Get ready for raptors! Hawk Watch on Cadillac Mountain has begun. You’ll find 10 raptor species flying over Acadia’s summits, from the majestic bald eagle to the small but mighty kestrel. As they migrate at this time of year, you have a good chance of spotting them from Cadillac’s North Ridge, where Schoodic Institute’s Bird Ecology Program and the National Park Service run the Hawk Watch initiative every fall, with support from Friends of Acadia.
You can come take part: staff and volunteers count and ID species 7 days a week, 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Weather permitting, interpretation rangers and/or a raptor intern will be giving talks Monday-Friday, 9 a.m.-12 p.m. through mid-October. Drop by anytime during program hours to learn about raptor identification and their fascinating fall migration. A vehicle reservation is required to drive up the Cadillac Summit Road.
We spent over 263 hours monitoring in 2025 and recorded 2826 raptors migrating. That’s an average of 10.7 raptors/hour. If you get extra lucky, you may see dozens more than that: the most we spotted in one day last year was 486 raptors on September 12th! You can view the latest count data at hawkcount.org
“You’ll enjoy the fun of watching and looking and FINDING that next bird” promises Angi King Johnston, Hawk Watch leader. Find out more here: https://schoodicinstitute.org/
See you on Cadillac!
Photos by Catherine Schmitt