Date: 4/27/26 6:41 pm From: Thomas Filip <thomasfilip0660...> Subject: Last day of the hawk watch season
Hi everyone,
It’s the last day of the Tussey Hawk Watch season so I just wanted to say
thank you to John, Nick, Matt for letting me stay at his place the past
couple of months, everyone who came up to the mountain, everyone I met at
the bird club, and anyone else who helps make this hawk watch possible. I
really enjoyed meeting and talking to everyone, it made my experience here
a lot more enjoyable. I don’t think I could have asked for a better season
here.
Our big record 80 Golden Eagle day was obviously the highlight of the
season, that will always stick with me, but I wanted to share some of the
other birds and fun experiences that stuck with me as well.
The Tundra Swans that flew over on our big Golden Eagle day at just the
right place to be perfectly illuminated by the sun, which made them shine a
really beautiful bright white like I’ve never seen before.
-
Seeing the Turkey Vultures freak out and hightail it out of the area
whenever they saw a Golden Eagle coming was always funny to me.
-
The pair of ravens that I saw carrying nest material on day one in
February and then eventually carrying food in April almost every day. The
first time we saw it carrying food it had a flying squirrel in its mouth,
which was bizarre but kinda fun to see.
-
Ken spotting a Golden Eagle because I called out a Turkey Vulture, and I
ended up missing the eagle because I was on the vulture.
-
Ken spotting a Peregrine Falcon because Nick called out an Osprey,
thankfully I did not miss this one. I would have been pretty upset as this
was our first of the season and I had been complaining to Nick all April
about not seeing one.
-
Joe Sabo coming all the way from Pittsburg, waiting the whole day to see
a Golden Eagle, and then when his chance came, struggling to get on it and
almost missing it. Nick had to let him use his scope and Joe had to stand
on his tippy toes just to see through it, but he finally got on the bird
before it left. Nick and I were both at our wits end trying to get him on
this bird for what felt like minutes, but we both laughed at the end.
-
Julian’s class coming up one morning, one of the students half heartedly
mumbling “oh there’s some loons”, and I look up to see 20+ loons flying low
directly over us. That kid might not have been excited, but I sure was.
-
The tour group coming up from the Bald Eagle State Park Nature Inn and
getting to see a Golden Eagle right away. I was about a couple minutes into
my talk when Nick spotted it and all eyes were on the eagle after that, and
no one was interested in my talk after that. Nick got a kick out of this
one for a while.
I’m sure there’s more that will come to me later, but these were the best
birds and moments off the top of my head. I’ll undoubtedly be in central PA
for some reason or another, either for birding or maybe even to do another
season at Tussey here, so I hope I get to run into some of you again.
