How useful are "Hawk Watches"

[phil_johnson]

I live close to several raptor watches in New Jersey. During peak

migration times, many, many raptors are often reported. I have never

been to one of the watches so I don't know the specifics. How close

do the birds actually come? How clearly can you make each individual

out? Would I be able to get frame-filling images of the birds w/ a

600 lens? How about 400 (I know that is pushing it)? Are these sites

just for binoculars and spotting scopes? Thanks.

 

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- Phil

[bobatkins]

Don's the expert here, but my feeling is that "Hawk Watches" are great

for watching hawks, but don't really present good photo ops. I guess

you can get lucky, but it's hard enough to get frame filling shots

of a wild hawk with a 600 + 1.4x on the ground, never mind flying by

in the air!

[chris_hansen]

It really depends upon a lot of variables. Location, weather

temperature etc. The hawk watch near the Golden gate bridge can at

times bring hawks winging by at 50 to 100 ft. On other days they seem

to be miles away. I would suggest you talk to some birders and find

one that hawks are more likely to soar or fly by at close range.

Good luck and good light to you

Chris

[richard_ditch]

Phil:

 

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I've spent a lot of days on Raccoon Ridge (Delaware Water Gap near

Blairstown) and at Sunrise (in High Point State Park), and never got a

good shot of a migrating raptor at either. Unfortunately, the birds

tend to be too high or too far out from the ridge to allow a good

image. Plus, birds move by pretty quickly, and you only get a moment

to even try for a photo. With the 600 foot elevation gain hiking to

Raccoon Ridge, I stopped taking my 400/5.6 along for the hike up.

 

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There are decent images made from these sites, but I think the trick

to

them is to also bring along a fake Great Horned Owl (like sold in

hardware stores to discourage roosting oigeons) and place it on

top of a pole. Some of the migrating hawks will go out of their

way to swoop down and attack the decoy, and you will have an

opportunity to take some photos at that time. But you'll want

a helper to carry extra gear to tyhe ridge top if you've got

your winter coat, lunch, camera stuff, tripod, plus decoy and

pole.

 

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Raccoon Ridge also gives you the opportunity to shoot DOWN on

some raptors that migrate past just below the ridge line - I

remember the first Golden Eagle I saw this way very well.

 

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See Bill Boyle's guide to birding in New Jersey for directions

to the better known hawk watch sites and info on timing your

visit for the peak flights. Also contact one of the New Jersey Audubon

centers (like Scherman-Hoffman in Bernardsville or Lorrimer in

Franklin Lakes) for the latest information.

 

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Rich Ditch, former NJ birder/photographer

[don_baccus]

It varies greatly from site to site. For instance, the site I work at

(Goshute mountains in Nevada) as a bander/observer at times has all

the birds flying thousands of feet over head, miles to the east or

west, and on the ridge. So - first thing to realize, you need to

either be prepared to spend time at a site or have a lot of faith in

your good luck. And ... at our site, when birds are on the ridge we

banders catch 30-50% of the daily count, nearly all the really close

ones.

 

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The suggestion of an owl decoy is correct, we use them to bring them

in for trapping and observing. They work well. Often times they'll

stoop the owl repeatedly. You can place yourself near the owl and do

well.

 

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On the other hand, the flight at another of our sites, in Utah, is

nearly always right on the ridge and we don't band there, so photo ops

are excellent. However, it's a 3.5 mile hike with a 3,000 foot

elevation gain up to 8,000 lung-sucking feet in elevation...

 

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On the bright side, just about every close-up flight photo of a raptor

published in magazines and books were taken at a migration spot. As

hard as flight photos are to take at such spots, it's damned near

impossible elsewhere, especially accipiters which normally are

sparsely distributed in deep woods, and falcons, which generally fly

fast and hard and no where near you when hunting shorebird flats and

the like.

 

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I spent a couple of days at our New Mexico site this fall, and had a

peregrine floating overhead for about five minutes. I was more or

less working so just had my 300+1.4x, not my 600, so the bird's not

frame filling, yet ... it's the ONLY photo of a peregrine in flight in

my collection.

 

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One of the curious features of doing this kind of field work, those of

us who are actually WORKING mostly don't get many good flight shots.

When the hawks are flying fast and furious nearby on the ridge,

either I'm buried knee-deep in birds in a trapping blind or I'm

busting my butt trying to ID and count every bird flying by the

observation point, with no time to shoot!