Hawk Migration Notes

HawkCount Now and Forever

2011-11-03T12:54:00.000-07:00

How important is HawkCount.org to you? Do you enter data to HawkCount during the migration season? Do you use it to find local sites or to stay up to date with what’s been seen at watchsites in your region or across the continent? How about the site profile pages detailing site descriptions, history and directions. Or maybe you enjoy viewing the watchsite stats like record days, max season counts and timing tables. HawkCount has a lot to offer and we know it’s a valuable resource to the hawkwatching community. But this free service takes a lot of effort to maintain which is why HMANA has launched a fundraiser this fall to help maintain and improve the database.

HawkCount.org requires constant effort to physically maintain servers, develop and improve functionality, create and update content, transfer data from paper to electronic form, implement elaborate curatorial procedures for archiving, backing up and releasing existing data, and to enhance the reports that users can obtain from it, among many other tasks. Not all of this work can be done by volunteers and costs are incurred by HMANA to maintain and improve the system.

And so we’re asking for help from the raptor enthusiasts that use and rely on it, YOU! HawkCount.org is largely your site! HMANA provides the framework, but you and your fellow hawk watchers count the hawks, enter the data, and view the results. Without your
contributions and interest there would be no HawkCount.
There are two ways to donate to HawkCount. You can sponsor a watchsite’s profile page or you can make a flat donation. Please visit www.HawkCount.org for more details.
Thank you so much to everyone who has contributed to Fund-raising Month in October! As of October 31, we have registered 26 site page sponsorships on 22 sites, and have raised over $3,000! This is a wonderful and welcome contribution to HawkCount costs and is much
appreciated.

Because we were off to a slow start at the beginning of October, we have extended “Fund-raising Month” until November 15 to give everyone extra time to help meet HawkCount’s immediate
fund-raising target of $5000. This includes keeping the Accipiter level sponsorships at the minimum $50 rate until November 15. After that, it will return to $100.

We hope you will help us reach our targets for HawkCount Fund-raising Month. Thank you for your support and for making the largest migration monitoring database in the world a success!

Fall Migration - September in New York

2011-10-25T09:13:00.000-07:00

It’s seriously starting to look as though I won’t finish reporting on September’s raptor migration before the end of October. I’m sorry. I’m writing as fast as I can.

Today, we will examine the New York results for September. New York is perhaps better known as a good place for spring flights, but they have a good variety of fall flights and sites, too.

Going alphabetically I’m starting with Chestnut Ridge in Bedford. Congratulations! Chestnut Ridge set a September record in 2011 with 14,959 raptors counted. The site counted 12,915 Broad-winged Hawks and had two excellent days of 4-digit counts for that species. The best was September 17 with 9655 and the second best was the day before with 2595. Osprey, Cooper’s Hawk, Merlin and Peregrine Falcon also set September records. The American Kestrel result of 224 was in the middle of the 7 years of data.

Fire Island didn’t do as well. Despite a strong number of counting hours in 2011, the results were the second lowest of the 9-year history of data in HawkCount with just 656 raptors counted. American Kestrel numbers were abysmal at the site with just 378, also the second lowest result. The lowest result was 212 in 2003 but that year the number of hours tallied in September was about a third of those in 2011. All other species were also counted in low numbers, so this time around the kestrel’s low count doesn’t stand alone. Better luck next year!

Franklin Mountain, Oneonta, had a better than average September, if not an overall record-breaking month. Sharp-shinned Hawk did top the list for the best September ever in 23 seasons there, with 232. The previous high September sharpie count of 231 was in 2007. Merlin and Peregrine Falcon also set September records, the merlin with 22 (previous high 18 in 2003) and the big falcon with 14 (previous high 13 in 2006). The little kestrel posted an above average result.

Hook Mountain counters and watchers are no doubt beside themselves with excitement after 2011. Not only did the site post a September record, it shattered the previous record into teeny, tiny little pieces. When all was said and counted, a total of 17,595 raptors were counted, of which 16,003 were Broad-winged Hawks. The best day by more than a long, long shot was September 17 with 14,670 broadwings. What’s interesting here is that the second “best” day was September 16 with just 1072 counted. No other day even approached 100 broadwings. Other species fell into the normal range for the most part, though Merlins set a record with 37 as did Red-shouldered Hawk with 16.

Lenoir Wildlife Sanctuary in Yonkers had a slightly below average September with a total of 861 raptors counted. Still, there were compensations—an early Golden Eagle on September 16 was pretty nice, and record September counts for Black Vulture and Red-shouldered Hawk.

Marine Nature Study Area in Oceanside had a down year, despite a strong number of observation hours. Observers there counted 120 raptors, of which slightly more than half were Osprey. The site almost set a September record with Peregrine Falcon, with a count of 40; they missed tieing the record by 1 falcon.

Mount Peter in Warwick had a strong September, if not a record-breaking season. Of course, with more than 20 years of data, record-breaking months don’t come around every year. By my perusal, Mount Peter’s September 2011 was its sixth best, with 8115 raptors counted, 7360 of them Broad-winged Hawks. They had three good days of Broad-winged Hawk flights. The best was September 18 with 2170, but both September 17 and September 19 produced counts over 1000 broadwings. Peregrine Falcon set a record for the month with 11, nearly doubling the previous high of 6 recorded in several years. Kestrel and Merlin were both low, though kestrel was the worst, with the third worst September result over the site’s history.

Last, though only alphabetically, comes Summitville whose September count was also solidly above average with 2117 overall and 1824 Broad-winged Hawks. The highest count was September 16 with 528 total (505 were broadwings). The site’s second best day was a late one on September 25 with 471 total (436 broadwings). The Sharp-shinned Hawk count in September was the site’s best so far with 156; the previous best was 135.

Next: New Jersey

Fall Migration - September - Connecticut

2011-10-18T13:20:00.000-07:00

Egad! For a small state, Connecticut has a lot of hawkwatches! Way to go, you guys! However, I’ve been forced by the length of my blog post to amend my plan of reporting on September results from both Connecticut and New York in this post. Instead, little Connecticut will stand alone this time around.

Although Boothe Memorial Park in Stratford now has just three years of September data, 2011 saw the number of hawks counted more than double last year’s previous high total. In just 35 hours of counting, 9116 hawks were tallied, of which 8513 were Broad-winged Hawks. Results for species other than Broadwings were lower than the previous years.

Botsford Hill in Bridgewater wasn’t nearly as fortunate. With a count of just 1431 raptors, their 2011 was well below average and well below their record September count of 9025 in 1993. Broadwings totaled 1245. The Sharp-shinned count was 101, slightly above average.

Chestnut Hill in Litchfield also had a down year, with just 2705 raptors tallied in September, 2623 of them Broadwings. Their record September was 2002 with 12,982 and their lowest season was the following year with just 420 birds for the month. It’s fair to say that September results at Chestnut Hill vary quite a bit from year to year!

Only one day of counting was reported at Flirt Hill in Easton this year, but the counter picked a good one. In 6 hours of counting on September 17, a record 1992 birds were tallied, of which 1951 were Broadwings. That was the highest total September count, even over the other 9 years that had a lot more hours of observation.

Johnnycake Mtn. near Burlington saw its second best September over 11 years of tallies. They had to put in a record number of hours, by a few, to reach 5385, though. They counted 5196 Broadwings during the month with the best day on September 18 with 5196. Their record September was 2005 with 6627 in about half the hours watched in 2011.

Lighthouse Point, New Haven, had a strong result in September 2011, though not a record. The count of 6448 was the best overall September since 1997, if well below the high count of 19,397 in 1986. The count needed both the Broad-winged Hawk and the Sharp-shinned Hawk tallies to reach that total. The Peregrine Falcon flight for September set a record, with 74, besting last year’s 61. Other species didn’t fare as well, and the kestrel count was a low one at 279. The kestrel flight reached a high of 2597 in 1993. The site has had lower kestrel counts, though most of those were during years with a lot fewer counting hours for the month.

Torrington’s Middle School had something of an average September with 2488 Broadwings and a total of 2643 raptors during the month. Other species were counted in lower numbers, too, though the hours spent counting was similar to previous years. Their best year was 2002 with 11,024.

Just 32.5 hours were posted this year to HawkCount from Poquonock (at least so far), and just 53 raptors were counted.

Quaker Ridge had a solid result in September 2011 with 10,605 raptors counted, of which 8343 were Broad-winged Hawks. They didn’t come close to their record September (and may never do so again) when they counted 42,608 in 1986. Kestrels had a low result with 186; only years with fewer hours of site coverage produced lower results for the little falcon.

Suffield Wildlife Management Area posted results for the first time in September 2011 and came up with 2022 raptors for the month in 28.5 hours of counting. The total included 1955 Broad-winged Hawks, of which 1893 flew on September 17.

And lastly, though only in an alphabetical list, comes White Memorial Foundation in Litchfield. They counted on just 4 days in 2011 and tallied 412 raptors, of which 354 were Broad-winged Hawks. Their best count was a total of 259 on September 16.

Next time I’ll post September results for New York, and if the post doesn’t run too long, I’ll at least start on the New Jersey results, too.

Fall Hawkwatching - September in northern New England

2011-10-12T09:17:00.000-07:00

It’s taken me (a lot) longer than I expected and has proved more time-consuming than I anticipated, but I am finally moving ahead with the September 2011 hawk migration roundup. In order to do it any kind of justice at all, the eastern sites will be broken up into several blog posts. Today the roundup will include New Brunswick and northern New England.

First, Greenlaw Mountain in New Brunswick has reason to be well thrilled with its September flight. September 2011 proved to be the best of their three years of counting, led by 5818 Broad-winged Hawks. Their big day was September 17 with 3311. With essentially the same number of counting hours, nearly all other species were also at record or near-record levels. The exception was the Merlin, with the lowest count of the three years.

Then we move into Maine, and the good news continues there, too. Cadillac Mountain posted its best-ever September results in the 9 years of data in HawkCount. Their broadwing count shattered their previous best, with 3262. No other year has even approached 1000 for the month. Their best day was September 17 with 3014. Most other species showed in the average range, with the exception of American Kestrel, which posted the second lowest result.

Next is New Hampshire and good news is still the order of the day. In its third year of counting, Carter Hill Observatory near Concord shattered its previous best September with a total of 11,330 raptors counted during the month. Of those, 10,622 were broadwings (previous best count was 1899). This site’s best broadwing day was September 18 with 7212, and September 19 was the second best with 1747. Other species breaking site records for September were Merlin, American Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Sharp-shinned Hawk, Bald Eagle, Osprey and Cooper’s Hawk (though this last only by 1 bird).

The cheering continues at Pack Monadnock, Peterborough, with yet another record-setting broadwing flight and another monthly record. A record 11,822 broadwings were counted for the month, with the best day September 18 with 5208 and a second best day of 3544 on September 17. Those totals boosted the monthly count of all raptors to 13,235, besting the previous record—September 2007’s 9342. The only species with somewhat lower results in 2011 was the Bald Eagle, which was the fourth lowest total for the month.

Moving into Vermont, Putney Mountain posted its second best September with 4928, behind only 2003’s 5457. The Broad-winged Hawk flight was the third highest with 4009, just missing being the second highest total by 9 birds. Most other species were counted in higher than average numbers, with nothing counted in below average numbers.

Massachusetts will be the last state I report on today. In alphabetical order, the first is Barre Falls, posting its second best September over the 10 years of data with 6656 total and 5884 broadwings. The site’s best day was September 17 with 4411 broadwings. They aren’t likely to best the September 2005 record of 17,468 anytime soon. Sharp-shinned Hawks and American Kestrels had lower than average numbers. The rest of the species had solid results.

Blueberry Hill is next and that site’s September results were right in the middle of its 12 years of data in HawkCount. The total broadwing count for the month was 3334 with a best day of 1130 on September 17. The next day was the second best with 988. Their best September ever was in 2002 with 7739 total and 6777 broadwings. Osprey and Peregrine Falcon set September records, both by strong margins.

Mt. Wachusetts posted low results for the September. Only two years out of their 10 years of data in HawkCount had lower results. The site posted lower hours for 2011, too, which likely contributed. The best broadwing day was 1600 on September 17, a far cry from the record-setting 12,117 in September 2002. One high point was the count of 4 Black Vultures, the first September to see any result for that species.

Mt. Watatic also had a disappointing total in 2011, posting its second lowest total in 10 years. Broadwings totaled 3195, with a best day of 1494 on September 10 and just 1139 on September 17, its second best day. Hours were about half what is typical for this site.

Shatterack Mountain had the lowest total in 7 years and the lowest number of hours, as well. In 2011 counters saw 1222 broadwings, the second lowest result. The site’s best day by far was September 18 with 718 broadwings.

In the next report I’ll cover Connecticut, New York and possibly New Jersey, depending on how long the post is by the time I reach that last state. Good hawkwatching!

Ah, the Broadwings!

2011-09-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

The annual lottery of which hawkwatch site gets to see the most Broad-winged Hawks, those unpredictable birds, is over for another fall. This year provided some interesting results, with a few sites not particularly well-known for their Broad-winged Hawk flights pulling down a few big days. And on the other end of the stick, sites with often large numbers of these hawks ended up with lesser or lackluster flights. But before I get too deep into the overall picture, let’s start with a roundup of the Great Lakes sites, whose routinely large flights can make the northeastern hawkwatchers green with envy.

Hawk Ridge’s (Minnesota) big day was September 15 with 12,790 Broad-winged Hawks. A second big day was September 19 with 6881. For September they tallied 32,675, which is on their low side of average, once you eliminate 2003, when they had a record-breaking 160,537 Broadwings, a total that’s far above the normal range for the site. Their big day total seems to fall into the mid-range category, too.

Next is Holiday Beach (Ontario), with a big day on September 16 with 23,480 Broadwings and a second big day on September 15 with 10,393. For the month they totaled 42,493 Broadwings, the best result there in 10 years.

Hawk Cliff (Ontario) had a big, big day on September 16 with 49,830 Broadwings. The next day was decent, too with 14,595. The September total was 72,221, their fourth highest total, though well behind the 135,329 of September 2000.

And then there’s Lake Erie Metropark (Michigan). Please sit down now if you’re not already sitting. They tallied 190,121 broadwings on September 17, a spectacular day, their biggest broadwing flight ever, more than doubling their previous (and not at all shabby) best flight of 91,471 set in September 2002. Oddly, they didn’t have a second big day this year. Their next highest broadwing total was 2199 on September 25.

Next blog entry I’ll talk about the eastern sites and how they did with Broadwings this year.

Fall Hawkwatching - September 2-8

2011-09-09T11:56:00.000-07:00

Hurricanes Irene, Katia and Lee were the major players in this past week's fall hawk migration. Unless you were lucky enough to be at one of the midwestern sites, there wasn’t much to cheer about this week. The impact of these storms caused many watches to shut down for 2-3 days, and often the days surrounding the shutdowns weren’t very good either.

The midwestern sites did have some excellent days, particularly for American Kestrels and Sharp-shinned Hawks. Hawk Ridge, near Duluth, had several outstanding days, with the best on September 4. That day the watch counted 2165 birds, including 1859 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 107 American Kestrels. Hawk Ridge also had a super kestrel flight, that one on September 9 with 152. This site also had two great Bald Eagles flights, on September 7 and 8 with 62 and then 52 birds.

Hawk Cliff and Holiday Beach, both in Ontario, also had some outstanding flights. Holiday Beach counted 62 American Kestrels on two consecutive days September 5 and again on September 6. Hawk Cliff counted 103 kestrels on September 5 and 92 the following day.

One species not being counted very much at all so far is the Broad-winged Hawk By my quick and dirty tally, just 731 were counted for the entire month thus far at all the reporting sites. To compare, the month to date tally for Sharp-shinned Hawks is 5527, and even kestrels total 976. Presumably, the broadwing total should take a pretty dramatic upturn this next week, assuming there aren’t more hurricanes to contend with.

Fall Hawkwatching - August 26-September 1 and the August Roundup

2011-09-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

Hurricane Irene put a damper on many of the eastern U.S hawkwatching sites for a while this past week. Still, the week had more than a few interesting sightings, both in numbers and species.

Hawk Mountain spied the season’s first Golden Eagle, an adult, on August 29, and the next day, Waggoner’s Gap, some 90 miles or so down ridge, also saw an adult Golden Eagle. Naturally, people are wondering if it is the same bird. And then two days later, back east towards Hawk Mountain, but this time at Second Mountain, four experienced hawkwatchers saw a “raggedy” adult Golden Eagle heading west. So did the first bird pull a “fooler” on everyone and head back east again or did we have two different adult Golden Eagles? That’s probably not one we’ll ever know the answer for.

Not to be outdone with unusual August species, Hawk Ridge, Duluth, saw the first Northern Goshawk of the season, also on August 29. Cadillac Mountain in Maine also found a goshawk, this one on August 31.

In taking a quick look at August as a whole, the total number of raptors counted at many of the sites is on the low side, sometimes approaching average at best, though Bald Eagles are still setting records. Bake Oven Knob, Waggoner’s Gap and Allegheny Front, all Pennsylvania, and Franklin Mountain, New York, each appear to have set August records for the species. Franklin Mtn. counted 30, well over their previous August high of 19 in 2008. Waggoner’s Gap counted 101, smashing the 2009 August record of 87. Bake Oven just edged over its old August record of 67 (with 68 this year), and Allegheny Front counted 25 (former record was 23).

Broad-winged Hawks were counted in fairly low numbers at virtually all the sites in August. American Kestrels, always a species of concern, had its ups and downs at the sites during August—except at Hawk Ridge where they counted 194. That’s not an August record—that would be the 270 seen in August 2002—but it’s the third highest August record there. At Hawk Cliff, Ontario, an astounding 73 kestrels were counted just on August 28 alone. That’s certainly the single day August record for that site.

Corpus Christi, Texas, tallied a nice Mississippi Kite total, though not a record, with 16,467. The site had just 68 broadwings during August, when the totals have ranged anywhere between 1 and 623. I expect that number to be considerably higher by the end of the new month.

What will September bring? I hope the new month brings a lot more hawks. Certainly, it will bring the opening of a lot more hawkwatches. And as long as September doesn’t bring another hurricane, that would be much appreciated.

Late note: Two northern sites, Greenlaw Mtn. in New Brunswick and Maine's Cadillac Mtn. posted triple digits counts on September 1. The birds are on their way!

Fall Hawkwatching - August 19-25

2011-08-26T11:31:00.000-07:00

The fourth week of August produced a couple of days of nice hawkwatching. The northern sites had two good days—August 21 and 22. Corpus Christi’s best day was August 24, when they reported 1060 Mississippi kites.

At the northern sites, a total of 85 Bald Eagles were counted on the 22nd, with Bake Oven and nearby Hawk Mountain Pennsylvania leading the way each with 16. Waggoner’s Gap wasn’t far behind with 14 counted that day. The same day also saw Hawk Mountain count 26 American Kestrels, more than half of the total 48 counted through all the sites.

When it comes to eagles, Hawk Ridge in Duluth, Minnesota, now has the daily high count of the season so far, with 23 seen on August 24, a third of the 73 total birds counted that day. Their best day of the week overall was August 22 with 170 total raptors.

Osprey counts are also trending upwards, the best day saw a total of 51 counted across 19 sites on August 22. A total of 162 Broad-winged Hawks were counted on August 21, but no one site had the bulk of that number.

More watches opened up this week, though some are not yet counting daily. Washington Monument, Maryland; Tussey Mountain, Pennsylvania; Chestnut Ridge and Franklin Mtn., both New York, and Quaker Ridge, Connecticut, are the ones that seem to be reporting daily to HawkCount this week.

