Upcoming raptor-based tours from HMANA, Hawk Mountain and Hawk Watch International

November 5-11, 2013: Golden Days Hawkwatching and Fall Migration Tour  Join HMANA on a tour of select Northeastern hawk watches and Cape May, NJ to witness the spectacle of fall migration. This week-long tour will include the peak period of Golden Eagle and large buteo movement across the Northeast. We will visit locations that capture the rich history of the hawkwatching tradition, enjoy the area’s breathtaking fall colors, and focus on honing our hawk identification skills with our accomplished tour leaders. For more information, please visit: http://www.hmana.org/tours/Golden/

 

April 6-12, 2014: Raptor ID Workshop/Tour at Braddock Bay, NY

The focus of this tour will be sharing raptor ID tips from some of the best hawkwatchers in the country, utilizing both field and classroom components. We’ll also enjoy all the splendor of one of the Great Lakes’ best migrant hotspots at Braddock Bay Hawk Watch and visit raptor and owl banding stations. More info at: http://www.hmana.org/raptor_id_workshop/

 

October 7-12, 2014: Southern Florida: Hawk watching and birding in the Florida Keys and Dry Tortugas

Join us for an exciting birding tour through southern Florida to experience waves of fall migrants and Florida specialties. We’ll spend time at the Florida Keys Hawkwatch during peak Peregrine Falcon migration. The site set a new world record (3,836 Peregrines counted this past fall!). More info at http://www.hmana.org/tours/Florida/

 

 

Experience the Veracruz River of Raptors - the world’s largest hawk migration! Join Hawk Mountain and Pronatura biologists in autumn 2013 for a nine-day tour timed for the peak of Broad-winged Hawk migration, September 27 - October 5. Enjoy hundreds of thousands of migrating raptors and waterbirds and view regional specialities such as aplomado falcon, bat falcon, red warbler, and double-striped thickknees. For more information on the tour:

http://www.hawkmountain.org/events/ecotour-veracruz-mexico-2012/page.aspx?id=2802

 

Join HawkWatch International in a wild west adventure on a mountain-top hawkwatch site! Frontline Science: Spend a weekend banding, counting, and observing the migrating raptors side-by-side with our field crew at either our Goshutes, NV or Manzanos, NM migration sites. Space is limited so visit www.hawkwatch.org for details and registration today.

http://www.hawkwatch.org/news-and-events/latest-news/360-frontline-science

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A Tale of Two Condors Part II

 Antisano National Park, Ecuador.  February 2013.  Elevation 13,000 feet.  Early morning we join David and Jorge near Quito for the drive into the high Andes where we hope to glimpse an Andean Condor as well as numerous paramo specialties.  The landscape changes gradually as we climb, but within a half hour or so we notice a distinct difference in vegetation and the views are spectacular.  We stop at a small restaurant/hosteria where we traipse down a hillside pasture above a crater lake where Andean Teal, Yellow-billed Pintails, and Silver Grebes dabble and dive in the reflections of clouds and surrounding cliffs.  It’s chilly up here, so we don’t linger at the overlook but hurry back for a welcome steaming cup of chocolate.  The proprietors have scopes set up at the windows, and a log book sits on a nearby table where they record sightings of condors.  So maybe we might see one? we ask.  And no sooner are the words out of our mouths when someone exclaims, “Condor! There, above those cliffs!”  And then there are two, and three, and within seconds no fewer than twelve of the giant birds have risen on the updrafts above the escarpment.  

Andean Condor. From National Geographic:  Photograph by Anne Keiser

We can’t believe our good fortune, which was augmented an hour later up on the paramo when three adult Andean Condors soared over our heads low enough that we could see their fluffy white collars with unaided eyes!  And, if that wasn’t enough, later when we stopped back at the hosteria for lunch, we spied an adult male bird perched on a small outcropping on the cliff face across the lake.  While we watched through the scope, it moved to another spot.  “Un Nino! A kid!”  David had zoomed in so we watched in amazement as Papa Condor regurgitated large pieces of dead animal into the offspring’s craw.

California Condor Photograph by Chad Olson, NPS

A couple of weeks later we were in the southern part of Ecuador, where we met Chad Olson and Sophie Osborn from Wyoming.  We birded together for a few days, during which time we learned they are also raptorphiles.  They had both worked on the California Condor Recovery Project, and had wonderful stories about their experiences.  Sophie was awarded the Best Outdoor Writer prize in 2012 for her book  Condors in Canyon Country. She told of watching young California Condors playing with “toys” and of how each bird in the nursery had its own distinct personality. As the four of us discussed our individual experiences with the two species, and the awe we feel when watching, we all agreed that we like “our” condors best.