Date: 2/5/26 9:22 am From: Nick Bolgiano <nickbolgiano...> Subject: Golden Eagle presentation Wed, Feb 11
Sponsored by Hawk Migration Association.
*What We Are Learning About Golden Eagles in North America's Eastern Flyway*
*Wednesday, February 11, 2026 – 12pm eastern*
For most raptor species that migrate through Pennsylvania, the highest
concentrations of migrants are seen in the southeast, especially along the
Kittatinny Ridge, where the Hawk Mountain and Waggoner’s Gap hawk watches
are located. An important exception to this rule is the Golden Eagle, for
which the western corridor fall migration corridor through Pennsylvania
hosts the highest volume of migrants. As much as 2-3 times as many Golden
Eagles use this route compared to the eastern fall corridor through
Pennsylvania, which includes the Kittatinny Ridge.
Six seasons of data from the Bald Eagle Mountain-Eagle Field hawk watch
provide a missing piece in describing the Golden Eagle’s western fall
corridor through Pennsylvania, as well as through Pennsylvania as a whole.
Route data from telemetered eagles and hawk watch data on numbers, ages,
and timing of flights from select watch sites give an overall coherence to
the Golden Eagle’s fall migration through the state.
Nick Bolgiano is a life-long birder from State College, Pennsylvania. He
worked for 23 years at Minitab Statistical Software, first as a software
tester and then as designer of graphics. He has been a hawk watcher for the
last 31 years at Stone Mt and Tussey Mt in central Pennsylvania. He came to
believe that the fall Golden Eagle migration along Bald Eagle Mt north of
State College was one the biggest missing pieces in our understanding of
the Golden Eagle’s Eastern Flyway dynamics. In 2019, he teamed with Jon
Kauffman of Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center to conduct a one-season
hawk watch on Bald Eagle Mt. In 2025, the sixth season fall watch season
happened there and now we have that missing piece.
This program is free and open to all but registration is required.
