Hawk Mountain, PA, Delaware
Bayshore & Cape May, NJ
September 20-28, 2023
Your place on this Venture is reserved when your completed registration form and deposit of $300 per person has been received. Deposit may be made via the ‘book now’ button above, or by contacting the Ventures office. We accept credit cards for an additional fee (2.9% for MC, Visa, Discover; 3.9% for AmEx), but you may also pay by bank transfer, cash, check, or money order (payable to ‘VENTURES BIRDING’) sent to PO Box 1095, Skyland, NC 28776. This Venture is limited to 8 participants.
Cost of Hawk Mt/Cape May Venture $2,975 from Philadelphia based on double occupancy (Single supplement $525) Price includes: All transportation and accommodation, all meals, admission fees, information packet & bird checklist, and guide/leader service throughout. Not included: Transportation to Philadelphia, alcoholic beverages, and items of a personal nature.
In the fall, thousands of migrating raptors, representing as many as 18 different species, stream along the ridges of the Appalachian Mountains or down the Atlantic coast on their way south. Straddling eastern Pennsylvania’s Kittatinny Ridge is Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a 2,380-acre preserve established in 1934 as the world’s first refuge devoted to birds of prey. The sanctuary’s North Lookout, a 1,521-foot high rocky promontory, provides a spectacular panorama of the Appalachian ridges and valleys, and, depending on wind patterns, often affords close-up views of raptors gliding along Hawk Mountain’s unique ridge topography.
Cape May, New Jersey, at the tip of a peninsula between Delaware Bay and the Atlantic Ocean, is another premier raptor viewing site and is famous for its songbirds as well. While traveling between these two birding “hot spots,” we will visit Bombay Hook National Wildlife Refuge on Delaware Bay, to see waterfowl, waders, and shorebirds, and take the ferry across the bay from Lewes, Delaware to Cape May. Late September and early October brings the greatest variety of raptor species, not to mention a very good passerine migration, and the bonus of crisp, cool fall weather and colorful autumn leaves.
Some of the Birds We Hope to See
Raptors, including Sharp-shinned Hawk, Cooper’s Hawk, Broad-winged Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Merlin, American Kestrel, Osprey and Northern Harrier, Bald Eagle; and a large number of resident and migrating passerines, such as Scarlet Tanager, 15+ species of Warbler, Several Vireos, waterfowl, waders, and shorebirds – all in all, a great selection of birds along the Eastern coast of North America.