Bird counters track eagles, hawks, other raptors

SCHELLSBURG - Thanksgiving isn't just a day for eating turkey with loved ones.

Bird enthusiast Tom Dick of Central City, Somerset County, will spend at least part of the holiday atop an edge of the 2,850 foot high Shaffer Mountain.

Dick's binoculars will hang from around his neck. He will peer upward and over the valleys below, hoping to spot one of the nearly 20 species of raptors that soar the skies around him. He will have a notebook in his pocket to document his finds.

The site on the border of Bedford and Somerset counties is the best place for bird monitoring in western Pennsylvania and perhaps the entire East Coast, Dick said Wednesday.

The public can visit the site anytime the blue gate at the end of the dirt lane is open. The monitoring road is off of Lambert Mountain Road, just a few miles off of Route 96.

Thousands of visitors from across the United States follow the narrow gravel road to a convenient parking lot and open area where bird watchers perch atop the grassy edge of the mountain. They peer through spotting scopes over the towns of New Paris and landmarks like Blue Knob mountain, the vineyards of Helixville and the lake at Shawnee State Park.

Nicknames like "Volcano," "Whale" and "Saddle" are given to different ridges in the distance for determining exactly where the birds were spotted.

Dick and other volunteer counters spend entire days at a time on the mountain from mid-August through mid-December. Scouts, bird clubs and college ornithology classes frequent the ridge to take part in the watching and monitoring.

They keep track not only of weather conditions, such as wind speed and direction and visibility, that would affect the birds of prey's flight patterns but also the number and kinds of species seen floating by gracefully.

"There's a lot of dynamics that take place in the air above," Dick said. "There's dynamics you'd never know until you took the time to understand them."

A good wind from the East will bring many birds, while only 11 birds - including two golden eagles - appeared on an overcast, still day like Wednesday. About 20 golden eagles were seen on Monday.

Anywhere from 6,000 to 18,000 unique birds are seen each year by as many as 60 to 80 people who crowd the location on a favorable watching day.

"The main thing is data," Dick said. "But education is a big part of it."

Information gathered by the Allegheny Front Hawk Watch, part of the Allegheny Plateau Audubon Society, is shared with the Hawk Migration Association of North America.

Rosemary McGlynn of Johnstown began spying for birds about eight years ago and still doesn't take the beautiful view for granted.

"An exciting day is a day with close birds," McGlynn said. "It's usually relaxing but when there are a lot of birds flying, it's pretty exciting."

McGlynn and Tony Barle, who has been coming to the site for about 15 years, both love seeing up close one of the eagle varieties.

"When you can see that big yellow beak of a bald eagle without binoculars, you know you're pretty close," said Barle, who travels about two hours from the Pittsburgh area at least once a week.

The golden eagles are a majestic sight, Dick said, bragging about the 3 foot tall birds with as much as a 10-foot wingspan.

"They're pretty dramatic," he said.

Golden eagles and other species are in danger if a proposed Shaffer Mountain wind project by Gamesa Energy USA is constructed, bird supporters said.

"If they put wind turbines up, golden eagles are pretty dumb and can't avoid them," Dick, an opponent of the project, said. "It's the wrong ridge to put them up."

Gamesa has relocated wind turbines for other proposed wind farm projects such as Sandy Ridge Wind Farm in Snyder Township, Blair County. Every effort was being made to limit turbine impacts on birds that migrate along the ridge top routes, a Gamesa spokesman previously said about the Sandy Ridge project.

One piece of the giant puzzle of biodiversity can be found on Shaffer Mountain, Dick said.

"Raptors are an indicator of the health of the environment, of humans, too," he said.