Smith Point Hawk Watch

One of the great spectacles in nature is a sky full of swirling raptors soaring their way to Central and South America for winter. Smith Point on the eastern shore of Galveston Bay is a natural concentration point for southwardly moving raptors in fall migration. At the peak of fall migration, it’s not unusual to see thousands of Broad-winged Hawks, the most numerous species that migrates through Smith Point, on a single day. The Smith Point Hawk Watch was originated as an all-volunteer, part-time effort in 1992. In 1997, the Gulf Coast Bird Observatory in partnership with Hawk Watch International and the Texas Parks & Wildlife Department instituted a full-time, 3-month annual census of the raptors migrating through Smith Point each fall. In 2011 we expanded the count to 3.5 months to capture the early Swallow-tailed Kite migration.

From August 15 through November 30, the Hawk Watch is held daily at the Candy Abshier Wildlife Management Area where GCBO has a 30-foot observation tower. The hawk watch is staffed daily from 8:00 am to 4:00 PM CDT. You are invited to come out any day during the season.

GCBO’s Smith Point Hawk Watch is celebrating its 29^th year of raptor monitoring in 2025. On October 11 from 10:00am -1:00pm, we will be hosting our Smith Point Hawk Watch Celebration at the hawk watch. There will be food, drinks, a raptor presentation, and hopefully some live raptors on display. And, as always, plenty of raptors soaring through the sky! Our staff and volunteers will be manning the tower, monitoring the birds and pointing them out to guests. Visitors will be able to look through scopes and binoculars and see the migration up close. Come celebrate 29 years of research and conservation with us this fall!   For more info visit www.gcbo.org or call us at 979-480-0999.