Saturday's blue sky and calm winds were a challenge for the 16th annual Migration Festival at the Lehigh Nature Gap Center's early morning hawk count.

"That's the way nature is," said center Director Dan Kunkle."Hawks like wind, so calm wind and blue skies, you won't see many hawks. But people did get an introduction to the Bake Oven Knob, so now they know what to look for and where to go."The mountain overlook on the border of East Penn is the location for the annual migration count of hawks and monarch butterflies heading to Mexico for their winter season."We caught seven butterflies this morning. It was up from last year," he said.Kunkle said the Monarch butterfly population has taken a major hit over the years due to invasive-imported plant species like the "butterfly bush.""It's basically like sugar water and they need nectar. Pesticides and herbicides are the biggest culprit though. They thrive on milkweed and people spray them."Kunkle said new activities and organizations joined the festival this year to educate the public.The Wildlands Conservancy naturalist Brandon Swayser brought three feathered friends for a show-and-tell.Red-tailed hawk Nittany was the first bird to wow the crowd. The bird of prey was blinded in his left eye, leaving him at a disadvantage in the wild before finding his home at the conservancy. The 3-year-old can live to be 30 and feeds on rodents and small creatures."Red-tail hawks have a red band of feathers across their belly and weigh up to three pounds," Swayser said."They are very opportunistic in the wild and will eat roadkill and even snakes," he said."They distract the snakes with their wings and then bite their heads."Hawks are distinguishable in the sky by the shape of their wings. Swayser said vultures have a V-shaped wing while hawks have a straight wing span that can reach up to 4 feet across.A barred owl named Remmey was the next bird to perch on the gloved hand of Swayser."He's an old man. He is 20. They are barred owls because of the bars of feathers across their chest."Swayser said the large bird is mostly nocturnal and navigates with a strong sense of hearing."They are covered in down feathers. It makes them fluffy and silent when flying. They have a facial disk to help distinguish sounds while hunting."The bird of prey will eat whatever it can find, including frogs and rodents. Itwill make a home in crevices or occasionally steal a smaller bird's nest. The measure of its wings is used to determine if it is male or female as female owls are larger.Swayser told the crowd that crows tend to fight large birds of prey."Owls stand their ground. They will sit still until there are nearly 100 crows flying at them." Though the fluffy feathered flyer looks wise, Swayser said large birds tend to be birdbrains and never learn their names at the conservancy. "They aren't people so they don't have personalities, but they all have different definers. Nittany is very chill and calm, Remmey is cranky."First-time center visitors Daniel and Stephanie Clark brought their children to hike the nearby D&L Trail and just happened to stumble onto the festival.The Palmerton residents said their children, Arianna and Alexander, enjoyed the festival, saying Remmey was Arianna's favorite bird on display."The festival was great. The kids loved the snakes and they held them for a while," Stephanie Clark said.Anais Martinez, an employee of the center who was in charge of the caterpillar table, said this year's event was well-attended."We got a lot of people. There was a lot of interest in the caterpillars," she said.Martinez showed off a helix sphinx caterpillar and a hickory horned devil."The devil was the favorite," she said.Program specialist Chad Schwartz said he tapped the center's members for music and demonstrations."We wanted to showcase the members' talents," he said.Frizz and Belva Williams played music in the early morning with several different instruments."They played woodwinds and strings and an accordion.John Gallagher brought his lathe to the festival, where he turned wooden bowls and vessels that he sold during the afternoon. All proceeds from his creations were donated to the center. Gallagher says his inspiration comes from the fallen tree materials."I start turning it and then it does what it wants to do," he said."Holly is a very white wood and it turns like butter. Locust is great for furniture and fires."Kunkle said there will "absolutely" be a Migration Fest in 2018."We are trying to convey information about the local ecology," he said of the festival."It's a celebration of Appalachian Mountain ecology and migration."