Cape May Hawk Watch

Bald Eagles by Doyle Dowdell

Cape May, NJ - Ever wonder where the best hawk watching site is in North America? Of course, it’s Cape May!

Each year, tens of thousands of birders from around the world come to see a spectacle that really is tough to match anywhere.

An average of 36,000 hawks are counted from September through November each year by the official Cape May Bird Observatory hawk counter, all from the Cape May Hawk Watch platform in Cape May Point State Park.

Peak flights in late September and early October add up to more than 2,000 or 3,000 birds in a single day.

The total number of hawks counted varies greatly from year to year. Different hawk counters, different weather patterns and an actual variation in the number of birds who successfully make it from nest to migration contribute to the different numbers.

Here are the totals for recent years:

Year	Total
Hawk Watch Count 2010	47,542
Hawk Watch Count 2009	36,929
Hawk Watch Count 2008	25,161
Hawk Watch Count 2007	31,596
Hawk Watch Count 2006	48,617
Hawk Watch Count 2005	32,876
Hawk Watch Count 2004	31,611
Hawk Watch Count 2003	45,196
Hawk Watch Count 2002	35,254
Hawk Watch Count 2001	28,851
Hawk Watch Count 2000	33,736