By Insider Staff - Sep 20, 2016 | 1 comment

It’s raptor migration season, and the N.H. Audubon is doing its part to add a couple more birds to the flock heading south.

On Sunday, two raptors (exact species to be determined) will be released to the wild from the observatory deck at Carter Hill Orchard with the expectation that they’ll join lots of other birds heading for South America.

“It’s such a miraculous occasion to see these birds get another chance,” said Phil Brown, director of land management at the Audubon.

Although, initially they might just fly to a tree and hang out.

This is the ninth year that the Audubon has been using the Carter Hill observation deck to track and count raptors. And they’re once again working with Wings of Dawn out of Henniker, which will be providing a pair of birds that were either injured or abandoned as young.

Starting as early as 9 a.m., you can head over to Carter Hill and just watch for raptors migrating with an Audubon naturalist and in the afternoon hours is when the structured fun begins.

There will be a live raptor from the Audubon on hand that people can visit with and learn about. You can take a bird walk in the orchard, and of course look for birds, as well as workshops for raptor identification and binocular use.

The event is free and the release will take place at 4 p.m. And Brown suggests getting there early.

“We’ve had up to 300 people watching,” he said.

Just an FYI, rain or fog could cancel the release.

The release is being held on the final day of International Hawk Migration Week.

Can’t make it Sunday? Go to Carter Hill any day, between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. through early October to watch the migration with an Audubon naturalist.

“It’s quite a migration,” Brown said.

For more info, visit the Audubon Facebook page.

Insider staff