I've met a lot of people who want to start hawk watching. The best piece of advice I can give is that you must really put in a lot of time to improve your hawk watching skills! Anyone can learn to hawk watch if you put in enough time. The best way to start is to find someone who already knows how to hawk watch and has at least a few seasons of hawk watching experience. It is best to learn by example, and learning from someone will be much less frustrating than trying it alone. If you miss ID a raptor, it is great to have someone around who can tell you exactly why your ID was wrong, and how to improve on it for next time. Don't get discouraged! I've been hawk watching for a few years now, and every season, I learn something new.
Pick a location!
Check your states bird list serv for popular areas to hawk watch. Most sites post to the list serves every day with daily totals. Also check out HMANA's website. Here you can find a hawk watch, and review past years data for tons of hawk watches around the country. Get your hands on an electronic copy of the HMANA datasheet so you can record your raptor and weather data in a standardized way, and eventually find someone who can enter your data directly onto the site.
If you aren't close to any established hawk watches, make your own! Download google earth, and check out the landscape in 3D (go to "tools" then "options" and set vertical exageration to 3). This can show you the lay of the land and how different ridges feed into eachother, and you might be able to find a ridge overlook that will turn out to be a great hawk watch. Also, try your yard for a few hours! I've seen Bald Eagles, Red-shouldered Hawks, and all three accipiters from my mom's yard!
BINOCULARS and a SCOPE!
You NEED binoculars! While some raptors pass close enough to see and ID with the naked eye, there are many that are passing at a distance either high above the ridge or out over nearby valleys. It is important to continually scan all open sky and white space to make sure you don't miss the high fliers!
When you spot the high/far fliers, it helps to have a spotting scope. A few years ago, I got a great deal on an older model of the Vortex Skyline 20-60x80 Spotting Scope. The views have always been clear and I've used it to help me ID some pretty far away raptors in challenging light. Unfortunately, this model is discontinued! The replacement model is the Vortex Viper. I'd love to try it out but I am sure it is even better than the skyline! Vortex also has a great "VIP" warranty. You can basically break your scope into multiple pieces (as I did), and they will send it back to you in one piece, no questions asked. Not that you want to break your scope into pieces, but accidents happen. You'll also want to decide if you want a "straight" or "angled" spotting scope. I prefer the straight scopes for hawk watching, but others prefer angled.
You'll also need a sturdy tripod to withstand the gusty conditions you'll find on most ridges. I suggest any Manfrotto tripod.
Hawk watching field guides! and a field journal...
You MUST own a copy of the following three books! Basically this set of books is equivalent to a hawk watchers bible. There are many different behavioral patterns to watch for, flight styles, and ID pitfalls in the books to consider. I cannot count how many times I've looked to these books for help in the field while hawk watching.
1. Hawks in Flight
2. Hawks from Every Angle
3 Hawks at a Distance
Here are some great reviews of Jerry Liguori's newest hawk watching guide, "Hawks at a Distance." I love this book...being able to ID raptors at a distance is almost an entirely different skill set than IDing them up close.
Nemesis Bird Review
Jerry's Birding/Digiscoping Blog Review
It also helps to have a field journal. If there is time, I like to write down A LOT about what I saw each raptor do, and make any notes about particular individuals that may stay around for a few hours/days. A few things to consider are:
-flight path; which side of the ridge did the raptor favor?
-flight style; did it show just powered, gliding, or soaring flight, or some combination of the three?
-molt/age; this can help you pick out individuals or local birds that are sticking around your site for a few days or more.
Last fall, while hawk watching at a wind farm, I wrote down all of this information and more about the raptors I saw. I found that flight style really helped me ID raptors at ridiculously far distances. For example, I noted that Merlins almost exclusively showed powered steady-height flight while passing through my site, while American Kestrels showed more sporadic "crazy" flight at different heights, switching between quick powered flights and short glides. Each site is different though, so pay attention to how birds move through your site under different field conditions.
A COMFY CHAIR AND SNACKS!
If you want to really understand raptor migration, you should try to spend your entire day at the hawk watch. You'll see things like early morning or late afternoon pushes of raptors, and you'll see how different species mingle (or don't mingle) in migration. So, you'll need a comfy chair. Any camp chair is fine, but a lounge chair is ideal. You can lean back and really scan the area right over your head! Swivel stools work great too.
You'll also want to bring plenty of snacks and lunch. Sometimes there just isn't time to eat, so you'll be really grateful for the little snacks you brought! Also bring a cooler in the hotter months, and thermos full of something hot in the winter. If you aren't comfortable, you aren't happy, and hawk watching can turn into a pretty unpleasant experience! Also, don't forget your rain gear (I love FROGG TOGGS!) and blaze orange clothing for hunting season. Bring plenty of layers. Hawk watching requires about zero moving, so you can get cold very quick.
If you are PREPARED, hawk watching can be a great experience and turn into a great (life-consuming) hobby!
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