Hurricane Irene will likely shut down most of the eastern sites this weekend, so any birds that fly will either move ahead of that storm or slip to the west. Perhaps the Great Lakes sites or even Allegheny Front will see some action.

Fall hawkwatching - Week of August 11-18

2011-08-19T13:01:00.000-07:00

The fall hawkwatching season is already gathering speed, picking up more sites, more raptors and more species along the way. Since last week, another four sites have started reporting data, and the first Red-shouldered Hawks, Mississippi and Swallow-tailed Kites, Merlin and Peregrine Falcons were tallied, along with both vultures.

Bald Eagles are again being counted in strong numbers, strong enough that if the trend continues, 2011 may well be another banner or record-breaking year for them. Broad-winged Hawks are also starting to be seen in double-digits this week.

Corpus Christi, Texas; Hawk Ridge, Minnesota; Bake Oven Knob, Pennsylvania, and Cadillac Mountain, Maine, are now open. The best day of the past week was Tuesday, August 16, when much of the eastern U.S. was under a nice, little high pressure system. The total number of raptors seen at the ten reporting sites that day was 207, including a total of 18 Bald Eagles and 94 Broad-winged Hawks, 50 of which were seen at Pennsylvania’s Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, currently the season’s leader in total raptors with 230.

Waggoner’s Gap, near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has the highest eagle count with 29 seen so far this season, though Bake Oven Knob had the highest single day count with 9 on August 16.

At Corpus Christi, the kites, mostly Mississippi and Swallow-tailed, are accounting for the majority of their sightings so far. Their best day this week was their first reporting day of August 15 with 107 total raptors, of which 96 were kites.

The hawkwatching floodgates will really open on September 1, which is the starting day for the majority of hawkwatches. The weekend forecast doesn’t strike me as ideal for hawkwatching, but whenever the next cold front moves down, a nice number of raptors should come with it.

Raptor Migration Fall Season 2011 - Week 2

2011-08-11T07:47:00.000-07:00

Is the improving weather along the east coast responsible for hawkwatch leaders wanting to get out and see what’s flying? Or is it just that they can’t wait to see a few hawks?

Whatever the motivation, six hawkwatches have already started counting for the fall season—four in Pennsylvania and one each in Maryland and Virginia. Typically, sites are not yet counting for full days and are often reporting for just 2-4 hours of the day.

So what are these “early bird” sites seeing? Waggoner’s Gap near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, has already reported on 8 count days, the most so far, with the number of hours ranging between 3-7 hours in a day. They’ve counted 11 bald eagles, exactly 25% of the total 44 birds seen. Broad-winged Hawks are also reported at 11 birds, so those two species account for half of their total. American Kestrels and Red-tailed Hawks make up most of the rest of the sightings.

Second Mountain, not far west of Hawk Mountain, has counted on 3 days of the new season so far, finding 7 birds, 3 of them Red-tailed Hawks. The other sites have all reported counts on just one day so far. Four sites reported for August 10, making it the best day of the season, both for the number of sites covered and the number of raptors seen. A total of 26 raptors were counted, of which 9 were kestrels, 6 broadwings and 4 bald eagles (all at Waggoner’s Gap).
And what will next week bring? As we start to move deeper into the season and more hawkwatches open, you can certainly bet on more hawks!

Do you have any fall migration photos you'd like to share? If so, please send them to me at falcon07 at ptd dot net. I'll post 1-2 a week.

First hawkwatches open!

2011-08-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

The first fall hawkwatches of the season have opened!

Two Pennsylvania sites, Second Mountain and Waggoner’s Gap, have already posted sightings to HawkCount. Waggoner’s counted 2 Broad-winged Hawks and 3 Red-tailed Hawks on August 1. Second Mountain opened, fittingly, on August 2 and saw 2 Sharp-shinned Hawks and 1 redtail.

Be sure to bookmark this blog so you can keep up with all of the action from fall 2011. Once the new migration season gets rolling, Hawk Migration News will post a wrap-up and highlights of the current week’s best and most exciting hawkwatching news!

If you get any unusual or interesting photos while on a hawkwatch, be sure to send them to falcon07 at ptd dot net, and maybe you'll see them posted here.

HawkWatch Fund off to a Great Start!

2011-07-28T06:12:00.000-07:00

HMANA’s new HawkWatch Fund took flight this spring and it was a huge success.

Thank you to all who contributed to the HawkWatch Fund through this spring’s Raptorthon event. In addition to Raptorthon participants and sponsor contributions, every dollar raised for the fund was generously matched by the HMANA board. Woohoo!

We now have $2,585 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, the HawkWatch Fund is designated to provide a helping hand to the watchsite community.

What kinds of grants would you like to see offered each year from HMANA? If you run a watchsite, what is your annual financial goal to sustain your site? Would you like to see an education grant to help purchase materials? We'd like to hear your thoughts and better understand how HMANA can best offer assistance to the monitoring community. Join the discussion on our new forum: www.hmana.org/forum

Thanks for helping us launch HawkWatch Fund. Stay tuned for more details this fall to learn how you can apply for funding for your site!

Looking for nominations

2011-07-08T08:44:00.000-07:00

HMANA's Nominating Committee is soliciting suggestions for people who would be willing to serve on HMANA's board of directors. Each year, the Nominating Committee prepares a list of interested candidates who are then voted on by the full HMANA membership.

If you think you or someone you know would be a good addition to the HMANA board, please contact David McNicholas at dmcnicholas@comcast.net. Include your own name and contact information, as well as the name and contact information of the person you wish to suggest. You should include some brief information about the person being suggested and why they would make a good HMANA board member.
Names should be forwarded by early August to be considered during the upcoming fall HMANA election.

Another Successful Season for Raptorthon

2011-07-01T08:16:00.000-07:00

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.

HMANA Tour: The Migration Spectacle at Cape May

2011-05-27T09:49:00.000-07:00

There are few places as exciting as Cape May, NJ in fall, and mid-October, in particular, is a fabulous time to visit. Change is in the air all around the peninsula: falcon migration is in full swing, seabirds are migrating just offshore by the thousands, and songbird migrants from near and far find their way to land’s end. Cape May in fall has an incredibly high diversity of lingering songbirds, migrant raptors, and coastal specialties, and a regular handful of western vagrants make a trip to Cape May and the surrounding area the ultimate birding trip of the autumn season.

I am happy to announce that HMANA, together with NH-based tour company Merlin Enterprises, is offering a five day tour to Cape May October 16-20, 2011. My husband, Phil, who guides for Merlin Enterprises, and I, will be the tour leaders. This will be a birding and hawkwatching tour focusing on the spectacle of migration!

We’ll spend a significant amount of time at the Hawk Watch at Cape May Point, and we’ll also visit the Avalon Seawatch, which records millions of migrant seabirds each fall. In addition, we’ll make stops at a handful of other renowned locations including South Cape May Meadows, Higbee Beach, the Cape May and Brigantine National Wildlife Refuges, and the Cape May Bird Observatory’s research stations and visitor centers.

The large diversity of bird species and migratory spectacles, as well as good looks at many specialties, will ensure that this tour will be a fun and excellent opportunity for both beginners and advanced birders. Our days will be active and full, but we’ll take our time to enjoy the birds and habitats like sandy beaches, extensive salt marshes, pitch pine forests, and cedar swamps. If this isn’t enough reason to come to Cape May, you might be pleased enough to be surrounded by the town’s Victorian-era charm and quaint, coastal setting.

TOUR COST: $1295 per person. Single supplement of $235
THIS TRIP BEGINS AND ENDS IN PHILADELPHIA
Cost includes van transportation while in Philadelphia/New Jersey, lodging, ferry ride, handouts, fees, and meals. Tour is limited to 14 participants.

Please visit www.hmana.org/CapeMay for itinerary and further details. And please contact me, Julie Brown if you’d like more information at brown@hmana.org.
I hope you can join us!

Looking for a few good photos

2011-05-18T11:07:00.000-07:00

Do you have an interesting photo you’d like to see in Hawk Migration Studies? We are looking for photos and not necessarily just those of raptors (though those are always welcome, too). Do you have a great shot that’s a view from a hawkwatch? How about a group of happy hawkwatchers? A bear (or moose or the like) crossing your watch? Does your site do educational outreach with kids and school groups? We’d like to know about that.

What kind of activities do you have the kids do when they come to visit your hawkwatch? Photos of kids having fun in the woods, on a hawkwatch or just enjoying nature would be great, too. As a caution, if children’s faces are recognizable, releases will be needed for the photos. Check with the school about the particulars needed. If children can’t be identified, releases are not required.

If you have a photo that you think we’d like, please send it to me at falcon07@ptd.net (that’s zero seven, not an “o”). For a photo to be used in the fall issue, I will need it by June 25. Photos received after that date will have to wait until the spring issue. Please send photos in .JPG format, not smaller than 500Kb and preferably over 1MB in size. Please include your full name and contact information. I’m looking forward to seeing what you might have.

Hawkwatches are fun places to hang out, even when the hawks aren’t flying, so we’d like to see some of that fun and some of what you see at your own hawkwatch. It sure won’t be as much fun as being there, but it’s a start.

Spring Kettles? Yes!

2011-04-29T10:55:00.000-07:00

photo by S.Fogleman

From whence came the notion that Broad-wings don’t travel in kettles in spring migration? I’ve been puzzled by this belief which I’ve encountered several times over the last few days.

Here’s what has been happening in the northeast – specifically New England, upstate New York and southeastern Canada. Weather patterns were such that soaring, thermal-dependent migrants like Broad-winged Hawks were temporarily held up in their northward journey. On April 26, conditions began to improve, with big flights being recorded at places like Ripley (in NY). Perhaps Gil Randell will write about this in a future blog – he was a bit tied up counting and compiling so had to skip his turn in the current blog cycle! Check out http://www.hawkcount.org/ for the April 26 counts at Ripley and other NY and Canadian sites.

As weather improvements moved eastward, New England birding listservs began lighting up with reports of Broad-wings on the move “as soon as the sky began to clear” on the 27th. That day had started out with mizzle and fog early on, grey skies, no breeze. That’s when the comments regarding kettles started to hit me. I’d heard this “myth” before. And now reports from numerous birders included such remarks as “never have seen so many Broad-wings in spring migration,” “there were even kettles!” “these hawks [Broadies] don’t form kettles in the spring like they do in fall, so this was amazing!” “I couldn’t believe that I was actually seeing kettles!”

Broad-wings do indeed form kettles during spring migration given good lift conditions. When there’s an elevator going up and you want to go up, you hop on, right? The thing about spring here in this part of the continent is that those birds which managed to survive the perils of the preceding 6 or 7 months comprise only a fraction of what we may have witnessed leaving in September, ergo fewer to speckle the sky in April, ergo smaller kettles by the time they get up here. This is the destination region – many birds are now at or nearly at their breeding territories. Weather patterns here in the spring time tend to produce more turbulence, hence unreliable “elevators.” However, given the right conditions – you bet! Kettles! And Wednesday, the 27th, was just what the hawks needed. Not only Broad-wings, by the way, but numerous birds of other species were on the move. Unfortunately there are no longer any official spring watch sites in NH, but accounts from various locations were posted on NH.Birds, and can probably be found there. Numbers from major counts in NY and Ontario posted to HawkCount were impressive: Braddock Bay 42235, Derby Hill 6319, Grimsby (Beamer) 5291. Were the Broad-wings in kettles? Oh, yes!

As the sky began to clear at my home in central NH (elevation 1200’) 228 hawks of 10 species were counted passing over our little piece of sky for the period of watching 1120 to 1430. Almost all the Broadies were in kettles, or at least saucepans!

The NorthEast Hawkwatch Community

2011-04-18T15:37:00.000-07:00

Look at this map of hawkwatch sites across North America and it appears that the Northeast is the hawkwatching center of the universe. Sites contributing data to HawkCount.org are scattered from California to New Brunswick and from Alberta to Veracruz but the bulk of the watchsites fall in Massachusetts, Connecticut, southern New York and northern New Jersey. Why is that?

Studying the map of Northeast hawkwatches, you’d be inclined to think that these sites highlight the major migration corridors in the region – the Northeast coast and the Appalachian Mountains. That’s true, Northeast hawkwatches are situated in some of the best spots for observing and counting concentrations of raptors on migration but there’s another reason why there are so many hawkwatches in the Northeast. Quite simply, it’s where all the hawkwatchers and birders live! In a recent survey HMANA conducted amongst successful hawkwatches, we found that most sites are within 40 miles or less of a major city (population >100,000).

Well as much as I could write about the need to fill in the gaps with more consistent hawkwatch coverage across the continent, like in the central and southern US, I’m not going to. Instead, I was inspired to write about the very tight knit northeast hawkwatching community after attending a recent conference. The NorthEast Hawk Watch (NEHW) Conference in Holyoke, MA took place earlier this month and the theme was “Hawk Watching in a Changing Landscape”. NEHW is a non-profit organization (a chapter of HMANA) and is run by volunteers. Its goals are similar to HMANA’s in that they aim to increase awareness, appreciation and protection of migratory birds of prey through collecting, organizing, publishing, and distributing hawk count data.
The conference offered an interesting mix of presentations on recent research efforts like Saw-whet Owl banding, breeding bird survey results and stopover ecology of accipiters. But there was also a less scientific emphasis, highlighting stories from long-running sites like Mount Peter, NY and Little Round Top, NH. I liked this mix of science and stories. It reminded me that hawkwatching is not all about the data, it’s first and foremost about the people. It’s about appreciating raptors and sharing that joy with others and this conference captured that perfectly.
It also made me think about the value and importance of a local hawkwatching chapter. Looking around the room, I saw ~80 people who had some connection with raptor migration; biologists, conservationists, educators, long-time hawkwatchers, new hawkwatchers or just people eager to learn a bit more about raptors and their migration through the region. I counted at least 20 site coordinators from various hawkwatches around the Northeast, many of which have been counting for 30+ years. I think that’s really special to have that many long-time hawkwatchers still enthusiastic about counting and still supporting local gatherings like this. NEHW played a big role in creating this tight-knit community.

At HMANA we are always searching for new ways to reach out to the hawkwatching community and to find better ways to support our members and the monitoring network. I think NEHW is a great model for developing other regional support groups across the continent. Having a local chapter or even a regional discussion board can offer many benefits. Just as HMANA works to provide support to the overall network, a local chapter can be a terrific resource for a regional network (finding places to hawkwatch, finding local volunteers, sharing stories about recent raptor numbers or weather patterns). Local conferences may also address specific regional issues that may not be covered in a broader, continental HMANA conference.

I think a great first step in forming some regional groups is the formation of HMANA’s new Hawkwatcher’s Exchange Forum. This page is just getting started this spring and is still a work in progress. I hope it will help connect raptor enthusiasts and get some good regional discussions going. Help us get the ball rolling! www.hmana.org/forum (see regional watchsite discussion board)

And for more information about NEHW or to become a member, visit http://www.battaly.com/nehw/. While you’re there, check out “A Brief History” by Neil Currie to learn more about the early hawkwatching days in the Northeast and how NEHW and HMANA were formed.

Ghosts of a Chance

2011-04-10T11:40:00.000-07:00

I do much of my spring hawk watching on Plum Island, at the Parker River National Wildlife Refuge in Massachusetts, where the stars are potentially hundreds of kestrels and maybe a dozen or more Merlins on a great flight day. Under optimal conditions, the birds are low, moving up the barrier beach, and providing spectacular views. Despite standing merely two or three feet above sea level, you are able to look down on dozens, occasionally hundreds, of falcons slicing into the wind (not all at once)!

However, most of the time, you are looking for a handful of individuals per day. Winds from the north or east are essentially the kiss of death. On sunny days with warm southwest winds, individual hawks may be soaring high into a clear blue sky and even pass unnoticed. If they are discovered, they are often classified in the same category as “noseeums.” Not rewarding to say the least. If the southwest winds aren’t very strong, a bone-chilling sea breeze kicks in, so you in your winter coat and gloves are looking at nothing while five miles inland people are working in their yards or gardens in t-shirts and shorts. The past two days with warm but weak southwest winds, counters had a total of 4 birds in about 8 hours. Even though we can’t see the water on the other side of the dunes, at least we did have several adult gannets right on the beach.

At Plum, we pray for strong, gusty winds somewhere out of the west, preferably west or northwest. It pushes birds towards the coast and keeps them low on the barrier beach. A good day has dozens of kestrels and handfuls of Merlins, while a great day can produce hundreds of kestrels and dozens of Merlins. Wednesday, April 8 proved to be one of the best hawk days I’ve ever had on the island. Over 390 hawks, including at least 306 kestrels, 10 Merlins, 2 Peregrines, a Bald Eagle, and 56 Northern Harriers.

I love harriers, one of my favorite hawks, but this flight was incredible. We had at least 28 adult males and 21 adult females, with 7 immature or unaged birds, and we had a feeling we were missing some birds going over the marsh low in the distance. Almost all these birds were on the deck, only several feet off the ground, and usually passing within 30-50 yards. I’ve never seen so many adult males in one day, or adult females, and so well. Normally, you don’t see the fine vermiculation on the adult males, but this day it was evident on almost every one, and the subtle shades of gray defy description. The females stood out for their mature, grayish brown backs and the notable streaking on their upper breasts. Several were the most grizzly grayish females I've ever seen. I saw more varied adult plumages, and more clearly, than I ever have seen before. (This likely is a state record count of Northern Harriers from my initial search, but a little more digging must be done to be sure.)

The kestrels alone would have made for a spectacular day, but the Gray Ghosts were just incredible. It is a bit sobering to have been hawk watching for almost forty years and realize that you have never seen anything close to this for one of your favorite species, and you are unlikely to ever do so again. I have just a ghost of a chance....

Photo courtesy of Joseph Kennedy. Used with permission.

It's just not very funny

2011-04-01T09:35:00.000-07:00

Old man winter is playing an April Fool’s Day joke on hawkwatchers today.

I awake to snow everywhere, and I sort of suspect today won’t be the best spring migration day of the season.

I don’t think I’ll bother trying to go to Allegheny Front or Tussey Mtn.

So what’s happening up at Derby Hill and Braddock Bay? It’s a long drive but the weekend is ahead. Maybe it’s worth an emergency drive north. My goodness, they are getting rain. Nope, no hawkwatching there, either.

Well, is a cheap flight to Duluth available? Oops. It doesn’t matter if there is. It’s snowing there, too.

Let’s just hope this April Fool’s joke is Old Man Winter’s last hurrah for this year, so that we can all get back to more important things—like counting hawks!

The Joy of Spring Hawkwatching

2011-03-25T16:48:00.000-07:00

“Keee-errrr, Keee-errrr, Keee-errr!” The wild sounds tumble out of the March sky as I stand on a late winter snowbank. In the warming provided by the climbing sun a softer sound can be heard all about as little clusters of snow break off the edges that line the roadsides and ditches. But the insistent calls of newly-arrived Red-shouldered Hawks demand attention, and to me are confirmation that despite lingering patches of the white stuff, Spring is indeed here. Spring hawkwatchers can be plagued by the fickleness of the season. Warm days tempting jacket-free watching can too quickly turn into blustery chill. Snow showers morph into powerful winds straight from the tundra. And then a Bluebird sings overhead and you remember why you really love doing this. Each day brings more exposed ground, and each day has its new spring messengers. One morning it’s Killdeer, and soon afterwards the Meadowlarks arrive. Male Harriers begin to float past, skimming the dried grasses protruding through the aging snow. Lit from below by bright snow-reflected sunlight, these almost magical visions drift silently toward the northeast.

