Hiking at Hawk Mountain

Today was my second annual hike on the AT to Pinnacle along the Kitaniny Ridge to enjoy the outdoors with a friend and catch glipse of hawks in migration. I had high hopes for a good day since the weather prediction were somewhat hopeful and on my way south through NJ on Friday I saw a kettle of about 100 broad-winged hawks. Unfortunately we woke up to intermittent rain, which did slightly clear up. So it was good hiking, a few sprinkles of rain but no hawks - on Pinnacle we were in the clouds with almost zero visibility. Already making plans for next year to catch the broad-wing migration with a hike to Pinnacle.

I'm piggybacking my trip to PA for hawks with a meeting with staff and parents at the Bushkill Elementary School in Nazareth, PA to plan an ecologist-in-residence program for winter. Had a chance to view the school yard for potential environmental education nature walks - plenty of deer tracks, goldenrods with ball galls and monarchs migrating by (they'll be long gone by January).

Right now the monarchs are very abundant - still quite a few caterpillars on milkweeds.