The Ripley Hawk Watch is located on the south shore of Lake Erie about 60 miles southwest of Buffalo, NY, and 20 miles east of Erie, PA (2 miles east of Ripley and 4 miles west of Westfield). The hawk watch sites are located between the lake shore and the top of the steep escarpment, which is about three miles south of the lake. The site closest to Lake Erie is just west of Shorehaven on Route 5; working south, sites are located on Parker Road (between Route 20 and Barber Road) and Creamery Road (south of Barber Road). Fran Rew and Lois Buck located the Ripley Hawk Watch where the escarpment, the steep ridge running parallel to Lake Erie and defining Lake Erie's prehistoric shore, comes closest to the present shore of Lake Erie. The proximity of the escarpment to the lake narrows and concentrates the migration pathway. Fran and Lois began the affiliation with HMANA, which has lasted until the present day.
The Ripley Hawk Watch is unique in that it has several sites at varying elevations. The Route 5 Site (AKA Site 1) is at 626' above sea level, whereas the Creamery Road site (Site 3) is at 1083'. This site offers stunning panoramic views of Lake Erie and the Canadian shore. Weather conditions determine which of the three primary sites are actively manned by qualified observers. In addition to counting an average of 20,000 raptors per season, this area has among the highest passerine spring nocturnal migration rates documented over the past decade in North America. Recent radar studies showed the number of nocturnal migrants to be 10 times the number found in a radar survey just 60 miles inland at Wethersfield NY, the closest project with radar information available for comparison.
Our season runs from March 15th - May 15th. The Ripley Hawk Watch is seeking more birders to help tally birds across our sites. If you are interested in helping out at the watch or just making a visit feel free to contact us via email (below). We have multiple sites and the site we use varies every day based on weather conditions.
For more information, contact the count coordinator, Devin Banning, at: [email protected].
Directions
The main hawk watch site is on the west side of E. Lake Rd. (Hwy 5) in Ripley, NY.
