State Line Hawk
Watch, at State Line Lookout,
is sponsored by the Palisades Interstate Park Commission and the
Hawk
Migration Association of North America (HMANA).
Its
mission is to help monitor hawk migration over
this portion of the Atlantic flyway
and in so doing, to foster awareness of the importance of raptors in
the ecosystem and the habitats in which they live.
HMANA was founded in 1974 as a
non-profit organization. Its purpose is to advance the knowledge of raptor
migration across the continent and to provide through the use of standardized
data forms and procedures a data bank on raptor migration for use by both
professional and amateur ornithologists.
An introduction to hawk watching
Each autumn, the Eastern seaboard
plays host to one of nature’s more spectacular pageants, as the
largest migration of land-based predators in the world takes place overhead.
The passage of the diurnal raptors—or hawks—that hunt and migrate by
daylight brings large numbers of people out on crisp fall days to see these
magnificent birds off to their wintering grounds, which may be as distant as
Central and South America.
State Line Hawk
Watch (north 40°49.378’
by west 73°54.360),
founded in 1997, is one of twelve official New Jersey hawk
watch sites and is
one of two that are wheelchair accessible.
The fourteen species of hawks and
two species of vultures that occur regularly in
New Jersey can be seen here each fall. Most are migrants that nest and rear their young
in
New England
and
Canada, while several species, such as the
red-tailed hawk, are year-round residents
in the park.
The table below shows an
approximate timetable for migrant species. Peak migration will usually
occur near the middle of the timeframe, but smaller numbers of each species
may occur before or after the peak.
Species
Peak Migration Period