Location Allegheny Front Hawk Watch, near Central City, PA
Along the Allegheny mountains in Pennsylvania, there are a series of sites that make up the Hawk Watch. At these lookout points it's possible to see dozens or even hundreds of raptors in a given day. Volunteers go to these sites every day during spring and fall migration and make official counts of migrant raptors, with a detailed report appearing on their web site. I looked over the statistics from prior years and tried to pick a day in which I could get a Golden Eagle. They are fairly common in late fall; a good day can produce 10-20 of them.
So I came on November 2. The weather was sunny and calm, but still pretty chilly -- about 40 degrees. I arrived at about 10:00 AM. By 2:00 PM, no eagles had appeared.
Trying to stay warm, I walked over to the north edge of the outlook away from the scopes and people. When I wandered back, they were all looking at a Golden Eagle. The problem was, it was quite a ways in the distance and it was right by the sun. In order to see anything, you had to cover the sun with your hand and look with the naked eye. So yes, that was the first one, but it wasn't much more than a black line in the sky.
I pondered whether I should count it, and I think I decided I would, but it was quite unsatisfying. I wouldn't have known it was a Golden Eagle on my own, not by a long shot. But the experts there were sure it was, and I saw it. Sigh.
I was about to give up and go home a few minutes later when another was spotted. This time it was still north of us and fairly close, so I was able to observe it for a couple of minutes as it soared southward. It was a juvenile, like the picture above, so the white patches were a good field mark.
Cornell: Golden Eagle
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