Again: “Keee-errr, Keee-errr!" The Red-shoulders are in tumultuous courtship, breaking now and then to chase away a passing hawk. Occasionally they disappear behind the trees to the northeast where they no doubt reaffirm their bond, and perhaps add a sprig of greenery to their nest.

And now comes the loud “Keh-keh-keh-keh-keh” of one of the two pairs of Northern Goshawks whose territory boundaries apparently meet over the adjacent meadow. Dramatic courtship displays ensue. Deep wingbeats, loud vocalizations, and then a talon-grappling plummet catches me holding my breath as I wonder just how long the pair will dare the approaching earth before releasing their grip on each other.

Arrivals are following an almost precise calendar. Here are the Phoebes, the Song and White-throated Sparrows. And now the Tree Swallows. Overhead skeins of geese and other waterfowl aim their arrows northward. “KleeeKleeeKleeeKleeeKleee!” The Kestrels are back! And there, over to the west! The resident Red-tails are performing their own courtship maneuvers. One April morning the trill of a Savannah Sparrow welcomes us to the hill. Will this be the day the Broad-wings return? What an affirmation of Life spring hawkwatching provides!

above photo by Joseph Kennedy

U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service Release of Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines

2011-03-10T18:14:00.000-08:00

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service recently released a draft of its land-based wind energy guidelines along with the release of its draft eagle conservation plan. Comments on both drafts will be accepted through May 2011. HMANA’s conservation and education committee and its board of directors will be reviewing the guidelines over the next few months in preparation for meeting those deadlines.

A preliminary review of the draft land-based wind energy guidelines finds a document capable of establishing preconstruction study and post-construction monitoring parameters that can improve an understanding of the risks wind power projects pose to raptors (and other birds and bats). Both the American Bird Conservancy and the American Wind Energy Association have weighed in on the guidelines: ABC faults the guidelines because they are voluntary and not compulsory; AWEA complains that the guidelines diverge unduly from the recommendations of the Federal Advisory Committee convened to review and revise the original USFWS guidance. The AWEA also claims the current draft guidance would overly burden wind power developers and unnecessarily prolong the period required for environmental clearances.

If after a thorough review of the guidelines the favorable preliminary opinion of them holds, HMANA will comment strongly in their favor in the hope that HMANA support will help preserve their value.

A preview of the spring 2011 Hawk Migration Studies

2011-03-03T07:47:00.000-08:00

The spring 2011 issue of Hawk Migration Studies will soon be in members’ hands. I’m always relieved when the last of the material arrives and is finished. I tell people that I give myself a week off before I will start thinking about the fall issue of HMS.

Since I’m not yet ready to think about the fall issue, I’ll give you a preview of what’s in store for the spring issue:

• Reestablishing the Curry Hammock hawkwatch in the Florida Keys. This site historically sees more Peregrine Falcons than anyplace else.

• What to do if an industrial wind power farm is planned near your hawkwatch.

• Tips from a few of the successful hawkwatches that you can use to help increase volunteers and visitors at your own site…as well as things that you can’t change that can still affect your site’s success. Based on a HMANA survey.

• What you missed if you didn’t join HMANA’s October trip to Costa Rica for hawkwatching and birding.

• The upcoming Northeast Hawkwatch conference

• Red-tailed Hawk sexing—it’s not as simple as size.

• Some great raptor writings from a talented, young counter, Henry Waters

• Kudos to Chimney Rock and Kiptopeke hawkwatches for reaching (and soon to reach) some big milestones.

• Lots of outstanding raptor photos.

• And much, much more…

This is a great spring issue, packed with lots of articles and photos. If you’re not a HMANA member please join now so you don’t miss out.

A Birthday for the Birds

2011-02-24T08:14:00.000-08:00

Looking for some inspiration to get you excited about HMANA’s Spring Raptorthon Challenge? Below is a summary from HMANA board member, Daena Ford describing her Raptorthon experience this past fall.

September 20 is my birthday. I typically do not go around announcing that to people. It’s not that I don’t like getting older, or hate having people ask my age. I simply don’t like to draw much attention to myself. So, I usually just sit back and let it arrive, and enjoy the greetings I get and the celebrations with those closest to me.
This year I decided to give myself a birthday gift, by spending part of the day doing something I enjoy which actually had the potential to help out the two organizations I volunteer for – Braddock Bay Raptor Research (BBRR) and the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA). That gift was to participate in a Raptorthon. Basically it was an excuse to go out and do some birding, search for the magnificent raptors that inspire me, and spend some quality time with my daughter outside in nature. Not a bad gift if I do say so myself.
Raptorthon is a fundraising effort, organized by HMANA to raise funds for itself and hawk watch sites all across the continent, as well as serving as an outlet to raise awareness of raptors and their importance in our natural world. Anyone can participate in Raptorthon, either in the fall or spring (when raptors and other birds are migrating in great numbers), and choose which hawk watch or other conservation-based organization to support. Pledges and donations are collected based on how many species of raptors (and other birds if chosen) are counted.

My decision to do a Raptorthon in the fall might seem odd to anyone who knows that Braddock Bay is a spring hawk migration spot. I knew I certainly was not going to see the thousands of broad-winged hawks in September that we would typically see here in April. But, Braddock Bay is a great place to bird year-round and though raptors take a different route around the Lake Ontario in the fall, we still see many species of songbirds, waterfowl and other birds in great numbers. Besides being a great birding spot, it’s a great place to get outdoors and enjoy nature no matter what time of year. And that is precisely what happened on this birthday outing.
I started out with no real goal in mind, other than to see as many bird species as I could see. I knew that I probably would not see everything that was around, mainly since I was bringing my 3 year old daughter Emily with me. Don’t get me wrong…one of the best things about the day was that she was with me, and she is definitely a lover of the outdoors. She often finds things on our outings that others would just pass right by and not even notice (like the thumbnail sized tree frog she found on a cattail when she was barely 2). However, she is still 3 and is a very strong-willed, boisterous girl at times. Not to mention much of the time we refer to her as our little “bull in a China shop.” But she certainly does exhibit an excitement about some of the smallest things in nature, like a lily pad on a pond or caterpillar crossing our path, and I wish I could bottle that up and share it with everyone in this world.
I began the Raptorthon with the morning’s feeder birds, starting at 6:40 am (daylight savings time), as I was preparing breakfast and lunches for school and work in the kitchen. The first bird of the day was a female Northern Cardinal, who was later joined by a juvenile begging for its own breakfast. Other species that stopped by the Ford’s breakfast café were a couple of Black-capped Chickadees, a male House Finch, and several House Sparrows. Unfortunately I was out of niger seed, and none of my regular American Goldfinches made an appearance that morning.
After getting my son off to the bus (wishing he was also joining us on our adventure), and completing morning chores, Emily and I set off in the car at 9:40 and traveled the 25 minute drive up to Braddock Bay. The drive is mostly expressway for us (I-390 and the Lake Ontario State Parkway) and that usually means we have a good chance of seeing the common roadside raptors – Red-tailed Hawks and American Kestrels. True to form we counted 2 Red-tails and 1 Kestrel on 390, and another Kestrel on the parkway. Other species picked up on the drive were American Crow, European Starling, Ring-billed Gull, Blue Jay, Mourning Dove and Rock Pigeon. No surprises there. Now we were up to 12 species.
Arriving at Braddock Bay I decided to make our first stop the passerine banding station at Braddock Bay Bird Observatory. What a good choice that was! North winds off the lake that would normally persuade me to just skip the hawkwatch at Braddock Bay all together in the spring were a blessing this day as they brought migrants right to us. The banding station was buzzing with activity. Emily and I enjoyed meeting several colorful species up close and personal, and also got to take a walk to accompany a few of the banding assistants on a net check. Emily was super careful while walking by the mist nets. “Mommy, look how careful I’m being,” she was quick to point out. (I admit I was very proud of her.) Below is a list of the birds we were fortunate to see, in the order we saw them:
· White-throated Sparrow
· Common Yellowthroat
· Lincoln’s Sparrow
· Red-eyed Vireo
· Tennessee Warbler
· Brown Creeper
· Black-throated Blue Warbler
· Gray-cheeked Thrush
· Golden-crowned Kinglet

We could only stay an hour at the banding station (had a lunch date with my husband), and bird bags were full when we left the station so we surely missed some other species. Never the less, I was super happy with what I saw, and equally as excited for Emily. The best bird for me was the Black-throated Blue Warbler, because it was one of the few warblers that Emily and I looked at in the field guide before we left that morning.
Up to 21 species now, we headed out to lunch by the way of Edgemere Drive which runs along a few of the ponds that are part of the Braddock Bay Wildlife Management Area. There was not too much activity, but we did pick up a Turkey Vulture soaring, a couple of Great Blue Herons fishing, and Mallards and Mute Swans swimming.
After lunch we had just enough time to explore Burger Park on Hogan Point Road near Braddock Bay for about an hour. I had heard through the local birding listserv that there was an American Bittern spotted there the day before. We did not have luck finding the Bittern, but were able to pick up a Belted Kingfisher along Salmon Creek, a Downy Woodpecker and a few Red-winged Black-birds. The highlights of Burger Park this day though were not avian. The field of golden rod and asters was alive with Monarch butterflies, and it was simply mesmerizing to watch them. There also were, to Emily’s delight, several orange, fuzzy caterpillars (like a wooly bear with no black) crossing the gravel path as we walked, as well as grasshoppers which she tried in vain to catch. We also spotted a small, slender garter snake along the pond’s edge.
Unfortunately we had to leave around 1:30 in order to be home in time to meet Emily’s brother as he arrived home from school. So, our Raptorthon was done with 28 species of birds under our belt for the day. For most die-hard birders, that would be a disappointing tally. Though part of me wished for more, I was extremely satisfied with the day we had, knowing that if I had not decided to participate in this fundraiser for BBRR and HMANA, I probably would not have gotten as many “birthday presents” as I did that day – the birds, the butterflies, the beautiful weather, the chance to share it all with my daughter, and some support for BBRR and HMANA. I want to thank my sister and my parents who gave me pledges as birthday gifts to show their support for the organizations that are so important to me, and to the raptors.
Daena Ford

The Raptorthon Challenge

2011-02-21T13:00:00.000-08:00

It’s that time of year again. The ponds may still be frozen and the snow may still be lingering in the back yard but birds are moving and some spring watchsites are already out there counting! (See recent hawkwatching reports on HawkCount.org). This spring, HMANA is celebrating migration with a new kind of Raptorthon event. From March 1 to May 31, 2011 we invite you to join us in finding the best place in North America and best date to find the most species of raptors in a single day. Maybe it’s somewhere in your town or state, or maybe you’d just like to get out for a fun day of birding and see what you find.

Raptorthon is a fun event, much like a regular Birdathon, but focused on raptors. Choose your own date and place, and get sponsors to support your efforts to find as many raptors, (and optionally other bird species) as possible in a 24-hour period. Get together with friends to help you find raptors, or go it alone. All participants get a free Raptorthon T-shirt. Of course, Raptorthon is also designed to raise money – to support HMANA’s and hawkwatchers’ work for raptors and hawkwatching throughout the Americas. It’s a great opportunity to support HMANA programs like HawkCount and RPI as well as your favorite local hawkwatch or conservation organization.

So many hawkwatches are struggling to stay afloat these days and HMANA is always looking for new ways to offer support. Not only can Raptorthon help raise money for your local site but it can also help raise money for the recently-formed HawkWatchFund. The purpose of HMANA’s HawkWatchFund is to provide grants to support hawkwatching and hawkwatch programs. Helping us get this important Fund started, a HMANA Board member has generously offered to match every HawkWatchFund dollar raised! You can learn more about it and how to contribute on the Raptorthon website.

I hope you will join me in our 2011 Raptorthon. If you are unable to take part yourself you can still support HMANA by sponsoring me (or other individuals or teams). Pledge online! I am looking forward to a good list of raptors (and other species) at Pondicherry NWR in New Hampshire on May 14th. (Look on the HMANA web site for more information about my Raptorthon). All forms, detailed instructions and how to sponsor a team are available at: www.hmana.org/raptorthon/. Register today and have fun!

photo: Kiptopeke hawkwatcher, Zak Poulton wearing his Raptorthon T-shirt during his Fall 2010 Event in Virginia.

NorthEast Hawk Migration Conference Saturday, April 2, 2011, in Holyoke, MA

2011-02-15T18:56:00.000-08:00

The NorthEast Hawk Watch (NEHW) will hold its 9th Northeast Hawk Migration Conference in Holyoke, Mass., on Saturday April 2, 2011. Anyone with an interest in hawks is encouraged to attend. This is the 9^th conference organized by the NEHW since it was founded in 1971. NEHW held its first one-day conference on hawk migration in New England in 1978 and now organizes a regional conference every four years. This year’s conference was delayed a year so it did not conflict with the HMANA conference in Duluth last April.

The NorthEast Hawk Watch was originally founded as the New England Hawk Watch, to organize counts of migrating hawks over three weekends in the six New England states. Initially, the activity centered on western Connecticut and western Massachusetts, especially the Connecticut River Valley. Gradually, it spread throughout New England, and in 1991, it was expanded to the NorthEast Hawk Watch, including portions of eastern New York State and northern New Jersey.

The NEHW conferences offer a great opportunity for hawk watchers from across the northeast to get together to see presentations on what is happening with hawk migration in the region and talk with other hawk watchers. The conferences regularly draw attendees from as far away as southern New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Michigan, and Ontario! Many attendees stay over Saturday night to bird hot spots in western Mass. and Connecticut on Sunday, before departing for home.

The program for the 2011 conference includes presentations on

The Decline of the American Kestrel in the Northeast by Larry Fischer
The Nesting American Kestrels of Manhattan Island by Robert DeCandido
Stopover Ecology of Migrating Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks in the Central Appalachians by Laurie Goodrich
Lazy Circles – An Approach to Counting Turkey Vultures in the Northeast U.S. by Arthur Green
The Hazards of Hawk Watching by Susan Fogleman
Mt. Peter – The Longest Running, All-Volunteer Fall Hawk Watch In The Country by Judith Cinquina
Scenes from the BP Oil Disaster by Shawn Carey
An extensive live birds-of-prey program by Wingmasters (Julie Anne Collier & Jim Parks)
And More....

The conference will be held at Holyoke Community College in Holyoke, Mass., from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. For complete information on the conference, including registration, information on the speakers, directions, accommodations, and more, visit <http://www.battaly.com/nehw/conference>

The first forty registrants will receive a free one-page hawk calendar at the conference!

‘Io, ‘Io, it’s off to hunt I go…

2011-02-01T07:57:00.000-08:00

The names of Hawai’ian birds are so melodious. I love to say them: “I’iwi, Apapane, Ou.” And then there’s the ‘Io – a name given, no doubt, because of the bird’s high-pitched cry. The ‘Io, otherwise known as the Hawai’ian Hawk (Buteo solitarius), is the only hawk found in our fiftieth state. Osprey and Peregrine Falcon are rare vagrants from time to time, but the ‘Io is the island group’s only endemic.

Few of Hawai’i’s native bird species remain, and most of those are on the brink of extinction. Some, like the Nene goose, are benefiting from strong conservation efforts. Classified as endangered, the ‘Io is found only on the “Big Island,” Hawai’i. Hope for an increase in the population is marginal, as a breeding pair usually manages to fledge only a single chick, and competition with humans for appropriate habitat grows daily. The diet of the Hawai’ian Hawk includes insects, rodents, and birds.

About the size of a Broad-winged Hawk, the ‘Io in flight has an interesting “jizz.” From below, the bird’s silhouette is a little like that of a soaring Red-shouldered Hawk, with slightly forward-pointing wings. Bulging secondaries resemble those on a Red-tail. The tail is only finely barred and pale grey or taupe. In profile, this hawk soars with a distinct dihedral, and in some ways made me think of Zone-tailed Hawk. Hawai’ian Hawk has dark and light color morphs. On a recent trip to the Big Island I saw at least two, possibly three ‘Ios, all dark morphs. For a great look at a light-phase bird feasting on one of the ubiquitous [introduced] Common Mynas check out http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dx5GX1ajE1g&feature=youtube_gdata_player

dark phase Hawai'ian Hawk photo above by W.Fogleman, January 2011

Peregrine Falcon in the Snow

2011-01-28T09:05:00.000-08:00

In January and February we travel back roads in western New York’s Amish country looking for wintering Red-tailed Hawks, Rough-legged Hawks, and whatever else might be out there. Sometimes in one circuit of our approximately 60-mile route we’ll see as many as a dozen rough-legs and even more red-tails.

About a week ago, half-way through our rounds, we’d seen a bonded pair of red-tails and a few rough-legs, a rather disappointing sum of raptors, possibly because of the heavier than usual snow cover we’ve had over the last few months. Then, with light snow falling, we saw something very different from our usual raptors, a large, long-winged, pointed-winged, rapidly flapping bird coming toward us from a few hundred yards away. Suddenly, the bird wheeled in a full soar, not on a plane parallel to the earth, but, incredibly, on a plane perpendicular to the horizon, then plunged straight down as if to impale itself in the snowy landscape.

Our first winter-peregrine in western New York farm-country, far away from our southern Lake Erie raptor migration route, where we see a handful each year at our spring hawk watch, had taken a pigeon. We were able to get closer and watch from our car as the peregrine ate hungrily in the shallow cave she had made with the pigeon in the snow.

The excitement of a first sighting was over-shadowed by our awe at the quickness of the dramatic display of the falcon’s aerobatics. After the pigeon was taken, we had a chance to watch the feeding bird over several minutes, but the essential experience was our brief glimpse of the physics-defying flight of the plunging bird. What a wonderful moment!

Two Red-tailed Hawks and a Bald Eagle

2011-01-14T12:53:00.000-08:00

Last week I was watching a pair of local nesting and wintering Red-tailed Hawks. The pair nested in a large white pine nearby last year, successfully raising one chick. During the summer, after their young had fledged, they built at least two additional nests, one of which at least was done with the active assistance of their recently fledged bird.

The pair has apparently remained near their nesting territory during the fall and winter and, over at least the past two months at least, the male has broken off branches (see photo above) and carried them to multiple nests, where he alone appears to place and work the branches into the nest. (Not very assiduously, however. Not much time is spent working the stick around the nest, and I have not seen the female land in the nest to rework the sticks at all during non-breeding season.) Their attention to their nesting territories is merited because I have seen at least 5 other Redtails in the immediate vicinity, including four birds that appear to be western-type Red-tailed Hawks, likely winterers from eastern Canada (they are much darker overall, with dark throats, heavy rufous bibs, much heavier belly bands, and much darker backs.)

I was particularly intrigued last Tuesday when I was observing the local male (and vice versa; he clearly recognizes and tolerates me). Suddenly he took off, flying low over me and small but dense woods in the direction of a nearby dam. I just figured he was gone hunting. Within seconds, however, I had a subadult Bald Eagle fly right over me at treetop level, followed by the male adult Red-tailed Hawk, flying low right behind the eagle like a school principal ready to crack down on the intruder if it did anything wrong. It was acting like a Red-winged Blackbird that attacks a passing Red-tailed Hawk in spring, except this time the hawk did not make direct contact with the eagle. On a highway, however, the hawk would have been arrested for tailgating.

