September was good month for Mt. Philo raptor watching
A board on the entrance booth at Mt. Philo kept a tally of the birds seen during September this year.
Each fall, Mt. Philo attracts many migrating hawks and eagles, as they fly south for the winter. Local bird watchers have observed this phenomenon for many years.
More recently, the observation point has changed from the top parking lot overlook to the North Vista trail farther down the mountain.
“Mt. Philo is renowned as one of the best hawkwatching sites in Vermont,” according to the Mt. Philo State Park’s website. The mountain holds the state record for the largest number of migrating raptors seen in a single day (3,688). The best times for watching there are the second and third weeks of September. The website has a list of birds seen there ranked from common to rare.
One of three red-tailed hawks seen this September. They’re common in Vermont, and there should be more later in the fall as they make their way to the southeastern United States.
Liz Lackey ran the count again this year, driving from her home in Stowe each day from Sept. 10-21, in order to be in place from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., when most raptors would be in the sky.
This year Hannah Verity, the park’s manager, took a strong interest in the birds of the park and decided to post Verity’s raptor count on the notice board at the park’s entrance. This led to an increased interest in park visitors to this hawk migration “hot spot.”
A merlin falcon seen at Mt. Philo this September.
Note the count of bald eagles — 149 birds. Of course, broad-winged hawks have always been September’s most common hawk, as they migrate southward on their way to South America to spend the winter. There were over 4,600 this year.
Some fly all the way to Bolivia. This is probably why they are the earliest hawk migrant — they have the furthest to go.
Red-tailed hawks are a common Charlotte breeding hawk. They are not as common in September, but will be observed in larger numbers later in the fall. They winter in the southeastern United States.