How to use it
This chart starts with a
curated subset of species already
selected
— Red-tailed Hawk, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Broad-winged
Hawk, Merlin, and Turkey Vulture, the five
most-counted raptors at this site — rather than all
~26 at once. Use the legend on the right to add or
remove species.
Press Play to animate the count
through each fall migration season from 2000 to
2025, one season at a time. Use
step to move one season at a time,
or drag the scrubber handle to jump anywhere.
Click directly on a year along the
scrubber to pause and reveal that season's
Aug–Nov monthly breakdown.
By default the chart plots each season's
raw counts, which can be noisy
year to year. Switch the toggle above the chart to
Trends to replace those lines with
a straight best-fit line per species — a quick way
to see whether a species is trending up, down, or
flat over the full 2000–2025 record.
Counts span four orders of magnitude between
species, so the chart defaults to a
log scale — this keeps rare species
like Golden Eagle or Gyrfalcon visible as real
trends instead of flat lines near zero. Switch to
Linear above the chart to compare
true-to-scale magnitudes instead.
In the legend, hover a species name
to see its photo, and click the
name to open its full species profile — except for
the Unknown/Other codes and four species (Osprey,
Golden Eagle, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon) that don't
yet have a profile in this dataset; those still plot
with real counts, just without a click-through.
About this data
These counts come from the
Illinois Beach State Park Hawk Watch, on the Lake Michigan shoreline in Lake County,
Illinois — an
all-volunteer effort that has run
every fall season since 2000.
In 1999, Vic Berardi scouted sites across
northeastern Illinois for a viable raptor migration
count and settled on a spot within the state park.
The following year he conducted the first season
with Janice Sweet, Paul Sweet, Bill Wengelewski, and
others — every year since has brought more
volunteers.
- Site Coordinator
- Vic Berardi
- Data Compiler
- Janice Sweet
- Data Analyst
- Paul Sweet
- Count season
- Fall, Aug 25 – Nov 25
This page is a downstream retelling of their
volunteer count data, not a replacement for the
source — see the full
site profile on hawkcount.org
for site history, topography, and directions.