As the birds got about 30 yards down from me, the male veered off from direct pursuit and turned to kite into the wind over the primary nest tree while his somewhat larger mate shot out of the woods and replaced him on the eagle’s butt. The female adult Redtail escorted the subadult eagle out of sight, but reappeared quickly over the trees and soared up to an altitude somewhat higher than her mate, where she kited into the wind high above her territory and her mate. The two birds “hung” there for what seemed several minutes. The eagle did not reappear.

This reminded me of last March, when the last migrant Bald Eagle that I saw locally that season, flew up along the east side of the lake, just above the treetops. As the eagle passed, Red-tailed Hawk after Red-tailed Hawk came out of the woods along the lake edge and hung in the sky, kiting into the wind, clearly making their claim to the territory beneath and warning the eagle to keep moving. It reminded me of the “dirigible wall” used in Europe in the first half of the twentieth century to warn of and discourage approaching enemy aircraft. It was almost comical. This time, however, I was impressed to see the Red-tailed Hawks’ aggressiveness in protection of their nesting territory early in January! Watching this pair of suburban Red-tailed Hawks year-round is fascinating.

Last Chance for Florida Birding with HMANA

2011-01-03T09:02:00.001-08:00

There is still time to join HMANA this February for their Winter Raptor and Birding Tour through South Florida. The tour will run from February 5-12, 2011 and will visit all the top birding hotspots in southern Florida. Whether you’re a regular to that area or are looking for a new destination, this will be a fun and active week observing lots of wintering raptors and Florida specialties.

Please hurry! This Wednesday, January 5 is the LAST DAY for sign ups! Please see www.hmana.org/Florida/ for itinerary and more details or my recent blog post of December 1, 2010. Contact Julie Brown at brown@hmana.org to sign up. Hope to see you there!
photo: White Ibis by David McNicholas

HawkCount's New Generation

2010-12-23T12:46:00.000-08:00

Daena Ford, Co-Director at Braddock Bay Research and a member of HMANA’s Board, sent the following interesting testimony about HawkCount (www.HawkCount.org) to her fellow board members. It was a lot more interesting than the posting I was about to make, so here’s Daena:

Yesterday my son (he’s 6 1/2) was doing his daily reading homework, and chose a book from my collection of wildlife kids’ books, Madeleine Dunphy’s The Peregrine’s Journey: A Story of Migration. It’s a great book that beautifully tells the story of how one peregrine makes its long migration from Alaska to Argentina.

While he was reading it out loud to me he was marveling at some of the distances the falcon flew and the variety of places it stopped along the way. At one point the bird travels through Panama with flocks of Swainson’s and Broad-winged hawks. The story mentioned at that point that sometimes tens of thousands of hawks travel through there. Well, this really got his attention, so after he was done with the book, I brought him over to the computer and we pulled up the HawkCount site.

This was not the first time I’ve showed him HawkCount. In the spring, he follows the Braddock Bay count with me (of course!) and he enjoys looking at the tallies on the spreadsheet for each species, etc. Yesterday I showed him the counts from the site in Panama, and he was blown away! And then of course I had to show him the counts from Veracruz...yep, even more jaw-dropping to him.

Besides just using the spread sheets to find out how many hawks were counted at a certain place, I have found it to be a useful tool to help him with simple math concepts such as place value of numbers and looking at which was the greatest number or lowest number, etc. It also helps him learn how to read a chart. Another thing we did was we looked at the Google maps of the locations of the sites, which brought a little geography to the lesson.

So, I felt like sharing this to show how HawkCount can be used as an educational tool for all ages, even if you are not a hawkwatcher. Not sure if anyone knows of any other experiences like this from teachers, parents, kids, etc. If so, I would love to hear about them.

Hope everyone has a Happy Holiday!

World Working Group on Birds of Prey Digitizes Its Raptor Publications

2010-12-10T19:15:00.000-08:00

Robin Chancellor, the Hon. Secretary Secretary and Treasurer of the World Working Group on Birds of Prey and Owls (WWGBP) for decades passed away on October 27, 2010. He was a leading figure in the publication of several huge Proceedings of WWGBP conferences and workshops since 1975. In his honor, the WWGBP has begun to digitize those proceedings for free distribution in PDF form. The first two volumes are now available at http://www.raptors-international.org

Only a few of the papers are specifically on North American raptors, but a number of papers may be of interest to hawk watchers with a broad interest in raptors. Each paper can be downloaded separately.

BIRDS OF PREY BULLETIN N° 4
WWGBP: Berlin, London & Paris
ISBN 0254-6388, 302 pp.

A collection of twenty-eight new and original studies by 41 authors from 20 countries world-wide on birds of prey and owls covering a wide range of topics concerning the biology, ecology, status and conservation of these birds. Contributions include: Trends, Status and management of the White-tailed Sea Eagle, Distribution and Status of the Cinereous Vulture, Evaluation of some Breeding Parameters in a population of Eagle Owls, Status and Biology of the Bearded Vulture, Replacement of Mates in a Persecuted Population of Goshawks, Status and Distribution of Diurnal Raptors in Japan, the Migration of Birds of Prey and Storks in the Straits of Messina. This volume comprises 302 pages (size 14.5 x 21 cm, with cover in colour, many black&white photographs, stitched).

EAGLE STUDIES
WWGBP: Berlin, London & Paris
ISBN 3-9801961-1-9, 549 pp.

This latest Meyburg and Chancellor production for World Working Group on Birds of Prey (WWGBP) is a substantial volume incorporating over 60 papers and running to 550 pages. It is the product of three separate workshops or colloquia covering a range of eagle species and held during 1991-1993. There is a heavy emphasis on the White-tailed Sea Eagle Haliaeetus albicilla and on various of the Aquila eagles. The great majority of the papers have a European focus, most are in English, but around a quarter are in German.

The papers are inevitably of variable quality, but taken together, they provide a valuable compilation of material that will be of interest to eagle enthusiasts generally. The subject emphasis tends to be on status, conservation issues in various countries and various management techniques and actions. There are individual papers on subjects as diverse as molecular phylogeny of European Aquila eagles, satellite tracking of long-range migrant eagles and effects of precipitation on breeding success of Golden Eagles Aquila chrysaetos in Israel.

Particularly welcome are the numerous contributions from eastern European countries where there is clearly an important emerging interest in the large eagles, notably the various sympatric Aquila species of that region. The several short papers on the poorly known Greater Spotted Eagle Aquila clanga and Eastern Imperial Eagle Aquila heliaca heliaca offer potentially new material for most readers.

Florida in February!

2010-12-01T09:27:00.000-08:00

Would you like to get away this winter for a sub-tropical birding adventure and a little sun? Join us for HMANA’s South Florida Winter Raptor and Birding Tour! Tour dates are February 5-12, 2011 and the price is $1900 for HMANA members, $1950 for nonmembers. I will be the tour leader for this adventure along with help from my husband and bird guide, Phil Brown.

HMANA’s recent Costa Rica tour during fall migration was a grand success so we are happy to offer another exciting getaway. This time, we will focus on both raptors as well as all the Florida specialties such as roseate spoonbill, purple gallinule, Florida scrub-jay, and wood stork. Other target species for the trip include snail kite, crested caracara, short-tailed hawk, burrowing owl, white-tailed kite, red-cockaded woodpecker, limpkin, scissor-tailed flycatcher, painted bunting and anhinga, as well as reptiles like American Alligator and Crocodiles.

The tour will visit all the south Florida hotspots like Everglades National Park, Big Cypress National Preserve, Sanibel Island and the Ding Darling National Wildlife Refuge, Loxahatchee National Wildlife Refuge, Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary and the STA-5 vicinity. We will be making a loop through southern Florida, giving us six full days to explore the various natural communities like mangrove forests, cypress swamp, freshwater wetlands, sawgrass prairies, dry prairies, scrub oak forests, mahogany hammocks, pine forests, and open water.

This trip is geared toward all levels of birders so whether you’re just starting out or have been birding in Florida before, I think you will enjoy it. It’s also an excellent opportunity for photographers.

We hope you can join us! For more information, please contact me at tilden@hmana.org. More tour details coming soon at: www.hmana.org/florida

photo courtesy of David McNicholas

Look at the Hawk Watchers, Too! Not Just the Hawks.

2010-11-09T10:46:00.000-08:00

October 29 I was hawk watching at Lighthouse Point, in New Haven, Connecticut, one of the best hawk watch sites in New England. The day was not what I had expected; the winds were far weaker than forecast and the count was only a little over 100 by early afternoon, but with a good mix, highlighted by a Peregrine perched for an hour and an immature Bald Eagle that spent some time soaring over us, trying to determine what it wanted to do.

Activity was slowing in the early afternoon, when I believe Lynn James said she had a large hawk out front. Lynn, who has incredible distance vision, said the bird was in a large gray cloud above a blue slit in heavy cloud cover. Everyone scanned for the bird and gradually we found it. People remained glued to their scopes as the bird was way out and still quite small, but acting like a very large bird. Someone had earlier remarked that the site had not had a Golden Eagle yet this season, so it was about time, though it was clearly not typical “Golden” weather.

I got on the bird fairly quickly and soon felt very good about it. It had a Red-tailed Hawk kind of dihedral, visible at great distance. The bird was quite large but gliding straight toward us without apparently moving a muscle or a wing, so we couldn’t pick up any contrast on it, much less a head/tail ratio. I think everyone was thinking “golden,” but just could not see enough to call it. As the bird angled slightly, I was able to see a bright white basal third of the long tail and the smaller head. I shouted Golden, and everyone began cheering and concurring. The excitement was palpable as the bird continued to glide towards us.

I had been hunched over my scope straining to watch this bird. When I stood up to relax for a second, I noticed that half the scopes were pointing north and half east. I shouted there must be two goldens, that half the people were looking at a different bird than I had been. Everyone looked up, and then over, and sure enough, half of us had found one golden eagle and half another. The northerly bird slowly glided over, revealing a lot of white in the flight feathers, a long rectangular white patch in each wing. My golden, following a few minutes later, had a lot less white in the wings. Strangely, after not having had a golden for two months, two occurred at the same time, They were followed by a third golden just a few minutes later, a bird with very little white in the wings or tail. It was a terrific fifteen minutes, but we all had to laugh. If one of us had not looked briefly at the hawk watchers instead of the hawks, would we have ever noticed there were TWO Golden Eagles?

Golden Eagle photograph by Joseph Kennedy. Used with permission. (Not one of the "Lighthouse" birds.)

Ramblings on Migration in Tropical America

2010-11-03T16:32:00.000-07:00

What images come to mind when you think of migration? Geese flying south in V-formation? Exhausted warblers resting on Gulf Coast beaches? Broad-winged hawks kettling their way south along the Appalachians? I think about the familiar cycle of migrating birds that breed in temperate forests and winter further south.

I must say that spending time in the tropics – most recently on HMANA’s Costa Rica trip – has given me a different perspective on migration. I no longer refer to the local New Hampshire breeders in my area as “our birds”. It’s hard not to when a Baltimore oriole arrives in your backyard in spring, spends the summer there raising its young and keeping you company with its lovely song and bright plumage. We feel connected to this and a sense of this bird and its young “belonging” here. But think about how much time that oriole spends with us versus time spent on migration and in the tropics throughout the winter. A mere three months, maybe four? Baltimore orioles were all over many of Costa Rica’s tropical forested habitats this October, and many of them are settled in until spring! In truth, the oriole (and many other familiar breeding birds of the Northeast US) spends the majority of its time in the tropics and comes north to the temperate forests to take advantage of a very brief food supply and a place with fewer competitors.

The more I learn about migration, the more questions I have. One thing that is certain is that migration is a constantly changing and widely variable phenomenon. Throughout North America, we have short and long distance migrants, complete and partial, altitudinal migrants, and irruptives, to name a few types of migration strategies. But what about those species which carry out their migrations within tropical latitudes? HMANA’s recent trip to Costa Rica to witness migration touched on this spectacle.

On a drizzly afternoon, our group watched four resplendent quetzels feeding in an avocado tree at 2000m on the road to Volcan Irazu. They were taking full advantage of this fruiting tree, but in typical falls, these birds will migrate further south on the Caribbean slope and mainly be found between 500-800m.
From our hotel room in San Jose, my husband and I watched a distant fruiting Jamaican Plum tree through our scope for one hour. Within that time, 20 different species of birds fed at this tree, most of which were migratory species.

Historically, most migration research has focused on movements of birds between temperate and tropical habitats, but the ‘intrartropical’ migrants – those birds moving within the tropics – haven’t received as much attention. According to Gary Stiles, coauthor of Birds of Costa Rica, approximately half of the bird species found in Costa Rica show some evidence of seasonal movement. These movements likely reflect changing food availability and/or weather changes (wet vs dry seasons). There are even a few tropical species that travel long distances to follow burned areas – ‘fire followers’. Food is still the underlying reason for their movement.

It’s easy for us to notice migrating flocks of swallow-tailed and plumbeous kites (large birds moving through the open sky along ridges and coasts), but most other movements happen very quietly, which is part of why this movement was overlooked for so long.

Today, more tropical research has taken place within Costa Rica than any other area in the neotropics, and it is thought that the local migration patterns between mountains and lowlands are probably typical of the rest of Central America. Birds are making localized short distance movements up and down in elevation. If you’re a bird that doesn’t shift its diet when food becomes scarce, then you have no choice but to move. Interestingly, the species most likely to migrate are the fruit and nectar eaters since this food supply changes seasonally more than insects do. Hummingbirds, parrots, toucans, quetzals, and bellbirds are just some bird families that employ this strategy seasonally.

If you are as fascinated as I am about migration in the tropics, or just curious about general behavior and breeding of tropical birds, be sure to check out Birds of Tropical America by Steven Hilty. It’s a terrific book and has answered so many of my questions about migration and more.

(Photo: plumbeous kite at the Kekoldi Hawkwatch)

Hawkwatching at its Best

2010-10-29T13:38:00.000-07:00

What could be more fun than floating on your back in warm waters of the Caribbean and watching thousands of raptors swirl overhead above you? This was just one of the many highlights from HMANA’s recent birding and hawkwatching tour to Costa Rica last week.

Where to even begin?! We journeyed through the country exploring the Central foothills and highlands, Caribbean lowlands and the Pacific slope. Overall our group saw or heard an amazing 393 species of birds. Among those were 31 species of raptors, 26 hummingbirds, 21 antbirds, 35 flycatchers, 29 warblers and 30 tanager species. It was 10 glorious days of colorful birds, beautiful rainforest and coastal landscapes, good coffee and lots of fruit.

But the grand focus of this tour was spending 2 days at the Kèköldi Hawkwatch inside the Kèköldi Indigenous Reserve on the Caribbean slope. This has always been a very special place to me. From my first season spent counting there in 2001, and then again when I returned to do peregrine falcon research in 2005, I have been itching to get back. And as always, it was just as magical as ever and did not let us down.

The hike up to the watchsite involved a lot of mud, sweat and thorns. What would be the fun of seeing all those migrants if you didn’t have to work for it, right? We wove our way up the mountain through an abandoned cacao plantation, stopping of course to sample the sweet and tangy fruit along the way. Black and green poison dart frogs hopped across the trail and laughing falcons called from the canopy. I could spend all day on this 2km long trail, studying leaf cutter ants, the towering strangler fig trees and the huge diversity of understory species like antbirds, tinamous and hermits (hummingbirds). Looking up at any one time, we saw glimpses of swirling kettles through the canopy, reminding us of what was in store and to pick up the pace.

As soon as we reached the top of the hawkwatch tower and were catching our breath, the counters handed me a clicker and said, “You’re in charge of peregrines!” Just like old times. For the next few hours, I counted over 100 peregrines passing overhead. Some scattered over the ocean, others kettling up over the mountains in groups of 5-10.
Turkey vultures were the dominant migrant during our visit but mixed in were thousands of broad-wings and Swainsons hawks with the occasional Mississippi Kite, osprey or merlin. At times, the skies would be full of solely broad-wings or Swainson’s as if they were very courteously taking turns using the sky.

The phrase, “Oh my god, oh my god, oh my god” was a common one, as tour participants shifted from kettle to kettle, trying to take in the sheer magnitude of the movement. Aside from raptors, chimney swifts and various swallow species swept past in the millions. By the end of the day, 70,000 raptors had been tallied.

To anyone who visits, it’s easy to see that Kèköldi is a truly remarkable place. As with many hawkwatch sites, Kèköldi is struggling to stay afloat and is in need of more financial and volunteer support. The two to three volunteer counters this season are overworked and overwhelmed by the volume of birds coming through. This site requires a team of at least 4-6 counters to effectively cover the skies.

Several brainstorming sessions took place amongst tour participants and Daniel, the project coordinator (& our local guide) on how to help this project succeed long-term. It was great to see people eager to share their thoughts and ideas on how to build upon this important project with outreach and fundraising strategies. HMANA is currently working with Kèköldi to find ways to offer support. Hopefully one way we can continue to offer support is through more tours like this one!

Observing Non-Raptor Migration at Hawk Watches (Part 2)

2010-10-26T18:09:00.000-07:00

One of the differences between general birding and birding at a hawk watch is that at a hawk watch the salient feature of the birds we see is their flight. More often than not in general birding we look at birds sitting on the water or wading in it, perching on twigs, or walking on the ground, or jumping from one thing to another. At hawk watches we look at flight.

The focus on flight at a hawk watch encourages us to pay attention to a dimension of birding, and birds, that, strangely enough, often gets short shrift. Years ago, I thought I was pretty good at identifying ducks in the harbor until I met an old retired duck hunter who could actually tell what birds he was seeing in flight! Birding at a hawk watch encourages us to increase our skills in that direction and also our appreciation of the birds we observe.

I’ve heard American Bitterns, seen them frozen in marsh grasses, and sometimes seen them taking brief and quick flights from one patch of marsh to another. But my most memorable sighting of an American Bittern was at the hawk watch when I had a chance to watch one fly for over a mile in migration with its distinctively patterned two-toned wings and ponderous flight. Somehow, seeing that very secretive bird so exposed and taking part in such a dangerous activity as migration was very moving.

In my last blog I talked about finding loons when scanning for soaring raptors. This is another exciting feature about hawk watches. Scanning for raptors we find things we never would have seen otherwise. After birding for decades I’d never seen a Sandhill Crane in New York State. Now, at our hawk watch in western New York, I see Sandhill Cranes on at least five or six different days during the spring migration.

Paying attention to the non-raptor migration at hawk watches expands the profound experience presented by observing the raptor migration. Seeing something otherwise secret and yet something that provides such a sense of connectedness with deep, universal forces will bring me back to the hawk watch year after year, as long as I’m able.

Observing Non-Raptor Migration at Hawk Watches (Part I)

2010-10-23T11:55:00.000-07:00

After nearly 50 years of general birding in western New York State, I began seeing Common Loons regularly only after I began spending time at our local hawk watch. Not only did I begin seeing loons regularly, but I began seeing them in pretty much a new way.

Loons for me had been early- and late-winter harbor birds, infrequently seen, usually apart from the rafts of relatively diminutive ducks, looking big and solitary. Seeing a loon always made a special birding day for me.

Attendance at our hawk watch introduced me to a new dimension of loons and the likelihood of seeing them often. Previously I saw loons usually swimming and diving, only now and then flying; when I see them at the hawk watch they are always flying. And what flight! Powerful, high, fast, straight-line, totally lacking in hesitation, directly out and over Lake Erie toward Canada.

At the hawk watch we pick up loons while scanning with binoculars for soaring raptors. On April 19th this year we saw 12 loons, most of them singles, presenting their unique flight signature as they powered toward their northern nesting territory. We saw loons on at least three other days in the spring of 2010. If we hadn’t been scanning for raptors, the loons without doubt would have passed entirely unnoticed. They could have been flying, unobserved, for hundreds of miles before we picked them up.

