| 112th Year, 6th Issue | Thursday, September 21, 2000 | Sparta, North Carolina |
Editor's note: The following was written by Jim Keighton, who is the compiler for the Mahogany Rock Hawk Count and the Hawk Migration Association of North America.
Alfred Hitchcock's The Birds has nothing over the real life passage of hawks through Alleghany County every fall. Hawk watchers stationed on Bullhead Mountain or Mahogany Rock overlook at the right hour in mid-September can quickly be surrounded by hundreds of broad-winged raptors as they circle up on rising currents of air on their way to South America.
While maybe not as threatening as Hitchcock's birds, the sight of so many of these broad-winged, sharp-taloned birds of prey actually circling above you is a most awesome experience. Only a few years ago, more than 8,000 of these hawks were seen from Mahogany Rock Overlook at mile post 235 on the Blue Ridge Parkway on a single day (Sept. 20).
While hawk watchers may need a little luck being present for thousands, or even hundreds of birds, one can increase the chances by picking a day sometime between Sept. 12 and 25, a couple days before or after rainy weather to the north of Alleghany County. Good winds blowing against the ridge from either the northwest or the south on a sunny day will add to your good fortune.
If you miss the swarms of hawks, you may still witness other mass migrations. Joining the broadwings, eagles, ospreys, falcons, accipters and other raptors along Alleghany's Blue Ridge are large flocks of blue jays and night-flying neotropical song birds which drop on to the mountain tops at day-break to feed and rest sometimes in large numbers.
These warblers, tanagers and grosbeaks are on their way to winter homes in south and central America. Thousands of delicate Monarch butterflies, making the long passage from Canada to Mexico, also pass over the ridge tops throughout September and into October, demonstrating amazing persistence as they paddle southwest across sometimes 30 mile per hour winds.
Birds and butterflies are not the only migrants along the ridge at this time. Florida-bound travelers stop
Where to view hawks
Suggested hawk watching sites in this county include the following in this county:
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