Welcome to the Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch
at the Arthur W. Butler Sanctuary!
|
The Golden Eagle is a rare migrant at
the Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch |
The Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch sits on an east-facing ridge at
The Nature Conservancy’s 350-acre Arthur W. Butler Sanctuary in Bedford Corners,
New York. Located in the southern foothills of the Taconic Mountains and fifteen
miles north of Long Island Sound, the site affords views of the hills of Putnam
County, New York to the north, the towns of Bedford, Pound Ridge and North
Castle to the east, and Greenwich, Connecticut and the Long Island Sound to the
south.
Migrant birds follow the local ridgelines and the sound shore
in our region, offering birders sitting in the Hawkwatch’s bleachers views of
birds of prey as they pass from east to west in front of and over the watch.
Sixteen species of birds of prey pass the Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch every fall. Many of them begin their migration from their breeding grounds
in Quebec, the Canadian Maritimes, and northern New England. However, others
come from as far away as Alaska and the Northwest.
The most favorable weather conditions for hawk flights at
Chestnut Ridge are autumn days with blue skies, puffy cumulus clouds, and
northwest winds that follow a cold front out of the Great Lakes. Don’t be
discouraged if these weather conditions don’t occur during your planned visit.
West, northeast, and even south winds can produce a reasonable flight of hawks
at Chestnut Ridge.
Migrant hawks don’t pass through in a steady stream, so if you
go, plan on spending the better part of a day there although you may catch a
good flight by stopping in for an hour or two. Bring binoculars and a spotting
scope if you have them. A field guide will be of use, but Bedford Audubon’s Hawkwatcher will be happy to help you spot and identify the birds.
Read an article about the Hawkwatch from The New York Times published on
October 27, 1991: "Stalking Birds of Prey Through Eyes of Binoculars."
CAUTION: Once you’ve experienced hawk
watching, you may be hooked for life. Hawks, eagles, and falcons are nothing
less than some of nature’s most beautiful and graceful creatures.
Arthur Green, 2009 Hawk Counter at Chestnut Ridge
 The
Bedford Audubon Society has hired Arthur Green as our staff Hawk Counter
at the Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch for Fall 2009. A longtime resident of
Mount Kisco, Arthur will continue to serve as Chair of Bedford Audubon’s
Hawkwatch Committee and welcomes this new opportunity to improve the
quality and scope of this year’s hawk count. Apart from their scientific
value, Arthur sees hawk counts as a useful means of raising awareness of
the raptor’s importance in our ecology; he writes, “As much as humanity
often tries to isolate itself from the natural world, we can’t protect
or destroy the world that hawks live in without doing the same to our
own world. Our world is their world. Teaching someone to respect hawks
is actually a subtle way of teaching him to respect himself. It can’t be
helped.”
Apart from his work with BAS, Arthur plays piano and writes music for
synthesizers, studies Japanese language, and serves on Saw Mill River
Audubon’s Board of Directors. He is a member of the Hawk Migration
Association of North America. You can
meet Arthur at the hawkwatch Monday through Saturday, 8
a.m. through 4
p.m.
Directions to the Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch
Take I-684 to exit 4 (Bedford-Mt Kisco-Route 172)
and turn off the ramp toward Mount Kisco. (Left if coming from the South, right
if coming from the North.)
Drive about 100 yards and take first left hand
turn on to Chestnut Ridge Road.
Take Chestnut Ridge Road for about 1.5 miles and
look for the entrance on the Right, the sign for the Nature Conservancy's
Butler Sanctuary and go across the bridge to the parking lot.
The Hawkwatch is up the hill to the left (see
sign just inside the fence).
Click for Hawkwatch Reports From Prior Seasons
2000 Hawkwatch
2001 Hawkwatch
2007 Hawkwatch
2008 Hawkwatch
Hawk
Migration Association of North America
The Hawk Migration
Association of North America (HMANA) is a membership-based organization
committed to the conservation of raptors through the scientific study,
enjoyment, and appreciation of raptor migration. HMANA collects hawk count data
from almost two hundred affiliated raptor monitoring sites throughout the United
States, Canada, and Mexico. It has pages on Hawk Locations and Hawk Count Data.
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