Hawk watches provide unique opportunities for observing non-raptor migration, loon-sightings being only one example. 500 or more Blue Jays in one day, tens of thousands of blackbirds in mixed flocks in one day, ducks, hundreds of Tundra Swans and more, all almost routinely seen and with a new perspective.

Time to step up to the bat!

2010-10-14T09:21:00.000-07:00

My public radio station is having its fund drive this week. Perhaps yours is, too. If you are a public radio listener, or a public television viewer, then you are aware that those services are available to us only because of the financial support of some of those who listen and watch. It’s sort of like HMANA!

Think of all the services HMANA is providing ---- FREE! You can go to our website and download all kinds of great information, for FREE! You can enter watch data into HawkCount, you can read reports from sites north to south, east and west every day, for FREE! You can download those wonderful silhouette guides and other ID materials for, you guessed it, f-r-e-e. HMANA is a volunteer organization, but we do have costs, and, would you believe it? Of the thousands of hits our on-line services get, only a small percentage of those folks are members of HMANA! That’s right, paying members of HMANA number fewer than 500. There are many more folks out there (you?) who use HawkCount, who are site leaders, who watch hawks and support the very same goals who haven’t joined HMANA.

Membership is only $25! For that amount of money (way less than you spend on your boutique coffee in a week) you not only will get our excellent publication, Hawk Migration Studies, discounts on various offers such as the trip currently underway to Costa Rica, but you will be supporting HMANA’s ongoing efforts to conserve raptors and their environment. And even better, you will get rid of any guilt feelings you may have been having about not supporting those efforts! Don’t procrastinate any longer! Please help pay for HawkCount, RPI, the statistical analyses of the data you collect and submit, for our website. Please join and help our membership numbers double. Those numbers mean a lot to grant-providers. Your support is very important. Click on http://www.hmana.org/ where you can use a major credit card or send a check made out to "HMANA" for $25 (U.S. currency) to John Weeks, HMANA Membership, 51 Pheasant Run, North Granby, CT 06060-1016 (U.S.A.). Or do we need to get Ira Glass to call you?

Migration in the Americas: the ties that bind

2010-10-10T19:04:00.000-07:00

A few years ago I made my first October “pilgrimage” to Veracruz. No hawkwatcher needs an explanation of what that means. Although my goal was to experience the Rio de Rapaces, I knew that raptors weren’t the only migrants sweeping through that sky funnel in eastern Mexico. I wasn’t surprised, therefore, to see masses of Anhingas and Wood Storks, squadrons of White Pelicans. Nor was I surprised to see scrims of dragonflies and the pink semaphores of Scissor-tailed Flycatchers’ axillars as dozens and dozens of those beauties passed the rooftop watch in Cardel. Enchanted, yes. Exhilarated, definitely! But not surprised.

What did surprise me, however, were the butterflies. No, not monarchs. We all know that monarch butterflies winter in Mexico, but their route takes them west of the coastal region toward the mountain forests of Michoacán. No, the butterflies that so amazed me were yellow. They were sulphurs of several species, large and small, and they were migrating! The air was filled with them, hundreds of thousands, nay, millions of southbound fragile beings stirring the air as their forebears have been doing for millennia. From just above the ground to at least 10 meters up, and nearly wingtip to wingtip as far as the eye could see in every direction, they went. Such a density is, of course, vulnerable to incursion, and so it was on the highways as the intrepid voyagers fell victim to trucks and buses and cars. Resembling flower petals liberally strewn on the highway, drifts of body-less wings swirled in yellow clouds among the passing vehicles.

Later, standing on the remains of a pyramid in the Toltec ruins of Cempoala, I pondered those streams of birds overhead. Stretching from horizon to horizon hawks and vultures, pelicans and storks became threads tying together the continents north and south. And in a nearly tactile way so did the gentle yellow ephemera filling the surroundings with soft flutterings. A visible physical connection, yes, and how very evident it was. But there was a temporal component as well, for as I stood there on those ancient stones I experienced a powerful connection to those people who had built this temple. I realized that these very same astonishing sights had moved them, too.

Please Support the Raptor Population Index Project

2010-09-18T16:59:00.000-07:00

HMANA needs your help. Between now and June 2011, HMANA needs to raise over $55,000 from private sources in order to take full advantage of nearly $100,000 in grant funding from the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (NFWF) for the Raptor Population Index (RPI) project.

With your help RPI will continue to conduct research into raptor population trends that can be critical to continent-wide conservation efforts. Please visit RPI’s website (www.rpi.org) for details on RPI’s accomplishments.

RPI’s work also provides important support to many services HMANA provides the hawk watching, birding and conservation communities. Thanks to your contributions and funding from NFWF in the past, the RPI project has helped HMANA enhance its support of local hawk watches, widen its monitoring network, and expand reporting features for HawkCount.

In fact, one of the most important beneficiaries of RPI’s work is HMANA’s HawkCount. HMANA’s Monitoring Site Coordinator, Julie Tilden, whose employment, incidentally, funding for RPI has helped make possible, wrote on this site in a previous blog about some of the expanded services HawkCount is able to provide because of RPI (“HawkCount …. So Much More than Just Daily Totals,” November 30, 2009); in a later blog, I wrote about the importance of HawkCount to hundreds of local hawk watches throughout North America (“HawkCount and Local Hawk Watches,” March 19, 2010). All the recent improvements to HawkCount have been made possible largely through the RPI project.

Please review Julie’s and my previous blogs about HawkCount, visit www.hawkcount.org and RPI’s website, then decide how much you can donate to help HMANA raise the money that will make it possible to continue RPI’s important work. You can donate on line at www.hmana.org or request a donation form from Julie Tilden (tilden@hmana.org). HMANA is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization, so your donation is fully tax-deductible.

An Exciting Day for Florida Hawkwatchers

2010-09-14T14:19:00.000-07:00

HMANA is happy to announce that the Curry Hammock Hawk Watch kicks off on September 15, 2010! This invaluable raptor monitoring site, located in the Florida Keys, has been a terrific presence and a very important site for the Southeast Region for the past 10 years.
The watchsite was established inside Curry Hammock State Park in Marathon because the middle Florida Keys is a major bottleneck during fall migration. Beginning in 1999, the site began monitoring 8 different species of raptors and has counted the highest number of peregrine falcons in the country.
When financial support for the project ran dry in 2008, efforts were abandoned and no count was conducted in 2009. HMANA stepped in this year, recognizing its geographic significance and importance to the Raptor Population Index Project. We decided to coordinate the count and hire an all volunteer team this year while we exploring possible plans for the future. Ideally, HMANA would like to see a local organization coordinate the count and sustain it for the long term.

Currently, there are 6 counters from all over the United States keeping the Curry Hammock count afloat this fall. The count will run from September 15-October 31 and is open to the public.
The FL Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival takes place this year Sept 22-26. http://www.keysbirdingfest.org/. If you’re in the area, stop by and visit the hawk watch! All are welcome! And if you have any interest in helping out with the count, please contact Julie Tilden at tilden@hmana.org. We can always use more help!

2010 Fall Raptor Migration - First Week of September

2010-09-09T09:06:00.000-07:00

The first week of September is already over. September 1 brought a large group of hawkwatches opening their vistas for fall hawkwatching. So now that the first week is over, how is migration faring?

Not bad is my answer for today. Only a handful of hawkwatches have reported triple digit results so far and none north of Mexico have yet posted four-digit results. Duluth’s Hawk Ridge has come the closest to that mark with an even 800 yesterday (September 8). Sharp-shinned hawk totals there were nearly double the number of Broad-winged hawk, with 456 sharpies to 242 broadwings.

Radar showed what looks like a good overnight flight of songbirds on September 8-9, so that brings me some hope for an uptick in raptor numbers over the next day or so. HawkCount results from the past week look as though nearly all the hawkwatches are getting a piece of whatever is flying. Bald eagle numbers are good, and the coastal sites are seeing some nice numbers of osprey. To my eye, broad-winged hawk numbers seem low, though perhaps the birds are simply waiting for that perfect weather to take to the air. Sharp-shinned hawk numbers are stronger than I might have expected, and kestrels seem better than they have been lately, though of course that isn’t saying much. Northern Harrier counts are also rather low so far.

Next week should tell the tale. Stay tuned for that!

Do Old Site Leaders Just Fade Away?

2010-09-07T06:06:00.000-07:00

I recall an old saying: “Old soldiers never die, they just fade away.” Sort of like kettles, right? You know, the kind you get on a blue-sky day when the thermals are climbing higher than Jack’s beanstalk, and that big kettle you just saw has vanished.

Today was one of those days, still a bit early in the fall migration season to worry what you might be missing, and yet, that familiar tug on my psyche was there, urging me to grab my binoculars and heavily-laden backpack and climb that hill that has been such a big part of my life for more than 30 years. The daily routine that has come ‘round every September since I-can-hardly-remember-when is so burned into my biorhythms that I have to remind myself: You don’t have to go. You can go to other hills, other lookouts. You can pick the spot that might be the best under whatever wind/weather conditions might exist and go there. You can go for however long or brief a spell you wish. You don’t have to collect data, don’t have to do PR, don’t have to repeat the same explanations or answer the same questions over and over and over again every day, and you don’t have to wish for companions when you are all alone for hours and hours when other people aren’t free to join you. And you don’t have to add to your lifetime overdose of UV exposure.

You’d think that would be enough to thwart the tug, right? It isn’t. A couple of days ago the temperatures were in the 90s, the humidity was worse than oppressive, and the haze so thick you wouldn’t have seen a Condor twenty feet away. I have to admit that I was relieved that I didn’t have to drive the 30 minutes to the hill, and then puff my way up to the site. I was relieved that I didn’t have to stand there for several hours collecting that ever-important negative data and then returning home with mega eyestrain and picking the flying ants out of my hair. It grieves me that the watchsite no longer has a leader/educator/host/entertainer. Who will try to inspire those folks that climb the trail to see a beautiful view, and might have fallen under the spell of hawk migration were there someone there to show them? Not me. No longer. My tenure has faded away, but strong remains my connection: feeling that tug in the autumn sky, my heart rising to meet it.

Fall Raptor Migration - August Roundup

2010-09-01T09:23:00.000-07:00

August 2010 proved to be a good start to the fall raptor migration season at a majority of the sites that count this early, buoyed by strong early flights of Broad-winged Hawks, Red-tailed Hawks and, to a lesser extent, Sharp-shinned Hawks.

Even the American Kestrel, whose numbers have dropped precipitously in recent years, had some good August results and didn’t seem to be much worse than average elsewhere. Kestrels put in an extra-good show on the last day of August at Greenlaw Mtn. in New Brunswick with 21. Lighthouse Pt. in Connecticut tallied 32 kestrels during the month, the most in at least 10 years (I didn’t look back further than that). To give you an idea of how good that number is, their 10-year August average for kestrels is 5.6 and last year they had just 3.

Cadillac Mtn. in Maine had a strong August, their second best in the past 8 years. Franklin Mtn. in New York was an exception to August’s overall strong results, turning in below average results for their efforts. Hawk Ridge in Duluth had nothing like the large August numbers they had last year, but with over 700 birds for the month, their results were still pretty good.

In Pennsylvania, Allegheny Front had something of an average August, but still posted strong Broad-winged Hawk results. Bake Oven Knob had a strong August, posting more than double the number of broadwings they usually see during this month. Hawk Mountain had a banner month for Bald Eagle with 85, their best August total in at least 15 years (I didn’t check back further than that). Virtually everything that flies past their mountain did so in numbers higher and sometimes a lot higher than usual for August. Their big exception was the Northern Harrier, which had a weak August almost everywhere. Waggoner’s Gap also had a good month and was just about the only site to post harrier numbers higher than their August average.

The southerly sites, especially in Virginia, had a rough start to their seasons due to weather issues. Rockfish Gap tried to get in a count for several days before it stopped raining and the fog cleared.

In Massachusetts, which boasts a lot of sites, only Blueberry Hill attempted a count in August. In New Jersey, Wildcat and Raccoon Ridges count sporadically during August.

The number of sites that count in August is still pretty low compared with those that start in September. In August, the most sites reporting to HMANA’s HawkCount on any one day was 20, and that number will certainly double or triple starting, well, starting today. Let September begin!

Fall migration report - late August

2010-08-25T11:21:00.000-07:00

More hawkwatches are opening almost every day now, and the hawkwatching is improving just as fast. Corpus Christi in south Texas already has had at least one banner day when 1,054 Mississippi Kites headed south. Counters reported several kettles of more than 200 kites at a time on August 16, though with a temperature of 104 in the shade, that might not count as fall hawkwatching.

In the eastern U.S. rain has hampered more than few days of counting so far. One thing that can be said for rain is that hawkwatching the day after it is usually pretty good! The best days so far this season were August 20-21, when Hawk Mountain was the first site north of Corpus Christi to post more than 100 raptors. They counted 104 on the 20th and just missed that mark the next day with 94. On the 20th their count included 14 Bald Eagles and 17 Osprey.

In non-hawk sightings, a few red-breasted nuthatches have already been reported, and a few south-bound ravens as well. Warblers are moving in fairly good numbers as well, at least when you consider it's still August. Overall, migration seems a tad ahead of schedule for this point in the month, even with the days lost to rain and fog.

In another week, September 1 will be here and most hawkwatches will be up and running and in full swing. Here in the mid-Atlantic, the weather will clear for tomorrow (Thursday) and bring a nice northwest wind. It just might be a good day to play hooky.

Fall hawkwatching is heating up!

2010-08-16T07:24:00.000-07:00

The floodgates of hawkwatches for the fall season are starting to open! A total of 8 hawkwatches reported sightings yesterday (Sunday). Waggoner’s Gap, near Carlisle, Pennsylvania, opened for full-time counting on August 1, though Second Mtn., Hawk Mtn., Allegheny Front (all Pennsylvania) and Pitcher Mtn. in New Hampshire have all recorded at least one count day since then, too.

So how do these early season results look so far? Waggoner’s has now tallied at least one of everything you could expect to see this early in the season, with the possible exception of Merlin. August 14 was their best day so far and brought 10 Bald eagles, including 5 in one kettle. Derby Hill, near Mexico, NY, counted for the first time August 14 and their count of 146 currently tops the list for the most raptors seen on one day in this fledgling fall season. They saw 72 Broad-winged hawks and 34 Red-tailed hawks in what counter Bill Purcell called a “modest dispersal flight of juvenile raptors.”

Second Mountain at Ft. Indiantown Gap, Pennsylvania, took honors of a different kind on August 14 with the first marriage proposal (and acceptance) of the new hawkwatching season. Congratulations go to Jason Book and Ashley Harris.

Currently now open for hawkwatching are also Rockfish Gap (Waynesboro, VA), Bake Oven Knob (Germansville, PA), Wildcat Ridge (Hibernia, NJ), Chestnut Ridge (Bedford, NY) and Hawk Ridge (Duluth, MN). Stay tuned! Those hawkwatching floodgates will open wide on September 1!

"You Might Be Getting Excited About Migration, But Not Me!"

2010-08-12T13:46:00.000-07:00

“You might be getting excited about migration, but not me” might well express the sentiments of a pair of Red-tailed Hawks that I have been observing closely this year. For the past few years I have been following several pairs of Red-tailed Hawks breeding in the close suburbs of Boston. One pair has been followed year round, as this pair does not migrate. This March I started following another pair nesting on an exposed ledge in a suburban strip mall, and have been observing them and their fledged young very closely.

In late July I was surprised when early one morning we saw the adult male, known as Buzz, break off several tree branches and carry them to a large nest that the pair might have used in 2009, or rebuilt but did not use in 2010. (Data suggests the nest that they might have used in 2009 blew down in October of that year, but a completed nest was discovered in the same tree this March.) Buzz, the adult male, broke off at least three branches and carried them to the nest where they were worked into the foundation by his mate, Ruby. This was unexpected, and I haven’t found any references in the general literature to Red-tails refurbishing or maintaining empty, unused nests in July.

This behavior was reconfirmed a week later when we spotted Buzz breaking off branches and carrying them to the nest where they had raised three young this year. No one in a rather large corps of observers had seen either of the adults back in the nest since the last chick fledged in early June, but Buzz carried several green, leafy branches into the nest and did some point work on the entire nest. He did this under the watchful eye of an unidentified hawk that was occupying a “pillar perch” high on an apartment building overlooking all the territory that Buzz and Ruby had worked this year. Then Buzz and Ruby sat up on the end of the building, facing the unknown Red-tail for about an hour.

Later that same morning we saw both adults break off twigs and carry them into the top of a thick white pine tree, where their behavior suggests they had another, previously known, nest. That would mean they had been working on at least three, possibly four different nests in the month of July, little more than six weeks after their last chick had fledged.

Have readers observed or read about similar behavior in other Red-tailed Hawks? My expectation is that with a very dense population of breeding Red-tails in suburban Boston, this pair will probably not migrate, preferring to stay near their nests all year long. It looks like I will be much more interested in hawk migration this year than they will be.

Fall 2010 Hawkwatching Officially Begins

2010-08-03T08:14:00.000-07:00

Fall Hawkwatching season is now officially open!

Three hawkwatches opened for the new migration season on August 1, all three in Pennsylvania. Waggoner’s Gap near Carlisle, Second Mountain near Ft. Indiantown Gap and Chester County hawkwatch (Chambers Lake at Hibernia Park) all were open for business this past Sunday.

To perhaps no one’s surprise, early season hawkwatching is not known for its high level of activity. Waggoner’s Gap saw a single American Kestrel, Chester County saw a Bald Eagle and an Osprey, and Second Mountain posted no migrating raptors seen in 4 hours on the lookout but did find a handful on non-migrating vultures. Given the southerly winds, rain, fog and haze, the results are not unexpected.

Still, it’s the start of the new season. Another handful of watches will put binoculars in the sky around August 15, and by September 1 most sites will be at full speed again. What will this new migration season bring? Great numbers? Disappointing results? More American Kestrels, perhaps?

Stay tuned to Hawk Migration Notes for regular updates on how the season is progressing. Who had a big day? Where was that rare raptor seen? We'll provide regular highlights of the season as it is occurring. Until September, highlights will be posted weekly, unless something really exciting happens. Starting in September, the highlights will become more frequent, as will, we hope, the hawks.

Kittatinny Roundtable

2010-07-26T08:54:00.000-07:00

On Saturday I attended the 2010 Kittatinny Roundtable at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, a really fun day that I always look forward to. Could anything be better on a sweltering midsummer day than sitting in cool surroundings with a group of hawkwatchers talking about the 2009 hawk migration season?

Hosted by Hawk Mountain and newly-minted PhD. Laurie Goodrich, their senior monitoring biologist, this year hawk counters came from as far away as Allegheny Front hawkwatch in the west to the northern New Jersey sites in the east. I think Picatinny Peak had to drive the farthest but I didn’t do the math on that. In any event, counters from Rose Tree Park, Scotts Mountain, Montclair, Bake Oven Knob, Hawk Mountain, Waggoners Gap, Jacks Mountain and Militia Hill were also there.

The format of the roundtable discussion is that for selected species we look at the peak migration day of the season and the total season count for that species. Was the peak day earlier or later than usual? Who got the big Broad-winged Hawk flight? Did one site have a terrible result but the neighboring site do well? How did weather impact this past season? How do the results look when compared with previous years? The discussions help to provide a more regional perspective on the past season than is possible when only looking at results from a single site.

