Date: 1/1/26 2:53 pm From: Nick Bolgiano <nickbolgiano...> Subject: 2025 Season Summary, Bald Eagle Mt Golden Eagle watch
Fall 2025 was the sixth hawk watch season on Bald Eagle Mt, just west of
Skytop where I-99 and route 322 cross Bald Eagle Mt. The first two seasons
there occurred from early September to mid-December in 2019 and 2021 and
employed a paid counter. The last four seasons there, 2022-2025, focused on
Golden Eagles and began in the second half of October and continued into
December. If we had used the 2022-2025 limited watch protocol in the first
two years, we would probably have missed 19 Golden Eagles in 2019 and 8 in
2021, including 14 and 5, respectfully, on the south side of the ridge.
Thus, we missed some Golden Eagles in the last four years by more limited
watching, but probably not many.
In 2025, hawk watching on Bald Eagle Mt happened on 42 days during October
21-December 31, mostly when the wind was from the west or northwest. We
counted 320 Golden Eagles in 2025, which ties for the fifth highest total
in the Eastern Flyway, which is east of the Great Lakes. [Highest GE totals
in the Eastern Flyway have been 351 at Bald Eagle Mt 2021; 346 at Bald
Eagle Mt 2019; 345 at Allegheny Front 2022; 323 at Franklin Mt 2018; and
320 at Allegheny Front 2015 and Bald Eagle Mt 2022, 2025.] It is awesome
that the highest concentration of migrating Golden Eagles in the Eastern
Flyway come through central Pennsylvania in the fall.
The 2025 Golden Eagle flight was different from the flights in other years
at Bald Eagle Mt in that it was so spread out throughout the season and
that so many came late. In the Birds of Pennsylvania. 2000. McWilliams and
Brauning book, the Golden Eagle account says that fall stragglers in PA are
seen into the second week of December. That certainly hasn’t been the case
during the last five seasons at Bald Eagle Mt and especially in 2025. In
2025, we counted more GEs in December (152) than in November (151) with
good numbers throughout the month. This is unprecedented for any North
American watch site that counts very many Golden Eagles. These two features
of this year’s count, being spread out and lateness, explain why we watched
for more days this season than in the previous three seasons.
Figure 1 shows Golden Eagle cumulative counts at Bald Eagle Mt. The first
year, 2019, was the earliest flight, followed by 2021 and 2022, with
similar patterns for those two. However, the cumulative trends for the last
three years have been very different, while starting in a similar fashion
to the first three years, but diverging in late Nov-early Dec. The 2025
cumulative count didn’t have as steep a rise as in earlier years because
there was no pronounced peak, but the season total was similar to the
totals of the first three years.
Figure 2 shows Golden Eagle daily counts. The high was 29 on Nov 22, with
12 double-digit days (6 each in Nov and Dec). There wasn’t nearly as
pronounced a peak period as in previous years.
While many Golden Eagles instinctively move south each fall, I believe that
many are impelled to move south from more northern areas when there is
severe weather there, especially snow. The W or NW winds that follow cold
fronts are essential for easy migration. I suspect that the lighter late
Nov-early Dec flights of recent years could probably be traced to less
severe weather events and/or lighter winds.
I saw a very interesting flight mechanism this season that I had never
noticed before. There were five days (Nov 22, Dec 1, 8, 12, 24) when Golden
Eagles migrated past on light 4-8 mph winds from between W and NNE.
Usually, Golden Eagles struggle with such light winds. What happened was
that they slowly circled higher and then passed high overhead. There was
enough lift for them to get sufficiently high to access a fast flow at a
higher altitude, probably in the 500-1000 foot altitude range. We counted
29, 8, 21, 6, and 6 Golden Eagles, respectively, on those five days, for a
total of 70, including the peak day. I think that there was a
terrain-related lift, possibly coming off the Allegheny Front and unique to
this corridor, that allowed migration when stronger winds were not
available. This is a case where Golden Eagles are clever and agile enough
to attain lift and migrate past under non-ideal conditions, reminding me of
Broad-winged Hawks.
Now that we have completed six seasons at Bald Eagle Mt, one can explore if
there is a relatedness of Golden Eagle counts at the primary Eastern Flyway
watch sites. That is, is there a tendency for a high count at one site to
coincide with a low count at another site, suggesting possible shifts in
migration lines. If you look at the Golden Eagle counts at the Bald Eagle
Mt, Allegheny Front, and Waggoner’s Gap sites, there is some tendency that
when Allegheny Front counts are high, Waggoner’s Gap counts are low and
vice-versa (Figure 3). This relationship isn’t absolute, but it would make
sense if a site favored by a E/SE wind regime (Allegheny Front) and one
favored by a W/NW wind regime (Waggoner’s Gap) would behave this way. 2025
was much more of a W/NW wind regime year and not a E/SE wind regime year.
But Bald Eagle Mt has done well each year, I suspect because W/NW winds
have occurred sufficiently often, especially late, and this ridge has
enough terrain advantages that many Golden Eagles choose it.
Thanks to Karl Striedieck for hosting us at Eagle Field and to the
volunteer watchers for their excellent spotting, especially Ken Bowman,
Bill Chambers, Craig Kochel, Robert McLaughlin, Don Pote, Deb Rittelmann,
and Peggy Wagoner Saporito. Sean McLauglin, the hawk watch counter at Hawk
Ridge, MN, visited on four December days and he was especially appreciated
on Dec 14 when the temp was 12:14F and we counted 17 GEs. We also hosted
several distinguished visitors. Bald Eagle Mt is a challenging watch site
because we spot many of the eagles several miles away and they can be in
many places but hopefully we miss relatively few because of our sharp-eyed
watchers.
