THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, November 6, 1995 TAG: 9511060081
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B2 EDITION: FINAL
SERIES: ECO-ADVENTURES
SOURCE: BY LISE OLSEN, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 57 lines
Way up in the air, a black dot appears to the untrained eye. But sharp-eyed hawk watchers call out its name: ``A merlin!'' ``A broadwing!'' Or, perhaps, ``A kestrel!''
Something in the shape of the bird, its tail or its size reveals the species to raptor fans who gather at Kiptopeke State Park on the Eastern Shore.
The hawk watchers have counted record numbers of migrating falcons, hawks, vultures and other birds of prey passing over Virginia this year.
They watch each day from dawn until dusk from a special observation platform at Kiptopeke, just north of the Chesapeake Bay Bridge Tunnel.
The birds are expected to keep coming through the fall. The platform, open until Dec. 1, is sponsored by the Kestrel Foundation, a nonprofit group founded in 1994 to promote research and public education of bird and insect migration on the Eastern Shore.
Humans watch hawks at several other official stations in Virginia, including a commuter parking lot in Northern Virginia and a Holiday Inn patio at Rockfish Gap, near Charlottesville.
But Kiptopeke is considered one of the best spots to see the birds.
The Eastern Shore acts as a natural funnel for the hawks who are following smaller flocks - their food - south to warmer climates. Nearly all are younger birds, which tend to prefer the coast.
Older raptors seem to stick to the mountains to avoid shore winds that can turn stormy and blow them out to sea, bird watchers say. Volunteers have observed 20 different species at Kiptopeke: falcons, hawks, kites, ospreys and eagles. Some are rare, such as the super swift peregrine falcons and majestic bald eagles. Others, such as the vultures and red-tailed hawk, are common year-round in Virginia.
The species visit at different times. Goshawks and golden eagles are coming more often now. Harriers and kestrels passed in the greatest numbers a few weeks ago.
A lucky observer might see hundreds of the birds gathering high in the sky for the journey south across the Chesapeake Bay. Such groups are called ``kettles.'' They often soar with the winds, higher and higher until they seem to disappear.
Kiptopeke also offers close-ups of the birds: Falcons and hawks often dive at death-defying speeds to attack a pigeon kept as a decoy in the meadow around the platform. But the falcons in Kiptopeke are thwarted by a leather jacket used to protect the pigeon, and then netted by humans who band them as part of a research project.
Once captured, the birds give visitors a look at what some rabbits and birds see in their last moments: the fierce talons and huge eyes of these birds of prey. by CNB