A few sites claimed “bragging rights” this time around. Militia Hill near Philadelphia tallied more Broad-winged Hawks for the season than any other eastern site with their 13,436 and 7600 on their big day. Allegheny Front posted more Golden Eagles than any other eastern site with 204. The 2009 season turned out to be a bit lackluster for most of the sites. Nothing looked disastrous, with even the American Kestrel posting numbers a bit higher than we’ve seen over the past few years. The Bald Eagle and Peregrine Falcon are major successes virtually everywhere. Overall, the seasonal numbers looked about average, perhaps a tad below average, but only a tad.

But even a lackluster migration season can’t dampen the enthusiasm when you put all those hawkwatchers and counters in the same room for a day. It’s not often that we get a chance to get together and talk about hawks all day with other hawkwatchers, and that alone is well worth the drive.

Palm Trees and Peregrines - HMANA’s Hawkwatching Exchange Program

2010-07-07T09:28:00.001-07:00

Are you a fan of “destination hawkwatching”? For some people, (me included) there’s nothing more exciting than incorporating a little hawkwatching into your vacations...or better yet, planning your vacations around hawkwatching. Lots of us make annual pilgrimages to the Texas coast, or to Veracruz to see the large-scale migration. Some migrate all over the continent to favorite spots each spring or fall like Cape May, Hawk Mountain or Hawk Ridge, hoping to catch a stellar broadwing day or an invasion of goshawks. And of course to catch up with all your other migrant hawkwatching friends!

It’s all about networking. Years ago, while planning a trip to Sweden, I was able to connect with some great Swedish birders through http://www.birdingpal.org/. We met up and spent some wonderful days birding together. Well, why not do something similar with hawkwatching? Although plenty of sites are thriving, there are many struggling to stay afloat and face challenges finding funding or enough volunteer support. Could tapping into this reserve of sun-seeking or raptor-seeking travelers be a good way to help with this problem? HMANA feels that a Hawkwatcher’s Exchange Program may be a great way to connect these willing destination hawkwatchers with struggling sites.

Our goal is to create a posting board through the HMANA website for sites to connect with hawkwatchers around the country, or even the world. Sites can post announcements for paid or volunteer counting positions, or a note requesting a fill-in counter over a long weekend. Use this page to place an ad for a volunteer counter for a week-long stint of counting in coastal Virginia, or for someone to brave the cold and count golden eagles for the first week in November in New Hampshire.
Likewise, people hoping to get away to watchsites can use this page too. “Raptor enthusiasts looking for hawkwatching getaway in coastal New England for first week in October”.
The site will have a HMANA moderator who will work to connect people with sites. This is a new idea that we are still developing. We feel this job board may become a valuable resource to watchsites, a way to connect hawwatchers with positions and an opportunity for travelers to discover new and exciting places.

The Hawkwatchers Exchange site is currently a work in progress so stay tuned for more announcements. We hope to have it up and running for the upcoming fall migration season.

But while you’re waiting.....how does a week of counting peregrines sound in the Florida Keys? The Curry Hammock State Park Hawkwatch on Little Grassy Key is the perfect example of incorporating volunteer support to a site that needs assistance.
From September 15-October 31, 2010, HMANA will be staffing the site with all willing volunteer counters! Some volunteers live locally in the Keys and will help count or enter daily data reports. Others will come to volunteer their support from Miami, and as far away as New England. What could be better than planning a week of counting thousands of peregrines during peak migration? How about a planning your trip around the Florida Keys Birding and Wildlife Festival which takes place onsite from September 22-26. If you would like to get involved at Curry Hammock, please contact me for more information at tilden@hmana.org.

Gearing up for fall!

2010-06-30T08:37:00.000-07:00

Although I am wilting in the summer heat, I am hard at work on the fall issue of Hawk Migration Studies. I can already tell you that the new issue will be a good one, with some great articles, and I’d like to give you a short preview of what you can expect.

Frank Nicoletti has written a piece summarizing and analyzing his years of hawkwatching at West Skyline hawkwatch near Duluth. If you were lucky enough to attend HMANA’s conference there in April and attended Frank’s workshop, you’ll have an idea of what the article is about.

How would you like to count hawks at Curry Hammock on Little Crawl Key in Florida and help HMANA continue the important data collection there? We’re looking for a few good hawk counters (and those hoping to get better). The Curry Hammock site is being restarted as an all-volunteer site. In case you need any more enticement, the site boasts the highest fall count of Peregrine Falcons in the country and the second highest in the world. HMANA’s Julie Tilden gives you more details in the fall issue of HMS.

Have you ever thought how breeding bird atlas information can help determine the current state of raptor populations and distribution? Now that many states are working on their second atlasing project, the differences found between the first and second projects can be quite interesting. Paul Roberts discusses some of those differences in his own state of Massachusetts and gives some ideas for the rest of us.

We’ll be printing a lot of photos and a wrap-up of our successful conference in Duluth in April, a short piece on what the Turkey Vultures did to an opossum, the usual reports from all the North American flyways and lots more!

More Aesthetics: Hawk Glimpsing

2010-06-22T11:46:00.000-07:00

I sometimes wonder if hawk “watching” isn’t a somewhat misleading label for our observation of the raptor migration. It’s often more a matter of hawk “glimpsing.”

Granted, often we have an opportunity to “watch” an eagle approach our observation sites in a leisurely soar, over at least several minutes. More frequently, however, hawk “glimpsers” have only a second or two to find, observe, identify and enjoy a migrating raptor, the quintessentially “glimpsed” raptor being a Merlin or Peregrine Falcon slashing aggressively through space and time. Even observing a majestically soaring eagle, although not so electrifyingly quick an experience as catching a glimpse of a Merlin or Peregrine Falcon, is definitely a passing experience, something that can only be possessed briefly.

This very ephemeral nature of observing migrating raptors contributes significantly, I think, to the aesthetics of the activity, giving it a kind of “Wow!” factor that’s dramatically contrary to the overly programmed, controlled and predictable nature of most people’s everyday experiences. I like the photographs of raptors taken by my colleagues, but the photographs, as amazing as they often are, differ radically in effect from the fleeting apprehension of a migrating falcon, hawk or eagle. A photograph makes permanent, in a way, the moment of connectedness with something wild, but in so doing contradicts the quickness of that moment. That’s one of the reasons we don’t just stay home and look at pictures but go out to our observation sites hoping for the jolt of pleasure a brief connection with the raptors and with the migration, that great global movement of wildlife, can provide.

Live Action!

2010-06-15T10:04:00.000-07:00

In late April subscribers to NH.Birds got a birth announcement from Audubon biologist Chris Martin: "...at the Brady-Sullivan Tower in Manchester, ... the adult pair is trying to raise FIVE chicks! Will this be the first time on record anywhere in the Granite State that Peregrines successfully fledge five young?" Chris went on to say, "Get an inside look by visiting Peregrine Cam at http://www.spectraaccess.com/falcon2/. Who needs reality TV when you can watch this?"

Indeed! As these young eyasses grew people from all over the world "tuned" to the two-camera live coverage of this particular falcon family. Owl cams and falcon cams and just about any other bird cams have been around for a while, but until my recent access to high-speed internet I never really got into checking them out. Now able to view the comings and goings of the Manchester Peregrine parents as they cared for the five fluffy nestlings I became hooked. The link was constantly on my screen as I worked on various projects, and every once in a while I'd check in to see how the family was doing.

Wow! What a great view!

In mid-May the "kids" were surprised by a big green gloved hand reaching down into the nest box. One by one they were plucked from their huddle and disappeared from view somewhere above. Some time later they were returned wearing the "jewelry" which will identify them wherever they may be seen. USFWS aluminum bands as well as colored and numbered bands were placed on their legs by Martin and his assistant (HMANA award-recipient) Robert Vallieres. Viewers were treated to the sight of a very angry mother bird who tried to defend her young through the trap-door in the top of the nest box. Vallieres reports that she "would have come right into the room with us" if they hadn't been careful.

Within a couple of weeks the white fluffy down pajamas were being replaced by darker adult plumage, and the youngsters began exercising their newly feathered wings. Finally they began to be brave enough to venture out onto the perch, and would "fly" back and forth between it and the ledge.

This is how you do it!

By June 3 four of the young birds had taken flight. It took the youngest of the brood another couple of days before she was bold or hungry enough to make the jump.

Yes, this is my kind of "reality TV!"

And then there was one....

Thanks to the folks at Spectra Access for permission to use the photos accompanying this article.

Satisfy a Primitive Need: Become a Hawk Watcher!

2010-06-08T10:55:00.000-07:00

In a previous entry (“Letting the Day Come to You,” Monday, March 22, 2010), I took a preliminary stab at answering the implicit question, “What’s the pleasure in observing the migration and watching hawks?" The answer had to do in part with how hawk watching during the migration gives us a visceral and fulfilling connectedness with natural forces and movements like weather, the advancing of seasons, and, in the context of those, the migration itself.

Related to this connectedness (but different from it) is the kind of atavistic hunter-prey relationship we experience with the hawks and eagles we see and identify, similar to the relationship Ernest Hemmingway celebrated in his hunting and fishing exploits. We connect not only with the wild creatures on which we focus but also with a primitive part of ourselves from which centuries of civilization have estranged us, the hawk watcher’s successful identification of a hawk swooping past the watch (“I got it!”) functioning as the hunter’s cathartic coup de grace.

It doesn’t surprise me that many of the most dedicated hawk watchers I know either have been or are skilled and experienced hunters or fishermen. The primitive needs we satisfy at the hawk watch, in a rather sophisticated way, are much the same that hunters and fishermen address, but with an added benefit: when we get home, we don’t have to clean our catch!

Taking it to the Edge

2010-06-07T11:32:00.000-07:00

What a woman, that Rosalie Edge! Mrs. Charles Noel Edge, as she was known among her contemporaries, was not intimidated by anyone when it came to acting on her conscience. She honed her skills in battle when she joined the women’s suffrage movement. She learned to write powerfully and persuasively – in pamphlets, in letters to politicians, to newspapers. Later she took on powerful entities who claimed to be conservationists but mostly acted in their own self interest. We all know that were it not for her untiring efforts the hawks we study today might not have safe passage past our lookouts. But without her many other endeavors on behalf of our environment, the world would be a very different place.

Many of the battles Mrs. Edge undertook and won, need to be fought again today. In a 1935 Emergency Conservation Committee (ECC) publication, Fighting the Good Fight: Program for Conservation Advance in Five Years, she wrote that “beaches were defiled with oil and dead and dying birds.” Yes, that was 75 years ago! We can only imagine her reaction to the current situation in the Gulf of Mexico. Would that this fearless woman were here to take on BP and those more interested in lining their pockets than in maintaining healthy ecosystems. We need a 21st Century Rosalie!

I have learned so much about this intriguing woman who inspired Rachel Carson, among others, by reading Rosalie Edge, Hawk of Mercy (2009 University of Georgia Press), by Dyana Furmansky. I encourage anyone who cares about our incredible planet to read this eye-opening and well-written book.

photo from www.hawkmtn.org/history

Honoring HMANA's past Board Chairman

2010-05-18T16:25:00.000-07:00

Iain MacLeod, Executive Director of Squam Lakes Natural Science Center in Holderness, NH has been honored recently for his extensive contributions to HMANA. Iain had been HMANA's Board Chairman for the last three years and was replaced by Gil Randall in December, 2009.

Since Iain was not present to accept his awards at HMANA's conference in Duluth, MN last month, he recently was presented with a HMANA appreciation award and a gift from the Board of Directors for his service. The gift was a beautiful painting of Pandion haliaetus by David Hughes, a wildlife artist from Pennsylvania.

Iain has given greatly to HMANA and to the raptor conservation field. Some of the outstanding contributions he has made include the groundbreaking work in the Raptor Population Index Project, as well as his guidance and contributions to the Hawk Migration Studies journal. The HMANA board and staff are grateful for his keen leadership and dedication to the organization.

Thank you Iain!

Celebrating Raptor Migration

2010-05-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

In case you didn’t get your raptor conference fix from HMANA’s recent Soaring Above Superior conference in Duluth MN, Audubon Greenwich offered another opportunity this past weekend. On Saturday, May 8, 2010, Audubon hosted a conference called “Monitoring and Managing Raptor Populations” which took place at the Audubon Greenwich Nature Center in CT, home of the Quaker Ridge fall hawkwatch site.

The event was a celebration of International Migratory Bird Day and truly honored this year’s theme, “Conserving Birds by Connecting People”. With representatives from across the hemisphere, it was a collaborative conference to identify raptor management priorities and opportunities to engage citizen scientists in these strategies.

HMANA was happy to support this conference as a sponsor and to contribute to the day’s events with a panel discussion on hawkwatch practices and protocols.
Among the participants were representatives from Pronatura Veracruz, Mexico, Bird Life International- Paraguay, Panama Audubon Society, National Audubon Society - International Alliances Program, Hawk Mountain Sanctuary, Audubon Vermont, and the Audubon Center in Sharon.

More highlights to come.....

The Duluth HMANA Conference: Part 2

2010-05-03T12:06:00.000-07:00

Usually I debate the real benefits going to almost any conference, professional or personal. The recent HMANA conference in Duluth was no exception. I wanted to do all the field trips and attend all the papers, but the schedule made that impossible. Fortunately, I decided to go, and ultimately I was very happy with my decisions, though I regretted missing several excellent presentations. (Funny what seeing a Great Gray and two Northern Hawk Owls can do.)

I heard some fascinating presentations at Duluth, several of which were on what we are learning through satellite tracking. Tracking studies have provided dramatic new insights into the incredible migration of shorebirds, such as Whimbrel and Bar-tailed Godwit, and this holds true for raptors as well. Two papers focused on satellite tracking of Bald and Golden Eagles that winter in the Upper Mississippi Valley. One paper revealed impressive variability in Bald Eagle migration and in their summer and winter ranges. I was also surprised to learn about the impressive number of Golden Eagles that winter in southern Minnesota and Wisconsin in habitat that I wouldn’t expect them to occur, and what these “winter Minnesotans” do on their spring migration. There is a lot of exciting field research in progress, and we at the conference were fortunate to hear these presentations well before journal articles by the researchers will be published.

Actively discussing this subject with several people at the conference, another benefit, I was reminded of a classic work, Sparrowhawk, by Ian Newton, which clearly shows that in one species, at least, breeding behavior and success for the average adult Sparrowhawk is not what you might expect. This monograph is a must read for serious students of hawks. Newton’s Population Ecology of Raptors is another “must read.” Finally, I would recommend Newton’s Migration Ecology of Birds, published in 2008. At 976 pages, you might need until the next HMANA conference to complete it, but it is the best, most thorough, single book on bird migration I’ve ever read. If you want to better understand bird migration, or just what we know about hawk migration, you should read Migration Ecology, a book jam packed with information and rich insights into bird migration. If I had one book on birds to take to a desert island where I would be stranded for the rest of my life, this would be it. (Note that Newton was the keynote speaker at the previous HMANA Conference at Hawk Mountain in 2007!)

When the next HMANA Conference is held, wherever that might be (probably in 2013), I’ll debate forking out the money and the time, and will decide to go. As has happened every time I have gone, I will be very glad that I did. I should note that HMANA volunteers and the staff and volunteers of Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth put on an absolutely first-rate conference. Thank you to everyone who helped to make it such a great event.

(Bald Eagle Photo by Robert Augart)

Duluth HMANA Conference Field Trip

2010-04-26T07:30:00.000-07:00

I’ve been to most HMANA conferences over the past 30 years. Sometimes I debate myself over the time and financial costs, and afterwards, I am always very glad I went. I first birded in Texas in 1992 as part of the Corpus Christi conference. I had such a great time – I’ll never forget my first Caracara, my first Great Kiskadee, and my first White-tailed Hawk – that I have made at least 18 subsequent birding trips to Texas. I first visited Utah on a fantastic conference at Snowbird. I got a lot of life birds, but was so impressed by Utah’s beauty I have been back a dozen times. And of course, the presentations were fantastic at the conferences at well. With the great presentations at the Duluth conference, I learned a lot because most of the material was as yet unpublished.

One of the highlights of the Duluth conference was the Friday morning field trip to Sax-Zim bog, about a half hour’s drive from Duluth, famous for its boreal species highlighted by occasional spectacular winter invasions of Great Gray Owls and Hawk Owls.

Starting out at dawn in a very comfortable small bus, we all had high hopes but realistic expectations. The trip the day before had seen relatively little in very strong, gusty winds. We were shocked when about 30 seconds off the highway, we suddenly stopped, backed up, and found ourselves looking at a Great Gray Owl perched at eye level on the edge of the dirt road, as though it were sitting next to us on the bus. We were able to back up further and get out without disturbing the owl. The trip was already a fantastic success, because no one, including our superb guides, expected Great Gray this late.

We continued on. Our second special bird was a Northern Hawk Owl, perched on a sign along the road. It dropped down to hunt several times and carried prey back to what we assumed to be its nest while Sandhill Cranes called loudly and flew around the clearing in the woods. It was barely 7 a.m and we already had a fantastic trip, with lifer birds for many of the 12 people on the bus. Shortly thereafter we had a second hawk Owl, even closer, and which flew right over us, low.

There were other birds as well, about a half dozen Black-billed Magpies, Sharp-tailed Grouse displaying on a lek, about a half dozen male Northern Harriers, winnowing Wilson’s Snipe displaying overhead, lots of Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers, and at least a half dozen Bald Eagles close, and a number of ducks. We stopped at two sets of feeders isolated in the bog, but known to produce Boreal Chickadee on occasion. We had to be satisfied with Red-breasted Nuthatches, a Pine Siskin, and a gorgeous male Purple Finch. We had 50 species in an unforgettable field trip and conference.

(Photographs by David Brandes)

We wish you had been there!

2010-04-21T07:56:00.000-07:00

What a great time! A huge amount of appreciation goes to the Hawk Ridge Observatory gang for all the work that went into hosting the event. The presentations were excellent, the field excursions awesome, and the opportunity to see old friends and make new ones all contributed to another successful HMANA conference.

The only thing we could have wished for was that you were there to share in the experience!

Look for an upcoming blog on field trips. And check out HMANA makes news .

Our keynote speaker following Saturday’s banquet was Dr. David Mech, Senior Research Scientist, USGS. You may have read some of his accounts over the years in National Geographic and other publications. He shared with us highlights of his 50+ year career as one of the world’s top wolf researchers. Why a program on wolves? You may wonder. Along with hawks and eagles, wolves are at the top of the food chain. Many of their prey are the same, and cycles which affect one tend to affect the other. Mech showed us some stunning photos and video clips. One such clip showing a connection between Golden Eagles and wolves was extracted from this excellent film . We're certain you'll say "Wow!" as we all did that night in Duluth.

Above: David Mech (Vic Berardi photo); Top: timber wolf track (S.Fogleman photo)

HMANA’s Duluth conference an international event; Iceland volcano presents problem for Congolese scientists

2010-04-21T07:22:00.000-07:00

What could a volcano in Iceland and visitors from Africa possibly have in common with the HMANA conference in Duluth? This was a situation that conference organizer Julie O’Connor could never have anticipated. Shortly before the conference began, she received registrations from two scientists in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Not long after their arrival in Duluth, the eruption in Iceland had begun spewing a huge ash cloud which shut down air travel throughout Europe. At the end of the conference Bandele Fidele Egalenzibo and Luhilu Mukwalemba Bienvenue were scheduled to make flight connections in Brussels on their way home from Duluth.

