Hawk watch at Bake Oven Knob needs volunteers

GERMANSVILLE, Pa. — For more than 60 years, each fall volunteers have stood at the high point on the Blue Mountain ridge of the Appalachian Mountains, recording an average of 10,000 migrating birds of prey.

This year is no different.

In just over two weeks, Lehigh Gap Nature Center's annual Bake Oven Knob Autumn Hawk Watch begins, and officials are looking for volunteers to join the team of counters.

The center is holding an informational Zoom session at 7 p.m. Aug. 9 to share the history of the count and volunteer opportunities, as well as how to count migrating raptors and some tips for identification.

“The hawk count runs daily during daylight hours from Aug. 15 through the end of November,” according to a news release from the center. “During this timeframe, you may volunteer as little or as much as you like. If you are not comfortable identifying or recording birds, you can still help with the count.

“You do not need to be an experienced birder or hawk watcher to contribute!”

The count was started in 1961 by Donald S. Heintzelman, according to the LGNC’s website. He retired from counting and leading the project after the 1997 season.

Before the count was formalized, Heintzelman was a “ridge runner,” according to the Bake Oven Knob Autumn Hawk Count Manual. At the time, the birds were viewed as a threat to poultry and other game animals.

“Many states even placed bounties on predators as an incentive for hunters and trappers to kill them,” according to the manual.

“Thus, each autumn, as raptors flew along the Kittatinny Ridge, gunners hid in blinds, tethered pigeons as bait and then shot the migrating birds of prey as they flew past the lookouts or made passes at the pigeons. The most famous lookout for this carnage was Hawk Mountain.”

After Hawk Mountain Sanctuary was founded, laws were passed to protect some of the birds, but Heintzelman in 1956 went to Bake Oven Knob and “witnessed the slaughter there firsthand.”

Hawk shooting was banned in this part of eastern Pennsylvania the next year, and Heintzelman started researching the birds in the field.

Since then, the count has continued annually. It’s part of the Kittatinny Raptor Corridor Project, an interstate conservation effort.

“As more and more wildlife habitat and open space is lost to development along the Kittatinny raptor corridor, an increasingly urgent need has developed to set aside and preserve as much habitat as possible,” according to project bulletins.

Each spring and fall, raptors migrate across the area, which extends into New York and New Jersey.

During the 2019 season, 8,546 raptors were counted, according to the LGNC’s American Hawkwatcher, the most recent edition available on the center’s website. There were 106 days, with 816 hours, of observation.

“Not only was the count of 8,546 raptors the ninth-lowest on record (and the lowest count since 1996), the autumn 2019 season also had the lowest passage rate on record for BOK,” according to the publication.

“Despite the count team logging 816 observation hours in 2019, four species — osprey, northern harrier, sharp-shinned hawk and red-tailed hawk — all saw their lowest totals since 1991, when only 117 counting hours were logged.

“With the exception of bald eagles, golden eagles and peregrine falcons (and excluding vultures due to the different counting protocol), the counts for all species were below their respective long term average count. All species but bald eagles (excluding vultures) saw a passage rate below both short and long-term averages.”

Anyone interested in attending the Zoom session or getting involved with the count can find out more information on the LGNC’s website.