Hawk Watch Oct. 1 at Stainbrook Preserve near Mehaffey Bridge

Fall is the time that hawks migrate through eastern Iowa, sometimes in large numbers.  Hawks are large and they migrate in the day time, which make for some seriously laid back birding, no hikes through rugged terrain, no beating through bushes, no ticks or mosquitoes.  Grab yourself a chair, go out in the open and look up.

Broad-winged Hawks migrate in large loose flocks.  Already this fall, Grammer Grove Hawkwatch had 226 Broad-winged Hawk on 9-24, an observer at Saylorville 9/23 saw 400 Broad-winged Hawks in a single kettle.  Further W in the Loess Hills at the Hawkwatch at Hitchcock Nature Center [perhaps the single best place in in Iowa to see this spectacle] they have been seeing good numbers also.  These numbers pale besides some really big numbers.  One day about 15 years ago, an incredible 10,000 Broadwings went over the Coralville Res.

This Saturday, October 1, 9 a.m. – 2 p.m. the Iowa City Bird Club will have its annual one day Hawk Watch at Stainbrook Preserve, located along Mehaffey Bridge Rd. just north of Sugar Bottom Recreation Area and the Mehaffey Bridge, about three miles north of North Liberty. We will be up on flat grassy area on a hill above the road.

Bring a lawn chair, binocs and scopes if you have them and join us on the hill to watch for migrating raptors.  What will we see this year --- who knows, we could get luck and see 10,ooo Broadwings along with other species, or not.

Over the course of 20+ years we have been having our one day hawkwatch, we have had just about every hawk species that migrates through Iowa.

You do not have to be a member of the Iowa City Bird Club to come on our field trips or attend our meetings.