Another Successful Season for Raptorthon

In this photo, a Raptorthon team consults their Sibley Field Guide during an event led by Larry Harris at Plymouth Lake in Stillwater, NJ.

A big congratulations is in order to all those who participated in and contributed to this spring’s Raptorthon Challenge. It was a great success! Nine teams from across five states and Canada took part in their own one day events between March 1 - May 31. Some teams braved chilly winds and rain while others basked in sunshine as they helped raise money for raptors. And it was well worth it.

A total of $6,490.00 was raised during our spring event which will all benefit raptor research and conservation in various ways.
Here’s the breakdown:
$1,633.00 was distributed to participating watchsites or conservation organizations
$2,596.00 was allocated for HMANA programs like managing HawkCount.org and the Raptor Population Index Project
$2,261.00 was issued to our new HawkWatch Fund for watchsite support

Every dollar raised for the HawkWatch Fund during Raptorthon this spring was matched by the HMANA board. That means we now have $2,261.00 to put towards our annual grant for watchsite assistance! Whether it’s educational materials and displays, construction and maintenance of viewing platforms, hiring hawkwatchers, or purchase of equipment, this grant is designated to provide a helping hand to the watchsite community.

On behalf of HMANA, I’d like to thank all the individuals and teams who participated and/or contributed in the Spring Raptorthon Event. Whether you supported a participant for $5.00 or $500.00, or whether you organized a picnic event or an intensive 24hr race for the most species, it all helped us achieve our goal to raise funds and awareness for raptor monitoring and conservation. It is a continuous challenge finding funding for long-term raptor monitoring programs which are vital to conservation efforts, so thank you. We hope you’ll join us in making this event even more of a success again next spring.

If you’d like to read more about HMANA’s Raptorthon results, you can find team summaries and photos at www.hmana.org/raptorthon.