Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch: Week 9

The 2025 Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch season ended on May 15th, and what a season it was! We have not combed through the data yet, but we know several records were broken along with the overall season total of 6,617 hawks. The last five days were predictably slow, with the exception of 5/12 when we counted 95 migrant raptors. One rainout and some very gusty winds comprised much of the weather pattern this week. Immature birds became more plentiful as is expected in May with an uptick in Bald Eagles and Cooper’s Hawks among the Broad-winged Hawks.  It was a pretty good week for Merlin movement as well.

As we close our 19th season, we want to heartily thank Zane Baker for his dedication to our project! Several volunteers were regulars, offering their eyes to help spot birds. And thank you to Bradbury Mountain State Park for their continued support of our project. We will see you again in March 2026!

Week 9 Totals (current week - total to date – season average)  

BLACK VULTURE  0-6-1

TURKEY VULTURE  0-614-403  

OSPREY 9-336-404

SWALLOW-TAILED KITE 0-0-0   

MISSISSIPPI KITE   0-0-0   

BALD EAGLE 10-97-80

NORTHERN HARRIER 7-144-106

SHARP-SHINNED HAWK 11-679-660

COOPER’S HAWK 5-51-69

AMERICAN GOSHAWK 0-6-6      

RED-SHOULDERED HAWK 4-77-89

BROAD-WINGED HAWK 48-3841-1773

SWAINSON’S HAWK 0-0-0

RED-TAILED HAWK 2-90-209

ROUGH-LEGGED HAWK 0-0-1

GOLDEN EAGLE 0-0-0       

AMERICAN KESTREL 7-528-354

MERLIN 19-89-70

PEREGRINE FALCON 0-5-6

UNIDENTIFIED RAPTOR 0-54-47  

TOTAL 120-6617-4277