Rosalie the Hawk Finds her Way back to the A.T.

On February 1, Rosalie, an adult female broad-winged hawk tagged in summer 2016 at Hawk Mountain and sponsored by the Kittatinny Coalition, moved slightly north of her southern Peru wintering site and lingered for 10 days. By mid-February, she started moving in earnest, heading north toward Colombia. She then flew south in the fall and, in late March, she arrived in Panama and continued on to Mexico. Soon after, she flew past the Veracruz River of Raptors site along the Gulf of Mexico and continued into Texas in early April. Following the Appalachians foothills north, she crossed Virginia on April 22, passing just west of Washington, D.C. and arrived just southwest of Hawk Mountain in Gamelands 106 on April 25th where she spent the evening. Her final hop over the mountain into her territory in the lower River of Rocks occurred on April 26th when her transmitter signaled from near the Appalachian Trail corridor — “home sweet home” — after 85 days of travel from southern Peru to Hawk Mountain Sanctuary on the Kittatinny Ridge in eastern Pennsylvania. The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary field team is ready to find out if she will reunite with her mate from last year and build a new nest. Rosalie was named for Rosalie Edge, the founder of Hawk Mountain and a passionate conservationist. Edge founded Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in 1934 to stop the shooting of birds of prey and worked tirelessly to achieve legal protection for raptors throughout the 1940s and 1950s. Hawk Mountain has grown into a world-renown raptor conservation organization with full-time programs in conservation science and education. Hawk Mountain manages a 2,500-acre sanctuary adjacent to the Appalachian Trail in Kempton, Pennsylvania, with eight miles of trails open to visitors daily. It works closely with the Appalachian Trail Conservancy and others to conserve the Kittatinny Ridge corridor for migrating raptors.

To learn more about Hawk Mountain Sanctuary visit: hawkmountain.org

To track Rosalie’s current location — available in August after nesting season ends — and track other raptors’ journeys visit: hawkmountain.org/birdtracker