Date: 5/14/26 12:09 pm From: Nick Bolgiano <nickbolgiano...> Subject: Tussey Mt hawk watch 2026 season summary
2026 was the 26th full season of the spring hawk watch at Tussey Mt,
staffed daily Feb 25-Apr 27. The watch site is located on the top of Tussey
Mt, the second ridge from the north and west in the western
Ridge-and-Valley physiographic province and near the boundary between
Huntingdon and Centre counties. The watch’s primary focus is monitoring the
spring Golden Eagle migration and so most of this summary is devoted to the
Golden Eagle count.
The 2026 official counter was Tom Filip, from Philadelphia. This was Tom’s
first hawk watching experience and he did an excellent job. The 2026 watch
was conducted on 54 days, with 407 hours of watching. These numbers are
similar to other seasons, so the annual goal of consistent effort across
seasons was attained. Season raptors totals are shown in Table 1.
*Table 1. 2026 season totals and 10-year averages (2016-2025). *
*Species*
*2026*
*10-year average*
*2025 Ranking*
Turkey Vulture
208
194
average
Osprey
52
84
below average
Bald Eagle
88
78
average
Northern Harrier
16
23
average
Sharp-shinned Hawk
93
164
below average
Cooper’s Hawk
26
27
average
American Goshawk
0
0.2
Red-shouldered Hawk
26
36
average
Broad-winged Hawk
578
1074
below average
Red-tailed Hawk
232
273
average
Rough-legged Hawk
2
1
Golden Eagle
224
157
3rd highest
American Kestrel
36
46
average
Merlin
4
6
Peregrine Falcon
1
3
Total
1609
2206
below average
The Golden Eagle is the main focus of our hawk watch for the following
reasons: 1) central Pennsylvania is within the Golden Eagle’s main spring
migratory corridor within the Appalachians and the Eastern Flyway; 2) the
Tussey Mt hawk watch annually counts the most Golden Eagles during the
spring of any Eastern Flyway site, as well as of any North American watch
site east of Michigan; and 3) as we count relatively few of the other
raptor species, especially compared to Great Lakes spring sites, Golden
Eagle is over-represented in the raptor array that migrates through here.
Some of the higher Golden Eagle season totals at Tussey Mt followed winters
that were cold and snowy. Because there was a cold and snowy period during
Jan-Feb, I was optimistic for a good count before the season started. I
believe that when there is considerable cold and snow, many Golden Eagles
move farther south in the Appalachians and they tend to return in a more
compact array. When the winter is mild, I think that the opposite occurs:
many Golden Eagles do not fly as far south and are less compact in space on
their return. (I intend to explore this Golden Eagle-weather connection
more in the future and think that this count-weather connection will
indicate that some recent lower totals are not the result of a population
decline, but were weather-related.)
The 2026 Golden Eagle count of 224 ranked 3rd highest in our 26 years. This
was only the 7th season with 200 or more Golden Eagles and the first since
2015 (Figure 1). They constituted 13.9% of all raptors tallied. How the
season progressed was most interesting.
The February tally of Golden Eagles was nine, which was on the
low-to-moderate side. The only season without any Golden Eagles tallied in
February was 2015, the season when we counted the most, 239. I remember a
lot of snow on the ground to start that season.
March 3-6 were days of rain and fog, during a period when the Golden Eagle
migration typically would have been ramping up. The March 7 watch started
at 1300, when the fog cleared. Winds were strong, at 13-16 mph, from the S.
We counted 27 Golden Eagles that afternoon, while the Allegheny Front hawk
watch (AF) counted 40.
The next day, March 8, we counted 80 Golden Eagles, with the vast majority
(73 of 80) tallied before noon. The wind was light from W (4-7 mph) until
10 and then moderate NW (8-12 mph) with thermals. The Golden Eagles had
been held up for some days and they were ready to go; multiple eagles were
seen together in numerous moments. AF counted 19 this day.
This total of 80 Golden Eagles was a new single-day record not only for
Tussey Mountain but also for Pennsylvania hawk watches (the previous high
was 74 at AF on October 24, 2015). The previous Golden Eagle single-day
record at Tussey Mt was 62 on March 3, 2008. The only higher Golden Eagle
count in PA was a count of 89 by Greg Smith on March 13, 2015 along the
Allegheny Front in Centre County, across from the Bald Eagle Mt-Eagle field
site, that has not been documented in Hawkcount.org or eBird.
There were only two other days in 2026 with double-digit Golden Eagle
totals, 10 each on Mar 13 and 20. Golden Eagles were seen on 37 days, with
totals of 9 in February, 193 in March (3rd-highest March total), and 22 in
April. The cumulative chart shows that the 107 Golden Eagles on March 7-8
put our season tally well ahead of most previous years and only the 2008
and 2015 Golden Eagle totals (225 and 239, respectively) ended ahead of the
2026 total (Figure 2).
The spring hawk watch season functions like two seasons within one: the
first four weeks when we count most of the Golden Eagles, Turkey Vultures,
and Red-shouldered Hawks, plus many of the Bald Eagles and Red-tailed
Hawks; and April, when we count most of the Ospreys, Northern Harriers,
Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, and American
Kestrels. In 2025, the season totals for nine raptor species were above
average, while the 150 Golden Eagles were below average. In 2026, only the
Golden Eagle total was above average, the Osprey, Sharp-shinned Hawk, and
Broad-winged Hawk totals were below average, while the other totals were
average. Much of this is wind dependent. We didn’t experience the same
degree of favorable S/SE winds in April, 2026, as in the previous year.
Thanks to our sponsors, Shaver’s Creek Environmental Center, the State
College Bird Club, and individuals. Also, thanks to Tom’s diligence and
learning ability and to the many people who visited and helped to spot
migrating raptors.
