(8) PILOT MOUNTAIN STATE PARK, Pinnacle
For more than 40 years, members of Audubon Society of Forsyth County have been on hand to observe and facilitate visitors during the fall migration of Broad-winged Hawks and other raptors from Little Pinnacle at Pilot Mountain State Park in Surry County. A few Broad-winged Hawks (or broadwings) breed locally but most nest in the forests of Ontario, Quebec and the northeastern United States. Each fall, they ride the thermals and mountain updrafts along the Appalachian ridges on their way to their winter grounds in Central and northern South America. This year from September 20-30, Pilot Mountain, observers can see these birds and about a dozen other raptor species on their journey south. Sometimes, the birds pass by in small kettles or groups of 5, 10, 30 or so. Occasionally, the kettles include hundreds or even thousands of birds. Typically, 2,000 – 5,000 hawks fly by the mountain each fall. However, on one day in 1993 nearly 11,000 broadwings sailed by. In 2006, observers counted a single kettle of nearly 1,800 birds. Get directions here.
