Riding the Winds: Hawk Watch in 2025

August 25th - 29th

In Acadia, the shifting seasons bring lots of exciting changes every year. The transition from summer into autumn is typically marked by the incredible arrival of fall foliage. Though most of the trees are still green, evidence of autumn’s approach can be seen throughout the park. For example, some animals have been spotted beginning their migration South for the winter! The fall raptor migration is underway, with birds of prey passing over Acadia as they migrate from their summer nesting sites in the North to their winter homes in the South. To get a glimpse of these migrating raptors, visit the Hawk Watch Program! The Schoodic Institute and Acadia National Park work together to monitor migratory raptors from the top of Cadillac Mountain. Visitors can help spot migrants and learn more about the birds at the Hawk Watch site, about 200 yards down the Cadillac North Ridge Trail. You can join me, the Student Conservation Association Raptor Intern, and Acadia Park Rangers at Hawk Watch Monday-Friday, 9:00 AM-12:00 PM (weather permitting). Schoodic Institute volunteers will also be at the site collecting data from 9:00 AM-2:00 PM on most days of the week. For updates, I’ll be writing weekly raptor reports throughout this Hawk Watch season here on “Riding The Winds: Hawk Watch in 2025”!

A vehicle reservation is required to drive up the Cadillac Summit Road. No reservation is needed for hiking up to the site.

Hawk Watch is one of Acadia’s longest-running citizen science projects, with this fall being the 31st season of the program. Such a long-standing project may inspire people to ask: “Why do we care about migrating raptors?” Birds of prey are apex predators, so they sit at the top of the food chain. They’re dependent on a healthy environment to support their carnivorous diets, and they naturally regulate populations by hunting. Therefore, raptor populations can inform us about the health of the ecosystems they inhabit. Because birds of prey are so widespread and can be hard to spot, the best time to monitor them is as they’re migrating. In the Eastern U.S., many birds will use the East Coast to guide them during migration along a route called the Atlantic Flyway. Acadia is lucky enough to be situated right along the raptor’s Flyway, so we’re able to spot a large portion of the migrants as they pass over. Combined with the nearly 200 other Hawk Watch sites across the U.S., we're able to track any changes in the raptors’ population or migration behavior over the last three decades. Every day at Hawk Watch can teach us something new about the birds and their environments!

To check our daily counts, visit www.hawkcount.org to see the data we have collected this season, explore other sites, and view past seasons' records.

SCA Raptor Intern Jaz at the Hawk Watch site on Cadillac Mountain

Photo by John Branciforte

September 1st - 5th

Hawk Watch has been off to a slow and steady start. The number of migrants we’ve seen has been variable, with some days having a count of 50 raptors and some having zero. This is largely due to winds coming from the South, which is typical of summer weather in Maine. To save their energy, the raptors will wait to migrate until they can ride a Northern wind to coast Southward. We’ll likely start to get more winds coming from the North as autumn approaches in mid-September. However, seeing fewer migrating birds at Cadillac Mountain does not mean that there are fewer raptors in Acadia. Migration is a long, tiring, and dangerous journey for any bird, and finding the right places to stop is a vital step. Raptors will likely find a place to rest and hunt on days when the weather conditions, such as wind, make movement difficult. Acadia hosts a wide variety of habitats that are home to many of the animals that birds of prey feed on. This makes the park an ideal spot for raptors to stop and fuel up on their rest days! The migratory raptors in Acadia have probably been spending their time flying around at lower elevations to hunt. Depending on the species, small mammals, reptiles, and even other birds can be a good meal for raptors
The raptor we’ve seen the most so far this season is the Sharp-Shinned Hawk! Also known as “forest hawks,” these raptors are small accipiters that use woodlands to hunt for songbirds. Sharp-Shinned Hawks are hard to spot during their breeding season because they nest in densely forested areas. Like many raptors, the best time to count them is during migration. Sharp-Shinned Hawks have been the most frequently spotted so far, but they have also shown the largest decline of all North American raptor species in recent decades. Reasons for their decline may include habitat loss or a decrease in prey availability, such as birds and insects. Programs like Hawk Watch are vital because they enable us to continue monitoring trends in raptor populations, such as the decline of Sharp-Shinned Hawks, which can highlight environmental risks and potential needs for conservation efforts.