Hawk Mania Hits Key West
By Mark Hedden
Every fall, about 30,000 raptors migrate through the Florida Keys. It’s an amazing natural spectacle that many Keys residents are unaware of and not enough people have seen.
“I love the fact that every time I leave the house this time of year, every time I go to the grocery store or stop to get a con leche, I see a Bald Eagle or a Short-tailed Hawk or a Peregrine,” said Mark Hedden, Executive Director of the Florida Keys Audubon Society.
To raise awareness of this natural phenomenon, the Florida Keys Audubon Society, in partnership with several other nature-oriented groups, will hold two events this week under the title of Hawk Mania.
The first event, at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 15, will be a talk by Jeff Bouton called “Learning to Read the Skies.” The free event will take place at the Key West Garden Club .
“Hawks are at the top of the foot chain. They are an indicator species that can let us know the health of an entire ecosystem. They are dramatic and fun to watch. And just damn cool looking,” said Bouton.
Bouton said he fell in love with hawks about 25 years ago, when they were first pointed out to him as they migrated over his hometown in upstate New York. He was immediately hooked. Since then he has worked as the official counter at Cape May (which is pitching in the big leagues), and he has guided and birded everywhere from Alaska to Trinidad and Tobago to Germany. He has also been a pioneer in the world of digiscoping – the fine art of shooting pictures of birds through telescopes with point and shoot cameras. When he is not chasing birds, he travels around the country as a product specialist for Leica Sport Optics.
“For all these birds, the Florida Keys are the land bridge and launch ramp to the the Caribbean and South America. Being in the Keys is just a spectacular opportunity to see an amazing number of species en masse,” said Bouton.
The second Hawk Mania event will be an all-day hawkwatch at Fort Zachary Taylor on Saturday, October 17 from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. The hawkwatch is free, but there is an admission fee for the park.
Members of the Florida Keys Audubon Society, along with Jeff Bouton from Leica Sport Optics, and Rafael Galvez from the Florida Keys Hawkwatch, will spend the day scanning the skies and pointing out migrating raptors. They will also survey their numbers to compare with the birds passing through the Florida Keys Hawkwatch site in Marathon. Staff from Key West Wildlife Center will also be there with some education birds.
Amongst the 30,000 migrating raptors, about 4,000 of them are Peregrine Falcons, the fastest animal on the planet. More Peregrine Falcons have been counted migrating through the Keys than any other place in the world. Other birds that are likely to be seen are Short-tailed Hawks, Broad-winged Hawks, Cooper’s Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, Merlins, American Kestrels, Ospreys, and Bald Eagles.
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