk, RS=Red-shouldered, BW=Broadwing, RT=RedTail, RL=Rough-legged, GE=Golden Eagle, AK=Amer Kestrel, ML=Merlin, PG=Peregrine, UR=Unidentified Raptor, BV=Black Vulture
HPH=Hawks per hour.