Hawkwatch scheduled to coincide with raptors’ annual migration

CADILLAC MOUNTAIN – The bright skies and panoramic views on Acadia National Park’s crown offered strikingly similar experiences Sunday and Monday – unless you happened to be a hawk.

While the seventh annual Hawkwatch at the top of Cadillac Mountain recorded hundreds of soaring raptors making their way west on Sunday, the day after a cold front came through, the bird-count total on Monday fell woefully short of the daily average during the three-week event.

This, however, did not stop Acadia National Park rangers from continuing in their lessons about hawks and high winds, which was why dozens gathered even on a day when there were just two sharp-shinned hawks seen.

“How are you doing? We’re out here doing a hawk watch,” Ranger Bryant Woods greeted every visitor who wandered up to inspect the lookout point on Labor Day.

Within minutes, Bryant told each person who stopped by that the hawk watching was slow on Monday, with southwesterly winds making the migrating birds’ trip tough going across Frenchman Bay. During September and October, the birds head west across Maine to the southern United States and Central America.

But Bryant’s apology for the lack of birds was only a quick segue into an explanation about why this was so, and how, on a day like Sunday, bird-watchers could see as many as 209 hawks within a six-hour span.

“Today the wind is in their face. They have to expend more energy,” Bryant explained.

The watch, which is now in its second week and continues through Oct. 15, is held from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. daily. In past years daily counts have recorded as many as 250-300 birds, making Sunday’s tally of 209 “tremendously exciting,” Bryant said.

The key, the ranger explained, is the direction of the wind – but a cold front, like the one that followed Saturday’s showers, helps.

“The [northerly] wind is pushing them in the direction they want to go, and it almost always comes after a cold front,” Bryant said. “This spurs them to migrate. They are already restless, but they need something to get them going. That registers with them that it’s time to go.”

As they move across Frenchman Bay from Schoodic Point on the northwesterly winds, Bryant said, the birds aim for the top of Cadillac Mountain, where the winds at 1,500 feet allow them to glide from there and use less energy.

“Frenchman Bay is a good jump if they have to fly [along the coast] into the wind. But when they can ride the wind, you can watch them for 10 minutes and never see them flap their wings,” he said.

The free lecture on the topography of the coastline and the hawks’ journey down along it was enough for many of the visitors who came to the Cadillac Mountain lookout on Monday.

During the course of a two-hour span, not a hawk was seen, but several hikers or naturalists stayed on to hear the new bits of information Bryant shared whenever a newcomer joined the group. Despite the fact Monday’s five-hour watch didn’t match Sunday’s 209, which made up the bulk of the 290 seen in a week’s time, bird lovers were not disappointed.

“I was eavesdropping,” confessed one woman standing behind Bryant.

“You’re welcome to,” he invited.

Bryant pointed out to those from other states how the hawk watch goes on at various points along the East Coast and inland. Hawk Mountain near Harrisburg, Pa., is one of the most famous sites.

It was there at the 66-year-old bird sanctuary where large-scale hawk shootings went on in the 1920s and ’30s. When Hawk Mountain Sanctuary was established in 1935, it was the first such facility in the world for birds of prey, and assured the protection of the thousands of migrating hawks that make the mountain part of their flyway south.

In its seventh year now, Bryant said the Cadillac Mountain Hawkwatch has counted a total of 2,500 birds and is drawing birding fans and making converts.

“There is a couple from Bucksport, they come every year, and they’re hooked. Now they’re part of our unofficial team. And they’re not big birders,” Bryant said. “There are people who make their vacation around this. If they have a choice between coming to Acadia in August or September, they’ll come in September now.”

Deirdre Fleming covers outdoor sports and recreation for the NEWS. She can be reached at 990-8250 or at dfleming@bangordailynews.net.