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Welcome to the Chestnut Ridge Hawkwatch at the Arthur W. Butler Sanctuary!
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. 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. Click for Up-to-Date Hawkwatch ResultsArthur Green, 2009 Hawk Counter at Chestnut Ridge
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
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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.”