Despite language problems (Julie doesn’t speak French, the language of the DRC, and our distinguished visitors speak very little English) O’Connor devoted a huge amount of time over the next few days working phone and internet in an attempt to find a solution to the travel dilemma presented. On Saturday evening we learned that she had helped them connect with a friend at UMichigan who would arrange a flight to Kinshasa-Gombe. She and one of the Hawk Ridge volunteers saw them off on a bus to Ann Arbor. Bon voyage, amis!

in photo, L to R: Fidele Egalenzibo, senior scientist, Ministry of the Environment, Democratic Republic of the Congo; Aldo Contreras Reyes, Chavarillo Veracruz, Mexico; Jean-Pierre Savard, Environment Canada; Luhilu Mukwalemba Bienvenue, Ministry of the Environment, DRC; David Hussell, Environment Canada; Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza, Xalapa, MX and currently teaching at Dartmouth College in NH

HMANA Conference continues..

2010-04-17T03:28:00.000-07:00

Friday at the HMANA conference was a grand success! Participants enjoyed a full day of different field trips and a host of scientific and non-scientific presentations. Some of the talks included: Raptor Migration by Computer-Using Modeling and Satellite Tracking Data to Fill in the Gaps by David Brandes, Migratory Route of a Golden Ealge bwtween Southwestern Wisconsin and Norhtern Canada by Mark Martell, and Precious Little Jewels- Teaching Children about Raptors by Janice Sweet.

After a wonderful dinner, we had the honor of listening to Dr Scott Lanyon, professor and head Dept. of Ecology, Evolution, and behavior at the University of Minnesota. He gave an excellent presenation entitled: Insights from the Avian Tree if Life: Raptor Stories. He explained how scientists discover the evolutionary relationships of modern species and how are changing understanding of these relationships leads to changes in in raptor classification. It was one of the top highlights of the conference.

Photos:

Janelle Long - Executive Director -Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory and Conference Coordinator Julie O' Connor

Laurie Goodrich - Hawk Mountain Sanctuary and David Hussell - HMANA advisor

Ernesto Ruelas -RPI Project Manager and Aldo Reyes - Veracruz River of Raptors Hawkwatch

HMANA's Spring Conference in Progress

2010-04-16T09:57:00.001-07:00

Raptor enthusiasts from around North America and abroad are enjoying the start of HMANA's spring conference this weekend. The conference is hosted by Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory and being held at the Raddisson Hotel in Duluth, MN. Most arrived and registered thursday night in time ot relax and enjoy the evening social. The conference kicked off this morning with some great scientific speakers. Stay tuned for more updates!

In the photos above we see Brett Mandernack presenting his data on satellite tracking bald eagles in the upper midwest, and Ernesto Ruelas standing aside HMANA's information table.

Spring Raptorthon is Heating Up

2010-04-13T05:54:00.000-07:00

It’s t-shirt weather at a lot of watchsites across North America! Featured in this photo and wearing his new free Raptorthon shirt is Brain Taber of the College Creek Hawkwatch in VA. Brian and his team-mates spent one full day on April 7th counting hawks for their spring Raptorthon event.
Visit: www.coastalvirginiawildlifeobservatory.blogspot.com/ to see his results.

The spring Raptorthon is currently underway! Individuals and watchsite teams from across the country are participating in this fun event as a way to raise awareness for raptor conservation as well as funds for their local watchsites and raptor monitoring efforts at HMANA.

It’s not too late to get out and get involved. The spring Raptorthon event continues through May 15th. Broad-winged hawk migration is heating up through most of the east…a perfect time to organize a one day Raptorthon count with your family or friends. Check out our website for details: www.hmana.org/raptorthon

If you don’t have the time this spring to organize your own event, there’s a new way to get involved. You can show your support for any team online! Visit HMANA’s Raptorthon page and click on “Donate Now”. There you will see a drop-down menu of all participating sites where you can make a pledge for any amount.

Thanks for your support!

New North American Hawk Silhouette Guide Available Free

2010-04-08T08:37:00.000-07:00

The Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) has published a new silhouette Guide to Hawks Seen in North America. This new, 2-pp, black-and-white guide features soaring silhouettes and key field marks of 21 migratory hawks regularly seen in most of North America. The artwork is by Paul Carrier, who developed the silhouette Guide to Hawks Seen in the North East two years ago.

This new guide is a significant revision and expansion of that guide, adding Mississippi Kite, Ferruginous Hawk, Prairie Falcon, and adult male Northern Harrier, as well as other new images and additional field marks. The guide can be downloaded and printed free of charge for personal, noncommercial use by visiting www.hmana.org . The guide has also been professionally printed on heavy, glossy card stock and laminated for all-weather use in the field. Individual laminated copies cost $5 plus $1 postage and handling.

Hawk watches, bird clubs, schools, nature shops, or any other organization can raise funds and help educate their constituents about hawk identification by purchasing the guide in bulk quantity at wholesale prices. For complete information, including bulk pricing, and to order or download the new guide, visit www.hmana.org

The HMANA web site also offers a lot of information on hawk identification and migration, including a new guide to books and online resources on hawk identification and migration, as well as the popular Guide to Hawks Seen in the North East and the free PowerPoint presentation, Identification of Raptors of the Northeast. These valuable hawk identification aids can all be downloaded free of charge.

Happy Easter!

2010-04-05T11:09:00.000-07:00

Broadwings are on the move!

The first good-sized push of northward-bound Broad-winged Hawks crossed over Bentsen Rio Grande Valley State Park near Mission, Texas, on Easter morning. Just under 4000 were counted for the day, nearly all in the morning hours.

Seeking the Karearea in a Land of Few Hawks - Part 2

2010-03-30T11:47:00.000-07:00

Where seeing Kahu is easy, finding Karearea is far more challenging. And, as we were told by several Kiwi birders, it is usually a matter of luck. There are certain places one can go where one’s fortunes are enhanced, but there’s never a guarantee. For the first 20 days, the closest we came to encountering the New Zealand Falcon was on a forest road near a native forest (a vanishing endemic ecosystem). It was late afternoon, when we heard the signature “kek-kek-kek-kek-kek-kek” call to the east of our location. My husband managed to catch a glimpse of the Peregrine-sized bird just as it rounded a corner of the woods and disappeared into the trees. That was it. No more calling, no more glimpses. I was afraid my luck had run out, as we weren’t going to be in many more of the “enhanced chances” spots before we headed back to the US.

One day on South Island we stopped on a farm road in the hills between Haast Pass and Wanaka to bird, do some botanizing, and to search for a geocache. My spouse had walked up a stream to a waterfall for the latter, and I had gone in a different direction for the former purposes. From our widely separated positions we heard it: “kek-kek-kek-kek-kek-kek!” Sounding like a Kestrel on steroids, the heavily-streaked dark chocolate-colored bird was circling above us carrying prey. “FALCON!” we each shouted. And then I saw the female, the probable intended recipient of the small bird clutched in the caller’s talons. The vocalizing bird disappeared behind the ridge above me, as the larger bird dropped onto a rock high on the slope. “Grab the camera, I’ve got the female!” I shouted to my husband, now running up the road, but still a couple of hundred meters away.

She was still there when he arrived, panting, but with his lens already in position. The male never came back into view – too bad, because the light was such that a shot of him against the blue sky would have been awesome. Presumably he had touched down somewhere above the female, and was waiting for us to clear out before bringing her his gift. We waited in vain, and finally had to leave. The photo of the female isn’t wonderful; she was just a little too far away.

Karearea. Pai rawa atu!

Seeking the Karearea in a Land of Few Hawks - Part 1

2010-03-29T06:47:00.000-07:00

My husband and I had the good fortune to spend almost a month in New Zealand last fall. (It was springtime there.) There aren’t many endemic bird species in that country, but the ones that are there are quite unique and unquestionably amazing. European settlement burgeoned only a little over 150 years ago, and oh, how that changed things. New Zealand’s native terrestrial avifauna consisted of mostly weak-flying or flightless species – think Kiwi, for example. Europeans missed their birds from home, consequently most of the birds one easily sees now are those commonly seen in the UK: Blackbirds, Song Thrushes, Chaffinches, Skylarks, European Goldfinches, Greenfinches, Yellowhammers, and more. There were no native land mammals in New Zealand either, so in addition to birds and domestic pets, rabbits, sheep, stoats, ferrets (to “eliminate” the Polynesian rats introduced earlier by the Maori), and the omnivorous Australian brush-tailed possum were brought in. These actions spelled doom for native birds.

Raptors might have helped keep the small mammal population in check, but for the fact that New Zealand has only two raptor species, the Australasian Harrier (Maori name: Kahu) and the New Zealand Falcon (Karearea). The Kahu is fairly widespread across the lands of the southwestern Pacific, but the falcon is endemic to New Zealand. Naturally, this latter fact put the Karearea at the top of my “must see” list (along with Kiwi, Kokako, and Rifleman).

From the very first day leaving Aukland Kahus were seen, soaring over meadows and hillsides, skimming grassland and marsh, weaving through hedgerows. Resembling Turkey Vultures in flight, they have a deeper dihedral than do our Northern Harriers. Sometimes they are seen in groups, coursing above the landscape. Kahus feed on small prey like mice and insects, but carrion comprises a large part of their diet, making these birds vulnerable to collisions with vehicles.

Part 2: The Karearea

Letting the Day Come to You

2010-03-22T04:17:00.000-07:00

There are a host of reasons for spending a day or many days at a hawk watch. Many of those are readily perceived and understood: the excitement of thousands of Broad-winged Hawks in the sky at one time, a good look at a migrating Golden Eagle and the first Osprey of the season.

Underlying these fairly accessible pleasures are some other, perhaps more profound but usually subliminal reasons for what we do. One of these has to do, I think, with simply letting the day come to you.

In a way that's almost oriental and meditative, hawk watching entails patience and a willingness to allow the passage of time and the movements of a discrete day to unfold without aggressively trying to influence what happens in it. This letting go while still paying close attention to temperature, wind direction, cloud cover, visibility and other movements of the day returns to us a connectedness to the natural world that's rare in most of our lives. I think it's this feeling of connectedness, in this way and others, that calls us to the hawk watch, even when the wind is in the east and the hawks are spread out and few.

Monarch Butterfly numbers at historic low numbers

2010-03-21T08:25:00.000-07:00

Most hawkwatch sites that see them count Monarch butterflies, and this year reporting those numbers may be more important than ever. Monarch Watch reports that flooding, resulting landslides and cold weather at the butterfly’s wintering grounds in Mexico have reduced the already small wintering population by as much as 50%. The 2009-2010 over-wintering season began with the lowest number of butterflies seen in the past 16 years, Dr. Lincoln Brower reported in the current issue of the organization’s weekly spring newsletter, Monarch Butterfly Journey North.

The organization also reports that the 12 Texas observations of migrating monarchs for the current week are well below the nearly 70 sightings reported last year during the same week. The newsletter Journey North reports weekly on the progress of the monarch migration. Sightings of northward-bound monarchs may be reported directly to the organization on the site's Maps and Journal page.

HawkCount and Local Hawk Watches

2010-03-19T21:00:00.000-07:00

I’m blissfully sunburned after about as beautiful a day as you can possibly get on the south shore of Lake Erie in March. We saw nice runs of Red-shouldered Hawks and Red-tailed Hawks, with a few great looks at Bald Eagles and other raptors thrown in for good measure.

As the Ripley Hawk Watch’s official counter, I’ve just completed entering our data for March 18th in http://www.hawkcount.org/. We only had six people at the watch today, but I know we have dozens, maybe hundreds, that follow our days by going to HawkCount on the internet.

If you haven’t visited HawkCount recently, go there and look at the expanded site profiles affiliates have developed with the help of HMANA staff. Notice also the expanded species information for reporting sites: HawkCount now includes graphic representation of migration peaks and duration for recorded species at each raptor watch.

I especially appreciate the way HawkCount presents polished and professional reports based on the data we enter daily. These reports reinforce the local message we try to get out that our monitoring of the migration is an important conservation activity, is disciplined, and constitutes a significant contribution to scientific knowledge about important resources.

If you aren’t already a regular user of HawkCount, check it out!

How about those eagles?

2010-03-18T13:27:00.000-07:00

Finally! The central and east coast weather systems have cleared, and the first decent flights of migrating hawks weren’t far behind. March 16 and 17 were the first good days for many spring hawkwatches.

West Skyline in Duluth counted (please sit down first) an amazing 679 bald eagles on March 16. Counter Karl Bardon reported the flight was very compacted with hourly counts of 218 from 12-1300 and 247 from 13-1400. Kettles of 30-40 eagles were reported. To make that sweet story even sweeter, their count of 30 Golden Eagles isthe highest spring count for the site to date.

Red-tailed hawks generally posted good numbers elsewhere, with bald eagles also putting in a good show in a few other places. Derby Hill in New York found 156 Red-tails on March 17, and nearby Braddock Bay posted 100 on the 16th. The days were also good ones for variety at these New York Sites.

Even the sites that didn’t find great numbers of birds weren’t complaining about the weather.

Join HMANA in Costa Rica for a Birding and Raptor Migration Tour

2010-03-09T06:46:00.000-08:00

October 15-24, 2010

Witnessing the migration of hundreds of thousands of raptors overhead is exhilarating. It is a phenomenon that every birder should witness at least once in their life. Join HMANA for an exciting 10 day tour through Costa Rica in mid October, as we explore a wide diversity of habitat types and the large-scale migration of Neo-tropical raptors.

HMANA’s 10-day trip will explore a variety of the country’s diverse ecosystems including the Caribbean coastal & Pacific lowland rain forests, the Central highlands and a volcano, mangrove swamps, and the dry forest. A central part of the trip will be two full days visiting the Kèköldi Hawk Watch, one of the greatest raptor migration hotspots in the world. The Migratory Raptor Conservation and Monitoring Program at Kèköldi regularly count 2 to 3 million raptors of 20+ different species each fall. It is not uncommon to observe over 200,000 raptors migrating on a mid-October day! Given the watchsite location, high in a canopy tower overlooking the Caribbean, it is an ideal spot to watch the large-scale passerine and waterbird migration, not to mention the rich local bird diversity.

Other highlights of this trip include observing up to 300 species of birds, numerous reptiles, including crocodiles, and diverse plant life. This tour includes eight full and active days of birding and sightseeing with moderate drives between locations. Several days in each eco-region will allow us a relaxed pace to absorb some of the rich culture and easy-going Costa Rican lifestyle that typifies this country’s unique charm.

Join us for this once in a lifetime experience!

For all tour information and pricing, please visit: www.hmana.org/Costa_Rica/ Or contact Julie Tilden at tilden@hmana.org, (781) 264-0778.

2010 Spring Hawkwatching Season Begins!

2010-02-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

Wildcat Ridge in New Jersey was the first hawkwatch to officially open the spring 2010 hawkwatching season. Counter Fred Vanderburgh spent four hours on the lookout on February 15. He didn't see any migrating hawks but saw 2 local Red-tailed Hawks, "a few TV's" and noted 5 visitors in his report to HawkCount.

Three days later on February 18, Fort Smallwood Park in Maryland became the first hawkwatch to post migrants when counter Sue Ricciardi saw two Turkey Vultures in 3.25 hours at her site. The next day Sue counted 13 migrants--11 Turkey Vultures, a Bald Eagle and a Northern Harrier.

Not to be outdone, Second Mountain in Pennsylvania counted 53 migrants on February 20. The breakdown was 27 Turkey Vultures, 23 Black Vultures and 3 Red-Tailed Hawks in three hours of counting by Morris Cox. The next day the site also counted a sub-adult Golden Eagle and a Red-shouldered Hawk, among more vultures.

To date, no other sites have joined these three, but it's obviously time to ready the gear for spring hawkwatching!

Celebrate Spring Migration with HMANA's Raptorthon Event

2010-02-16T11:25:00.000-08:00

It certainly doesn’t look like spring outside my window and its hard to beleive that spring migration is right around the corner. As raptors prepare to head north, HMANA prepares for our first Spring Raptorthon! Last fall, raptor enthusiasts from across the country helped us launch our first ever Fall Raptorthon event and raised funds that directly supported raptor monitoring programs at HMANA and participating watch sites.
Now we are gearing to celebrate spring raptor migration across the country and we want you to join us. It’s easy and fun.

Still wondering how Raptorthon works? Like Birdathon, Raptorthon is a sponsored Bird Count, but is focused on raptors.
Here’s how it works….

Choose your count options and make it fun. It’s up to you!

(1) Choose any day(s) from 1 March to 15 May. Choose where you’d like to count; your local watch site, your backyard? You may count as an individual or as part of a team. Decide what you would like to count (the number of species you see? all individual raptors? only merlins?)

(2) Register with HMANA (either by mail or online). Assign a percentage of your proceeds to a watch site or other conservation organization. Receive a free Raptorthon t-shirt for you and your teammates when you register!

(3) Find sponsors to pledge support for your Raptorthon, either with a flat rate, for each raptor species you identify, or for your count per species (e.g. $5/bald eagle).

(4) Do your Raptorthon and enjoy yourself!

(5) Report to your sponsors and collect your pledges.

(6) Send pledge money to HMANA.

(7) HMANA will issue receipts to sponsors and distribute the money you assigned to a watchsite or conservation organization.

(8) All results will be presented in HMANA’s Hawk Migration Studies journal.

Why should you participate in HMANA’s Spring Raptorthon?

It’s fun and will raise awareness of raptors and hawk watching everywhere!
Do you use HawkCount.org, HMANA’s on-line hawkwatch information system and data archive? Raptorthon dollars will help to support and improve HawkCount.org, as well as the Raptor Population Index and other HMANA services for hawk watchers, including the HMANA Blog and e-newsletter.
Dollars raised can help support your local hawkwatch or another non-profit of your choice.
Your Raptorthon results will be posted in HMANA’s Hawk Migration Studies journal and on the web to compare across the continent.
Your local watch site could see more golden eagles, merlins, etc., in your Raptorthon than any other watch site.

All Spring Raptorthon forms are available at www.hmana.org/raptorthon. If you would like hard copies of the forms and instructions, or if you have any questions, please contact Julie Tilden at tilden@hmana.org or (781) 264-0778.

Registration is Now Open for HMANA's 2010 Conference

2010-01-18T07:48:00.001-08:00

The 2010 Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) conference will be hosted by Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory held in Duluth, Minnesota April 15-18, 2010. Positioned at the southwestern tip of magnificent Lake Superior, Duluth offers a mix of great birding, picturesque scenery and a terrific spring raptor migration. April birding in Northern Minnesota offers a wide variety of boreal species, winter specialties, northern owls and spring migrants as the convergence of three different biomes maximizes the number of different species to be seen.

The 2010 conference will feature scientific presentations, informative posters, entertaining keynote speakers, a silent auction, fantastic northern-specialty field trips as well as free shuttle service from the conference site to Hawk Ridge's Spring Hawk Count site!

Our conference will open on Thursday afternoon with our annual board meeting and membership meeting followed by a Welcome Social and introductions. Friday and Saturday will be filled with speakers, presentations and field trips. We have programming scheduled from sunrise to sunset each day, and we'll offer the same field trips on Friday AND Saturday so you don’t have to choose between the speakers you want to hear and the birds you want to see!

There is an open call for papers and posters on our conference website. If you're interested in presenting your work at this conference, please visit http://www.hmana.org/ or http://www.hawkridge.org/ for submission details.

You may register online, by mail or by phone. Field trips and banquets are optional, so you can customize your conference weekend to suit your greatest interests. Evening banquets will feature delicious food (vegetarian options are available) and fascinating speakers. We are excited to announce that L. David Mech, Senior Research Scientist with the U.S. Geological Survey will recap his career of 50 years of wolf research at our Saturday evening banquet!

