Community Corner

Enjoy Prime Hawk, Eagle Viewing Days Coming Up

Bridgewater's Washington Valley Park Hawk Watch area will offer a front-row seat to migrating raptors.

Each week, we’ll tell you about one great idea to give you a much deserved break, and make your life a little easier, maybe a whole lot easier.

From now until the end of November, you can enjoy a great escape at the Washington Valley Park Hawk Watch Area, off Vosseller Avenue at the end of Miller Lane in the Martinsville section of Bridgewater.  An overlook, accessible via by a short hike on a trail, will give an unobstructed view of skies and the birds. 

The area hosts hundreds of hawk watchers from all over the northeastern United States who gather to witness the thousands of hawks, falcons, and eagles flying overhead, sometimes just over the treetops. 

Grab your binoculars, spotting scope and camera, and enjoy the raptors as they soar. The area will be rife with endangered and threatened birds, such as Ospreys, Peregrine Falcons and Bald Eagles, as they journey south to far away places in Central and South America.

This weekend may be an ideal time for hawk watching: following a cold front such as the one expected later this week, shifting winds set the stage for a day of effortless flight by the birds. When the condition occurs in mid-September while the Broad-winged Hawk migration is at its peak, more than 10,000 raptors can be seen in a single day. 

Don't be surprised to find yourself surrounded by fellow raptor-philes, calling out the names of the various species as they pass overhead.

Information on this and other Somerset County Park Commission events may be found on the commission's website


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