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Merrimack Valley & Lowlands · Concord

Carter Hill Orchard Raptor Observatory

A hawk watch you can bird from a platform with a doughnut, ten minutes from downtown Concord.

Carter Hill is the accessible counterpart to Pack Monadnock — lower, easier to reach, and set among apple trees on a hill northwest of Concord with a wide view north and west toward the mountains. NH Audubon runs a full-season count here too, and the totals are substantial: the same September Broad-winged flight, the October mix of accipiters and falcons, late-season Red-tails and eagles.

Because it’s low and surrounded by edge habitat, the platform is also good for non-raptor migration — swallows and Chimney Swifts early, Blue Jays and blackbirds streaming over, sparrows and finches in the hedgerows, Common Nighthawks some late-August evenings.

The site has also hosted public Northern Saw-whet Owl banding demonstrations in October — check NH Audubon’s calendar. It’s one of the few realistic ways to see that bird in the state.

Target birds here

Black-capped ChickadeeYear-round resident, every countyPurple FinchState bird since 1957. Breeds statewide in conifers; numbers swing year to year with the cone cropDark-eyed JuncoBreeds in the mountains and North Country; floods the whole state as a winter feeder birdAmerican GoldfinchYear-round resident; flocks wander widely in winterNorthern CardinalYear-round resident; still slowly expanding north and up in elevationBlue JayYear-round resident; big visible migration along ridges and the coast in fallWhite-breasted NuthatchYear-round resident in deciduous and mixed woods statewideTufted TitmouseYear-round resident, southern and central NH; still expanding northwardDowny WoodpeckerYear-round resident, every habitat with trees, statewideMourning DoveYear-round resident statewide; more numerous in the southAmerican RobinAbundant breeder statewide; a variable number stay all winterAmerican CrowYear-round resident statewide; forms large winter roosts, some in city centresBroad-winged HawkCommon woodland breeder May–August; near-total departure in a tight September windowSnow BuntingWinter visitor, October to March, coast and open country; does not breed in NHCommon NighthawkScarce and declining breeder; a reliable, concentrated migrant in late AugustNorthern Saw-whet OwlUncommon breeder in northern and montane forest; a heavy, mostly invisible migrant in October

See Carter Hill Orchard Raptor Observatory on the migration map →