What happened to the birds?

[Tango Eight]

I noticed in last five years at New Castle in September that the number of broad wingers seemed down, then way down.  It's easy to notice this when "normal" consists of giant kettles of at least 200 birds.  Didn't get there last year (and it rained all week anyway).  We'll see in a week.

Last three seasons, numbers of soaring birds in VT, NH, ME seemed way off.  This Summer, except for a few (all mature) bald  eagles, there just aren't any.  I can count the number of hawks I've seen on one hand, fingers left over.  What's up with this, anyone know?  Is it wide spread (I think it must be).

Evan Ludeman T8

[Andrzej Kobus]

Wind power generators?

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[Gordon Wingate]

We are right on the Texas Gulf Coast migration flyway for broad wing hawks and the numbers seemed very low last year. I remember kettles of easily a thousand. I curious to see what this year is like. We usually see them here in the second half of September. I love soaring with them

Gordon Wingate

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[David S]

No significant trend, up or down, observed over the last 10 years in the New Castle area.

https://www.rpi-project.org/2019-analysis/

The broad-winged hawk migration is remarkable in that, quite often, most of the birds pass by in a narrow pulse, easily 50% of the entire migration in just a day or two.  That's when you see the big kettles.

Lots of data available from the Hawk Migration Association.

https://hawkcount.org/

An observation site 20 miles west of New Castle is Hanging Rock Tower in Waiteville, WV.  Last year, on September 20, they counted ~3300 BW out of a season total of ~4600.

https://hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=519&ryear=2024&rmonth=09

But Sept. 20 was a no-fly day for the New Castle contest.  Rather odd.  Usually the hawks hunker down on such days and wait for better weather (like any experienced glider pilot).  

In other recent years Hanging Rock did not see a sharp pulse.  Looks most of the BWs came through over 5 days or more, so maybe no large kettles.

Cheers,

   ...david

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[ka...@uplink.net]

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Decline_in_insect_populations

 

https://hawkcount.org/month_summary.php?rsite=109&ryear=2025&rmonth=09&sec=prevs

 

The Hawk Mt numbers going back to 1934 don’t show a marked decline in migrants.

 

But the Oct. 2020 issue Nat Geo featured an all-bug cover with the title: “Insects – You’ll Miss Us When We’re Gone”

 

A decade ago there were always blue birds and tree swallows in the dozen blue bird houses, but this year none.

 

Zillions of cobwebs in the morning dew though.

 

KS

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[Tango Eight]

My observations of concern are all post 2019. 

It looks like complete population collapse of the more common New England buteos. Eagles and vultures are still around. 

T8

[Gordon Wingate]

This is new info to me, thanks! I would be very interested to know when the pulse is coming through the south Texas flyway. Does anybody track this? I've looked at several sites and most are historical data.

Gordon

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[Michael Fadden]

Unrelated to inland birds but the osprey population appears to be taking a hit in Virginia and coastal NJ. The manmade nesting platforms in southern NJ used to be fully occupied. Just a few years ago I counted 21 birds (parents and kids) along a two mile stretch of causeway between the mainland the barrier island where I live. This was at this time of year, just before migration. We'd also see chicks and fledglings throughout the summer while boating. This year the platforms are 50% empty and I haven't seen a single chick. The crash is attributed to overfishing of menhaden bunker, the main food source for the birds and (damn near everything else) around here. Chicks are starving to death in the nest The sport fisherman  blamed the osprey for taking all the flounder resulting in more size/number limits. Meanwhile factory ships offshore are catching every single fish in what used to be vast schools.   Rant over. 

[Thomas Johnson]

Actually, you are correct.  The bird population has decreased by 40 to 60 percent.
The national wildlife federation attributes a signification portion of this decline to
the ramped spread of bird flu.  Studies done here in Oregon confirm this decline.

It is particularly bad in the Junco, chickadee, robin and similar populations.
On the other hand, crows still seem to be doing very well. 

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[Michael Opitz]

https://birdcast.info/

Wx radar bird migration tracker

Mike Opitz

RO

[Hank Nixon]

At New Castle I have seen a few small groups of broadwings migrating on thermals at 7000 feet or so.

No big kettles so far

Also no ridge winds to help migration speed.

UH   

[Gregg Leslie]

Very few broad wings the last 5 days, I also noticed if they don’t seem to thermal in the core of the thermal 

Gregg Leslie N345

802-598-4993

On Sep 15, 2025, at 4:10 PM, Hank Nixon <uncl...@earthlink.net> wrote:

At New Castle I have seen a few small groups of broadwings migrating on thermals at 7000 feet or so.

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[Erik Mann]

One thing about the Broadwings is that a huge percentage come through on one or two days while there are much smaller numbers the rest of the season.   For example,   in a couple of years at Hawk Mt. that I looked at more than 50% of the season total came through on just two days typically in mid-September.      So,  if you're not flying in the right area on those couple of days you can miss a lot of the big kettles.   

[Tango Eight]

Observations at new castle were about what I’ve seen in New England.  Eagles and buzzards doin’ fine, hawks at no more than 5% normal.  The largest group of broad wings I saw was about a dozen birds. 

T8

On Friday, September 12, 2025 at 8:21:20 PM UTC-4 Thomas Johnson wrote:

[David Martin]

Flying at Soaring Club of Houston  Over the last week have flown 5 times.  Have seen hawks mostly broad wings with a few black hawks thrown in.  At least one big kettle of 100+ each day and then a lot of thermals with a dozen or so.  

BV

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[Gordon Wingate]

It said the upload failed so sending as a link. Try to watch on a big screen so you can more. There were easily several hundred. We had fun together!

 broadwing hawk migration.mp4

On Mon, Sep 22, 2025 at 5:33 PM Gordon Wingate <gordon....@gmail.com> wrote:

Yep. I got in a big kettle on Sunday over I-10. Video is attached. Try to watch on a big screen if you can. There were many hundreds. So cool!

G

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[David Baxter]

Post on YouTube it comes through here as postage stamp size. We'd love to see it full screen and resolution.

Regards Dave B 

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[Gordon Wingate]

Good idea, Dave. Here you go:   https://youtu.be/YKRWvTay9OI

Gordon

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