One of the greatest spectacles on earth is the North American hawk migration, which occurs both in the spring and fall. Some hawk watch sites (like Rockfish Gap) are fall only, some are spring only, and a few count both migrations. We’ve recently updated our data to help you determine when the best time is to see certain raptor species at Rockfish Gap in the fall.
The graphs below map out the migration timeframe of each raptor species as the average number of raptors per day. The blue graphs show individual species. As you can see, peak migration differs with each species. The early migrants are in the first column (peaking in Sep), mid-season migrants are in the middle column (peaking in Oct), and the late migrants are in the right column (peaking in Nov).
The orange graph shows all raptors combined; with a large peak in Sep due to the huge number of Broad-winged Hawks (comprising 85% of the total annual raptor count). However, if Broad-wings are removed from the total (green graph), you can then see that there are high numbers of other raptors that migrate all season long (largely from the 2nd week of Sep to 3rd week of Nov).
