Join us for our February Lunch & Learn as we welcome Nick Bolgiano to talk about Golden Eagle migration through PA!
Wednesday, February 11, 2026 – 12pm eastern
For most raptor species that migrate through Pennsylvania, the highest concentrations of
migrants are seen in the southeast, especially along the Kittatinny Ridge, where the Hawk
Mountain and Waggoner’s Gap hawk watches are located. An important exception to this rule
is the Golden Eagle, for which the western corridor fall migration corridor through Pennsylvania
hosts the highest volume of migrants. As much as 2-3 times as many Golden Eagles use this
route compared to the eastern fall corridor through Pennsylvania, which includes the Kittatinny
Ridge.
Six seasons of data from the Bald Eagle Mountain-Eagle Field hawk watch provide a missing
piece in describing the Golden Eagle’s western fall corridor through Pennsylvania, as well as
through Pennsylvania as a whole. Route data from telemetered eagles and hawk watch data on
numbers, ages, and timing of flights from select watch sites give an overall coherence to the
Golden Eagle’s fall migration through the state.
Nick Bolgiano is a life-long birder from State College, Pennsylvania. He worked for 23 years at
Minitab Statistical Software, first as a software tester and then as designer of graphics. He has
been a hawk watcher for the last 31 years at Stone Mt and Tussey Mt in central Pennsylvania.
He came to believe that the fall Golden Eagle migration along Bald Eagle Mt north of State
College was one the biggest missing pieces in our understanding of the Golden Eagle’s Eastern
Flyway dynamics. In 2019, he teamed with Jon Kauffman of Shaver’s Creek Environmental
Center to conduct a one-season hawk watch on Bald Eagle Mt. In 2025, the sixth season fall
watch season happened there and now we have that missing piece.
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