Last weekend, I drove up to Pennsylvania to go birding at Hawk Mountain with Sara (one of my friends from GIAL) and her sister, Laura. Sadly, we didn’t see many birds other than Turkey Vultures and Black Vultures (apparently Fall is the best time to go), but we still had a great time. For the hike up, we used a 4ish mile section of the Appalachian Trail instead of the short, boring, and non-free trail that the Hawk Mountain folks set up. It felt great to really get out in nature after my daily routine of battling traffic and then working in a room without windows.

After we had our fill of hanging out at the main lookout point, we used the easy trail to make our way back to the Hawk Mountain Visitor Center in time for a really interesting presentation about raptors (the birds, not the Jurassic Park variety). We even got to see a Red-tailed Hawk and a Great Horned Owl up close!

Naturally, the (not very impressive) trip list is up on Birdstack: Hawk Mountain Trip List.

During the trip, Laura’s friends graciously let me use one of the beds in their college apartment. It felt really strange to be back on a college campus, hanging out with college students. I hope that doesn’t mean I’m turning into a normal, boring person.

Sara will be moving to Papua New Guinea in August and has a blog where she’ll be detailing all her adventures: By Faith, Sara…. Go read it!

Some more pictures from the trip