Hello, hawk season
August 31, 2007
Tomorrow, Sept. 1, marks the kickoff for several hawk watches in North Jersey and nearby New York State.
I have a story about the hawk watches and the fall migration in The Record today. The State Line Lookout in Alpine, featured in the story, is pictured above.
Of special interest to fans of the Celery Farm, a natural area created in large part because of Marsh Warden Stiles Thomas, is the fact that he also founded the hawk watches at Mount Peter and Hook Mountain in nearby New York State.
Mount Peter will be doing its 50th autumn hawk count this year. Below is a photo of Stiles Thomas at Mount Peter in the 1960s.
A little known fact along those lines: The hawk watch at Hook Mountain is on "Stiles Summit," named after the Celery Farm's marsh warden.
My story also contains a list of hawk-watch Web sites -- including several that could use volunteers to help with the counts. I am providing the links here.
The Fyke Nature Association, by the way, is planning a field trip to Mount Peter for Sept. 15, which just might be a peak day.
I used to live at the foot of Mount Peter, and I became interested in hawk-watching as a result of a newspaper story about a Boy Scout project to build an observation deck on Mount Peter.
And yes, it was an Eagle Scout project 
as I recall.
Typically, the peak of the broad-winged hawk migration occurs in two weeks or so.
On Sunday, Sept. 16, I plan to be at Hawk Mountain, and Stiles Thomas is planning to be at Hook Mountain.
If it's a big day at Hook Mountain in the morning, the broadwings could well be coming through Hawk Mountain later in the day.
We hope to compare notes by telephone -- call it "by Hook or by Hawk."
I'll post the results as soon thereafter as I can.
Here are the links:
State Line Lookout:
Montclair Hawk Watch:
njaudubon.org/sites/hwmont.html
Wildcat Ridge:
njfishandwildlife.com/wldcthwk.htm
Hook Mountain:
Mount Peter:
hmana.org/watches.php?sitesel=372