From Bounty Hunting to Bird Sanctuary: How Hawk Mountain Became the World’s First Raptor Refuge: And what happens next

Perched along a ridge in eastern Pennsylvania, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary near Kempton holds a distinction no other site on Earth can claim: it was the first place ever established specifically to protect birds of prey. Spanning 2,600 acres of forest, rocky outcroppings, and elevated lookouts, the sanctuary draws visitors each fall who watch thousands of hawks, eagles, and falcons ride the wind along the ridge — sometimes close enough to make direct eye contact. But the story behind that spectacle begins not with conservation, but with a government bounty and a firing line.

In 1929, Pennsylvania offered cash payments to hunters who shot goshawks, drawing gunners to the ridge where they killed migrating raptors by the hundreds, leaving piles of dead birds at the very overlooks where visitors now gather to watch the migration. Photos of the slaughter made their way to a New York activist named Rosalie Edge, who responded decisively. In 1934, she leased 1,400 acres of the mountain, hired wardens to drive off the hunters, and transformed the killing grounds into a protected sanctuary. That lease laid the foundation for what Hawk Mountain is today. The official fall count, which runs August 15 through December 15 annually, tallies an average of around 18,000 raptors. September sees the heaviest traffic, with some single days recording more than 3,000 birds. The best conditions arrive on cool days following a cold front, when northwest winds accelerate the migration. Bald eagles open the season in mid-August, followed by ospreys and American kestrels, then broad-winged hawks streaming past in mid-September. October offers the widest variety, with up to 16 raptor species sharing the sky on a single day, and red-tailed hawks along with a second bald eagle wave carry the season into late fall. The one-mile Lookout Trail climbs from the visitor center to North Lookout at 1,521 feet, where official counters announce each species aloud as it crosses overhead. Views from the top extend up to 70 miles across ridgelines and farmland. For visitors who prefer gentler terrain, the 900-foot Silhouette Trail is wheelchair and stroller accessible, lined with life-size raptor cutouts, and leads to South Lookout. Below that overlook lies the River of Rocks, a boulder field nearly a mile long and up to 400 feet wide, shaped by repeated Ice Age freeze-thaw cycles, with a stream still flowing invisibly beneath the stones each spring.

“What started as a rescue mission for a handful of hunted hawks turned into a model that sanctuaries around the globe now copy,” according to the sanctuary’s own description of its legacy — one backed by the longest continuous record of raptor migration counts anywhere in the world.

Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is located at 1700 Hawk Mountain Rd. in Kempton, Pennsylvania, and opens daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. with a modest admission fee. Beyond the fall migration spectacle, the site draws visitors in every season — spring wildflowers and returning songbirds, summer butterflies and hummingbirds, and winter’s stark, crowd-free ridge views. More than 235 bird species have been recorded at or near the sanctuary across all four seasons. Weekend programs during spring and fall migration bring live raptors out for up-close viewing, and guided walks and nature talks run throughout the year. Every admission purchase directly supports the research and education programs that have made Hawk Mountain a global model for raptor conservation — one still actively building on nearly a century of unbroken science.