Looking for a new April adventure? Consider heading up toward Tahneta Pass on the Glenn Highway to join this year’s annual Gunsight Mountain hawk watch. The main event is April 19-20 and features talks by pro birders, hawk counts, and a potluck barbecue. Last year, says Mr. Whitekeys of Anchorage Audubon, observers counted over 250 raptors in one day, although thousands of hawks transit the area each spring.

“This is a spectacular event,” says Whitekeys. “It’s an almost eight-week parade of hawks.” Whitekeys first attended in the 1990s and was “immediately hooked.”

Mat-Su Birders and Anchorage Audubon host the annual event celebrating the return of migratory hawks and eagles to interior Alaska, which peaks in mid-April. They include bald and golden eagles and over five species of hawks, including many Harlan’s red-tailed hawks. It’s been a popular spot to watch raptors since the 1970s and is now the northernmost International Hawk Watch count site.

“It’s unique among hawk-watching sites in the U.S.,” says Whitekeys. He explains that the snowy landscape reflects sunlight upward at the raptors, who travel the local winds by soaring with outstretched wings. “Lit from the bottom, you can see all their feathers and markings.”

The site is at a highway pullout 120 miles northeast of Anchorage. At 3,000 feet, expect snow on the ground and possibly cold temperatures. Raptor viewing tends to get better in the afternoons as rising thermals develop. Pinched between the Chugach and Talkeetna mountains, with nearby peaks up to 10,000 feet high, the area is a transition between the Cook Inlet and Copper River basins. Nearby lodging includes Sheep Mountain Lodge and the Eureka Roadhouse.