The Eastern Massachusetts Hawk Watch (EMHW):
- Holds regular hawk watches each fall and spring
- Publishes an annual newsletter in August that included reports on the previous spring & fall migrations
- Holds an annual meeting each September that brings leading hawk authorities to Massachusetts
- Promotes education regarding hawk identification and issues related to migrating hawks with publications, classes and watches
- Enhances appreciation for hawks in general and for population trends by species
- Promotes raptor conservation sponsoring or donating funds to promote raptor conservation. We regularly contribute to the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA), which maintains the HawkCount database, and to individual local projects, such as kestrel nesting box programs.
Annual Meeting
An annual meeting, traditionally in suburban Boston in September on the first Friday after Labor Day, enables us to bring in a nationally known speaker to talk to us about hawks. We often also have other short presentations at the meeting, a raffle of raptor materials, and the opportunity to talk with others interested in hawks. It’s a bit like an annual reunion, seeing a lot of old friends and meeting new ones. It starts with a social hour from 6-7:00p.m., including an assortment of snacks and refreshments.
Speakers at our annual meeting include many of the world’s leading raptor authorities: Bill Clark, Pete Dunne, Rob Bierregaard, Todd Katzner, Kate Davis, Bryan Watts, Norm Smith, Tom French, Steve Hoffman, Kevin Karlson, Jeff Dodge, Tom Sayers, and many, many more more. The meetings are free and open to the public. Learn more about this year’s meeting.
Hawk Watches
We organize regular hawk watches each fall and spring at several major, long-term sites:
FALL
- Wachusett Mountain State Reservation, Princeton, MA
- Mount Watatic, Ashburnham, MA
- Pinnacle Rock, Middlesex Fells Reservation, Malden MA
SPRING
- Plum Island Hawk Watch, Parker River National Wildlife Refuge, Newburyport MA
- Pilgrim Heights, North Truro, MA
We encourage beginning hawk watchers to visit any of these sites or to cover other sites of their own choosing as often as possible. We seek volunteers to hawk watch this fall. You don’t have to be an identification “expert” to participate. The best way to learn to identify hawks is to look for them as often as possible during migration, and to do so with experienced hawk watchers, who are always ready to help you identify what you see. We recruit and prepare volunteers to hawk watch from well known sites such as Wachusett Mountain, Mt. Watatic, especially on weekdays, or from any location you’d like to cover, including your own back yard.
Reporting the volume of migrating hawks daily is more important than identifying them all by species. For more information on participating in a hawk watch or on submitting reports of what you see, browse the links on this page or contact EMHW at e.masshawkwatch@comcast.net.
Newsletter
We publish a substantial club newsletter (20 pages) every August sent to every dues-paying member. We do not post the current newsletter on the web site, but you can see several of the recent newsletters here on our site.
Get Involved!
EMHW is always looking for members that are interested in helping with the following:
Web site: Have photos of hawks or of people at any of the sites EMHW covers? Do you have ideas or information that would be helpful to have posted on the web site?
Newsletter: Have an idea/article for the newsletter? Please consider writing a small article for the EMHW newsletter and sending it to us for next year.
Annual Meeting: Interested in helping at the annual meeting? We are always looking for people to help with any number of tasks at the annual meeting. Also we are looking for ideas for guest speakers for next years meeting.
Fall counters and assistants: Interested in helping with this years count at any of the fall sites? Please consider volunteering as a counter or an assistant to one of the lead counters for even one day.
It’s your organization, so please help make it a successful one!
Please e-mail EMHW Leadership at: e.masshawkwatch@comcast.net, we are looking for your input.