Living on top of a ridge in the Appalachians definitely has its advantages and disadvantages. While I do not have a stream running through the property or a nice lowland forest, the view provides an excellent opportunity for hawk watching. With good winds and decent weather today, I decided to watch for raptors over the yard. Within a few minutes, Broad-winged, Sharp-shinned, and Cooper’s Hawks were passing overhead! Over the course of an hour, I spotted several new year birds including Osprey and a gorgeous male Northern Harrier. Many of the birds were flying between the ridge I live on, Chestnut Ridge, and the larger Kittatinny Ridge which lies just to the south.

Northern Harrier

While scanning for hawks, I also picked out numerous swallows, Great Blue Herons, gulls, and loons moving north. Interestingly, the non-raptors headed directly north while almost all of the raptors tended to follow the ridge, heading in a northeasterly direction.

While not as spectacular as fall hawk migration, spring can be equally exciting and rarities are bound to show up! Be sure to get out to a spring hawk watch if you haven’t already. Who knows when a Mississippi Kite will soar past!

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Corey Husic

Corey is a young birder from eastern Pennsylvania with broad interests in birds, insects and, it seems, everything else in the natural world. He is the recipient of the 2010 Pennsylvania Young Entomologist award and the 2011 Lehigh Gap Nature Center Student Ecologist Award. Corey enjoys photography and has been known to find spot some pretty good birds right from his backyard.

Latest posts by Corey Husic (see all)

• Pink-footed Goose at Lake Muhlenberg - January 13, 2013
• Barnegat Lighthouse State Park, NJ - January 12, 2013
• Harris’s Sparrow in Carbon County - January 6, 2013
• Storm Birding - November 9, 2012
• Barn Owl Banding - July 20, 2012