Cruising the Ridges

     Some days in October of every year, southeastern Pennsylvania, as elsewhere, receives strong, northwest winds and cool temperatures as part of cold fronts, with their clear skies and cold winds, coming through the area.  Every time those winds roar, tearing red and golden leaves from their twig moorings and sweeping them along until they fall to the ground and form crunchy blankets, I am reminded that migrating bald eagles and a variety of hawks, most commonly sharp-shinned and red-tailed, will be following the northeast to southwest running Appalachian Mountains southwest.  Those diurnal raptors are heading south to avoid the northern winter that is "just around the corner".  And the wooded Appalachian Ridges enhance that migration south, with little energy expended on the raptors' parts.
     North and northwest winds get pushed up the northeast to southwest ridges from the pressure of the wind behind, pushing leaves, corn stubble from farmland below, and hawks up with them.  As the wind pushes those birds up, gravity constantly pulls them down.  But when the raptors set their powerful wings just right, they balance the wind and gravity to their advantage and soar above the ridges southwest, mile after mile with little effort.  Raptors need to conserve energy because their food of prey animals are not easy to capture.  
     Sharp-shinned hawks are a bit larger than blue jays and, mostly, power fliers, rapidly flapping their wings, then soaring, then flapping their wings again, alternately, through the day.  And that is the way they migrate along the ridges patterned with autumn leaves in October.  They zip rapidly along those wooded hill tops, alternately flapping and soaring, so quickly that, at first, you don't see them, then there they are in front of you for a second, then they're gone from sight to the rear. 
     Sharpies are exciting to see anytime, but especially on migration.  On some blustery, partly cloudy days of cold, northwest winds, they come down the ridges one right after another so abundantly and rapidly, like feathered rockets, that it is difficult to keep track of them all from the various mountaintop lookouts, particularly on the Blue Ridge or Kittitinny Mountains of Pennsylvania.  Sharp-shins are wild not only in name, but in reality.  They excite the human soul with their quick, powerful flights in wild, autumn skies.
     Red-tailed hawks, being larger than American crows, are majestic in soaring flight.  Migrating red-tails set their large, out-stretched wings on the north wind being pushed up the southwest running mountains and soar elegantly, hour after hour, with little beating of their wings, thereby saving a lot of valuable energy.
     Red-tails are fairly easy to spot in the sky because they are large, with their stately wings spread to their maximum.  And some windy days, especially toward the end of October, they come down the ridges almost one right after another in, almost, a steady parade.  The magnificent red-tails are inspiring to see above ridges of colored foliage under a stormy-looking sky.
     Cumulus clouds enhance the viewing of migrating raptors.  The birds stand out silhouetted, but more clearly, before the white, puffy clouds than they do against the blue sky.  But the various kinds of hawks and eagles can be identified by their shapes, sizes and the way they fly or soar.
     Other kinds of migrant raptors in October are just as inspiring to see as sharpies and red-tails.  Sharp-shins and red-tails just are seen more commonly moving down Appalachian Ridges during autumn. 
     If the reader gets the chance to and has not done so, get on a mountain look out such as Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Berks County, Pennsylvania or Wagoner's Gap along Route 74 between Cumberland County and Perry County, Pennsylvania.  Be there when the cold wind blows strongly from the north or northwest and the forest leaves are turning colors in October to see the wonderful, exciting hawk and eagle migrations.  They are inspiring.