Detailed conference schedule, open call for papers, registration forms, lodging/travel information and other conference information are available at our website, accessible through either http://www.hmana.org/ or http://www.hawkridge.org/ (click on the conference logo). For more information, contact Conference Coordinator Julie O’Connor at HMANA2010@aol.com or 218-348-2291.

New HMANA board meets in New Hampshire

2009-12-17T07:21:00.000-08:00

The Hawk Migration Association of North America held its annual face-to-face board meeting at Squam Lakes in New Hampshire this past weekend. For new board members, it was a time to meet the people they will be working with for the next several years. For the outgoing board members, it was a last time to see folks with whom they’ve already shared several years of work.

Among those going off the board were Iain MacLeod, who’s been the board chair for the past 3 years. Iain isn’t going too far, though, as he will stay on several HMANA committees and continue to spearhead the layout and design of Hawk Migration Studies. Iain, who is executive director of Squam Lakes Nature Center, also hosted the board meeting.

Replacing Iain as chair will be Gil Randell, from Mayville, New York. Gil was HMANA’s vice chair last year and has served as chair of the Conservation and Education Committee for several years. He is a regular at Ripley Hawkwatch.

Three new board members joined the group, though only two are really new to the board. Susan Fogleman of Plymouth, New Hampshire, is returning to the board after a year’s absence. She serves on the Marketing and Communications and the Conservation and Education committees and has been site coordinator at Little Roundtop in New Hampshire for longer than she’d probably want me to say. She’s also one of the writers of this blog.

The other two new board members are Allen Hale, head of Buteo Books based in Shipman, Virginia, and Daena Ford, from Braddock Bay New York’s hawkwatch. Retiring from the board due to term limitations are Steve Hoffman of Montana Audubon, Iain MacLeod and Paul Roberts.

Counting for Christmas

2009-12-03T17:50:00.000-08:00

Nothing beats counting Pine Grosbeaks on a cold December day!
Yup, it’s that time of year again - the weather is getting chillier and I’m hearing Christmas tunes at the grocery store. Yes, the holidays are approaching, but there is also one more thing that’s bound to bring you lots of cheer….it’s Christmas Bird Count season!

This year marks the 110th annual Christmas Bird Count (CBC), an effort begun by the National Audubon Society. From December 14 through January 5th, thousands of volunteers across North America will join together to take part in an adventure that has become a tradition for several generations.
If you’re not familiar with CBCs, here’s how they work. Each count takes place during a 24-hour period within a specified 15-mile diameter count circle. Participants - individuals or teams – divide up the sections, and the group tallies up the results at day’s end. Every individual bird of every species is counted and recorded on a checklist, so every bird counts! The numerous house sparrows and European starlings are counted just as vigilantly as the coveted goshawks and shrikes.
The data from this longest-running wildlife census is then compiled and used by National Audubon together with other conservation organizations to assess the health of bird populations and to guide conservation decisions.

CBCs are all inclusive, and anyone can participate – all ages and all birding levels are welcome. Routes often follow roadways, so those who prefer not to hike much can still contribute. Feeder-watching is another useful and fun way of participating, and it allows participants to count birds outside from indoors.

In the New England counts where I participate, I like to choose routes where I can cover ground by snowshoe, although there are many times when the wind is blowing hard and the temperature drops below freezing when I’m wishing I had the warmth of a car!
Each year, I extend the invitation to friends; even non-birders have fun. It’s an opportunity to share in great winter birding and get involved in a larger effort.

Some years, while in between field jobs, I’d make it my goal to participate in as many counts as I could. I think my record was six counts spanning from Outer Cape Cod up to the far northern reaches of New Hampshire… an exciting journey full of jaegers, dovekies, gray jays and crossbills.

What I most enjoy about CBCs is the history and community traditions behind them. Each count is unique, but most end the day with a celebratory gathering to discuss the findings in a warm place, usually involving hot food and cocoa – at least up here in the Northeast. Some of my birding friends have been conducting these surveys continuously for over 50 years. It’s not only the birds that bring them back, year after year. And, imagine the changes they’ve seen in that span of time!

As raptor enthusiasts and hawkwatchers, we need to support conservation organizations and all efforts to monitor bird populations. After all, it is through CBCs, Breeding Bird Surveys and hawkwatching efforts that we are learning valuable information about raptor populations and how to best manage for species, both common and rare.

Please consider joining in the fun this winter by helping out with your local CBC. Maybe it’ll become part of your annual holiday season tradition, too! To find your nearest CBC, visit National Audubon’s website: http://www.audubon.org/Bird/cbc/ and click on “Get Involved”. The “Count Date Search” will help you find a count near you.

HawkCount...So Much More than Just Daily Totals

2009-11-30T18:12:00.000-08:00

Chances are, if you are a hawkwatcher and spend time visiting watchsites during the spring and fall months, you are familiar with HMANA’s hawkwatching database, HawkCount (www.hawkcount.org).

Since I began hawkwatching in 1999, I have treasured HawkCount as a means of staying up-to-date on what’s happening in Maine, Texas, Illinois, Mexico...you name it. I begin by easily locating watchsites by state or by province from the drop down menu or by using the interactive map. Next, I simply click on an active watchsite and find hourly, daily, or seasonal totals by month or by year – and you’re there! Scroll down to read the summary reports and highlights, a world of raptor observations at your fingertips.
For years, this is solely what I used HawkCount for. But the fun doesn’t stop there...

Click on SITE PROFILE for each site and there you will find general site descriptions, topography notes, history of the site and directions. I find this section helpful when I’m planning a trip to a new site or curious about the length of the count season or just learning about the site’s history, like when it was established. Also included in the Site Profile section are photos of sites, maps, contact information and website links.
Interested in reading about specific protocol or articles highlighting a certain watchsite? Check out the Procedures/Protocols section.

Many of you may be very familiar with HawkCount and all its functions. However, I’ve realized through talking to hawkwatchers how many of them are not.

Aside from these site details, this page also displays big days and season records - my favorite feature. Just check the “Migratory Raptors Observed” table and you’ll see maximum daily and season counts and timing calendars that let you know the migration window for each species at each site. For me, it’s really helpful to get season highlights from certain hawk watches without having to dig through months of data. It’s a very useful tool for Site Coordinators who may be conducting simple analyses, writing final reports or just having fun playing with data.

As HMANA’s Monitoring Site Coordinator, part of my job is to keep HawkCount updated with new information. This means reaching out to Site Coordinators and working with them to fill in the gaps and encouraging people to follow HMANA’s guidelines and to enter data regularly so it can be viewed and enjoyed by everyone. We hope to have the majority of site profiles updated by the end of the year but we would love your help. If you’re a Site Coordinator and looking to update your info in any way, please contact me at tilden@hmana.org.

Reporting Short-eared Owl sightings

2009-11-25T07:29:00.000-08:00

Bird Studies Canada, a HMANA partner, asks you to report any sightings of Short-eared Owls this winter. 2009 is the group’s seventh season of monitoring Short-eared Owls.

North American and European researchers are working together to learn more about this poorly-understood species, which appears to be declining across its global range and is classified as a species of Special Concern in Canada.

Bird Studies Canada has used satellite and radio telemetry to track large- and small-scale movements of Short-eared Owls in Canada for two seasons. With funding from TD Friends of the Environment and Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources Species at Risk Stewardship Program, BSC will continue the program this winter.

Birders are asked to report any sightings of Short-eared Owls this winter; including the date, location, time, number of owls seen and the type of habitat in which they were observed.
If you would like to report a sighting, or if you're interested in volunteering to monitor known roost sites across southern Ontario (or know of a site that hosts wintering Short-eared Owls), please contact Hazel Wheeler, 1-888-448-2473 ext.165, hwheeler@birdscanada.org.

Data from the study will help determine the seasonal habitats of the owl as well as identify important breeding and wintering sites. Updates on the group's satellite-tracked owls are at the Owl Tracker.

Sharpie-Cooper's Ratios

2009-11-20T13:05:00.000-08:00

As someone who has been hawk watching for over 35 years, I’ve been fascinated by the changing fortunes of the Cooper’s Hawk. Following HMANA’s Hawk Migration Studies, Hawk Count, and RPI (Raptor Population Index), it is clear we’ve had a dramatic increase in Cooper’s Hawk over much of the continent during the past several decades.

When I started hawk watching in Massachusetts in the 1970s, one rarely saw a Cooper’s Hawk. The best time was in late September and early October, when you might hope to see one a day, maybe two, at selected watch sites. Most New England sites covered by experienced observers reported something like 35 to 40 Sharp-shinned Hawks for every Cooper’s. There was much discussion about identification difficulties, in part because people saw so few Cooper’s; they are so similar to Sharp-shinned Hawks; and there were no good field guides on hawk ID. There was considerable skepticism about some Cooper’s reports.

Looking on a broader geographic basis now, sharpie vs Cooper’s ratios remain very intriguing. For example, Lighthouse Point in Connecticut reported 9,080 sharpies in 398 hours in 1980, and only 84 Cooper’s, a ratio of 108:1. In 2009, in 544 hours of coverage so far, Lighthouse has reported 5,308 sharpies vs 1,221 Cooper’s: 4.3:1, a dramatic change.

Looking somewhat farther south down the coast, in 1980 Cape May in New Jersey reported 52,282 sharpies and 1,615 Coopers, 32.4:1. So far in 2009, in 784 hours of coverage Cape May reported 13,710 sharpies and 5,497 Cooper’s; 2.5:1 significantly lower than Lighthouse. (Both of these coastal sites report primarily birds of the year.)

Looking inland, Hawk Mountain in Pennsylvania reported 8,319 sharpshins, and 374 Cooper’s in 846 hours of coverage in 1980, or 22.2:1. In 2009, in 875 hours of coverage to date, Hawk Mountain has had 4,291 sharpies to 601 Cooper’s, or 7.1:1.

Going farther inland, and north, Holiday Beach in Ontario reported 12,460 sharpshins in 1980, vs 316 Cooper’s, a ratio of 39.4:1. In 2009 to date, in 582 hours of coverage Holiday Beach has had 9,699 sharpies and 938 Cooper’s; 10.3:1.

Intriguingly, out west where the data set does not go back as far, in 1991 in 707 hours of coverage the Goshute Mountain site in Nevada had 3,674 sharpshins and 2,726 Cooper’s: 1.3:1, far lower than any eastern sites. In 2008, the most recent data available, the Goshutes had 4,697 sharpies and 1,957 Cooper’s; 2:5 to 1, suggesting accipiter trends in the west might be quite different from those in the east.

Several things are abundantly clear. All four eastern sites are seeing far fewer sharpshins this year than they did 29 years ago. Second, they are seeing many more Cooper’s Hawks now. However, the magnitude of the changes in ratios varies, often somewhat dramatically, from site to site. What is going on? This comparing snapshots of accipiter migration in two different years (four, including the Goshutes) has clear limitations. Looking at moving averages can provide a better picture of what is going on. To look at RPI data for sharpies and Cooper’s from 17 sites across the continent, visit RPI.

Photos by Joseph Kennedy. Used with permission.

Migrating Red-tailed Hawks... or Not?

2009-11-16T15:22:00.000-08:00

Many hawk watches are still looking for and seeing migrating Red-tailed Hawks. One of the things I especially like about late season migration in the northeast is that the late October/November light on migrating redtails shows them at their very best. Never are the colors richer, warmer, and more beautiful on a Red-tailed Hawk than when bathed in afternoon sunlight in early November.

However, in recent years I have been conscious of another growing movement of Red-tailed Hawks, at least in the greater metropolitan Boston area. More Red-tailed Hawks are breeding in heavily developed inner suburbs – and even the core city – than ever before, not just in the wealthier, greener suburbs. Breeding redtails now occupy virtually every major intersection on the major interstate highways in the region. In at least two intersections in my corner of inner suburbia, multiple breeding pairs occupy territories based on the four separate sets of conspicuous vapor lights, on which they frequently perch; that is, two or three different breeding pairs pair consistently perch on specific vapor lights at one cloverleaf.

I’ve also found that a number of these urban redtails – at least a number of adults – do not leave their breeding areas in the winter. Those birds whose most prominent perches are on vapor lights on major cloverleaves appear to occupy the same perches all year round. Locally nesting redtails who do not use the vapor lights generally do not appear to use their most prominent breeding perches regularly during the winter. They are seen intermittently during the winter, however, periodically checking out their nest sites. This seems particularly true for the adult females.

What happens to the juvenile offspring of these urban redtails? The assumption has been that they disperse and eventually migrate. I have not seen the one apparently still surviving young of my local redtail nest for months.

However, I have seen young of other breeding pairs in the area on the same perches – primarily on the interstates – on which I’ve seen them since they fledged months ago. Will they eventually depart for warmer climes? Or will they become part of the growing urban, settled redtail population?

Other redtails move into the area for the winter, some of whom appear to be western-type redtails. (One bander in southern New England says he has seen dramatic shifts in the wintering Red-tailed Hawk population over the past decade or so, seeing the first and growing numbers of western-type redtails.)

As indicated in the State of North America’s Birds of Prey, published by the Raptor Population Index (RPI), many hawk watches in the northeast have seen a decline in annual redtail numbers over the past four decades. Is this due to there being fewer redtails, or as in the case of the Sharp-shinned Hawk, are more Red-tailed Hawks migrating shorter distances, wintering farther north, or even wintering on their breeding grounds now than in the past? The Christmas Bird Count data for the U.S. from 1960-61 to 2008-09 shows a significant, consistent increase in the number of Red-tailed Hawks seen on CBCs. Are you seeing decreasing migrant redtails over the years, or increases in the number of year-round birds?

Peregrine Falcon Identification on North Carolina's Outer Banks

2009-11-11T15:16:00.000-08:00

Working to improve our skills at identifying distant peregrine falcons on North Carolina’s outer banks, we were fortunate that raptors appearing at a great distance almost always ended up flying closer to us than 400 meters, sometimes directly overhead, and sometimes very close and below eye level. The narrowness of Ocracoke Island at our observation site could be thanked for this advantage. So we were able to verify our identification of distant birds once they were close enough to display plumage and other ID-clinching details. This was a treat compared to the work at our spring hawk watch where migrating raptors first seen at a distance frequently stay very distant.

Clark and Wheeler in Hawks of North America describe peregrine falcon flight as typified by “shallow but stiff and powerful wingbeats, similar to those of cormorants.” This was a marvelously helpful description for us, because cormorants were visible from our lookout almost continually. When there were no raptors to look at, we could concentrate on the sometimes hundreds of cormorants in the air at one time and imagine their wingbeats on a distant raptor that needed identification.

Clark and Wheeler’s description of peregrines in a glide, “glides with wings level or with wrists below body and wingtips up,” was also very helpful, especially because most of the distant peregrines we saw were head-on pencil lines. After about a dozen peregrines, we began to feel pretty confidant of our distant identifications.

The other feature that really struck us about the peregrines was how quickly they changed from very distant to very close birds, even when they were powering into a headwind. This in itself proved not only distinguishing but exciting. Probably the thrill of seeing a peregrine in the wild is closely related to what is often the quickness and fleetingness of the experience.

Now that we’ve returned inland from our coastal birding, where several times we saw more than 12 peregrines zip past us in 30 minutes, we’re looking forward to seeing next spring’s 12 inland peregrines spread out over two months. We’re also looking forward to the confidence we’ll have in our identifications, even if the peregrines never get very close.

A site for watching coastal falcons

2009-11-08T14:48:00.000-08:00

Data from the Kiptopeke raptor watch on HawkCount made it easy to determine the best dates for seeing falcons along the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The best window for peregrines was clearly late September and early October. We wanted to watch the falcons from Ocracoke Island, which is just south of Hatteras Island.

Ocracoke Island lies in a northeast to southwest orientation, is about 15 miles long and ranges in width from around one-quarter-of-a-mile to two or three miles. We had observed peregrines and merlins flying low and fast over the sound-side marsh, the surf line on the ocean, the beach and the dunes. Our observation site ideally would provide a good view of all these features of the island.

A parking area at one of the narrowest parts of the island provided access to some tall dunes that overlooked marsh, dunes and beach and was relatively clear of vegetation that might block our view. The site should offer good views for a number of years to come, but we’re not sure that we can make the commitment required to establish a formal raptor watch that would require hundreds of hours each spring. Well, we can dream!

Modest numbers of ospreys, harriers, cooper’s hawks and sharpies provided a nice contrast to the few kestrels, merlins and many peregrines migrating past the site. Migrating monarch butterflies, swallows and cormorants fleshed out the resident non-raptor activity, which included least, royal, caspian, common, sandwich and gull-billed terns; great black-backed, laughing, ring-billed and herring gulls; seaside sparrows and yellow-rumped warblers; sanderlings, red knots, ruddy turnstones, willets, black-bellied plovers, and one marbled godwit (that showed up every day for two weeks). If the avian activity slowed, small pods of dolphins showed up on a couple of days to keep us entertained.

Falcons on the Atlantic Coast

2009-11-04T19:09:00.000-08:00

Coming from a spring hawk watch on the south shore of Lake Erie, we see very few peregrine falcons or merlins during our formal season, perhaps five to ten birds of each species in an average year. Although we do see fairly good numbers of migrating and local kestrels, in order to get our falcon fix we travel to the Atlantic coast during fall migration to see merlins and peregrines.

There are a number of excellent established fall hawk watches on the coast (check out HawkCount on the internet). We’re partial to Kiptopeke on the southernmost tip of Virginia’s eastern shore. But for the last couple of years, we’ve chosen to find our own observations points south of Kiptopeke.

Although we know migrating raptors in fall, especially falcons, travel down the line of barrier islands (the “outer banks”) south of Kiptopeke, currently there are no formal hawk watches operating and reporting regularly to HawkCount for hundreds of miles south of the Virginia border. So setting up south of Hatteras on Ocracoke Island in North Carolina allowed us to feel a little bit like pioneers. Also, barefoot and shorts and t-shirts in October was a nice contrast to the duofold long underwear, balaclavas and mittens we associate with our official hawk watching duties during Lake Erie’s spring.

Our coastal fall hawkwatching goals were educational and recreational. We wanted to improve our skills at identifying peregrines and merlins, and we hoped for the excitement of at least quick looks at some of North America’s most dramatic avian wildlife. The peregrines, at least, didn’t disappoint us this year.

During one two-hour period in early October we saw nearly 40 migrating peregrines. Flying into twenty-five mile-per-hour head winds, the peregrines came fast and low, skimming over the vegetation in the dry marsh, mostly below eye-level from our observation point in the dunes.

Always check behind you!

2009-11-01T10:52:00.000-08:00

Merlins are well known for their aerobatic shenanigans with other raptors during migration. And a lot of Merlin hits are taken by innocent watchsite owls (Bubo plastiptero) at lookouts across the continent. B.plastiptero also suffers antagonism from Sharp-shinned Hawks and occasionally, Cooper's Hawks.

During the autumn of 2009, however, observers at New Hampshire's Little RoundTop Migration Observatory were witness to the determined harassment of Bald Eagles by Cooper's Hawks. Passing Merlins seemed intent on zooming toward their migration goals, the occasionally mischievous Sharpie might dive-bomb a Broad-wing or Red-tail, but the Coops seemed particularly intent on needling other birds. We watched them go for Broadies, ravens, Red-tails, and even a Kestrel, but it was their pestering of Baldies that captured our attention. We would wonder, "How long is s/he going to keep that up?" And keep it up they would, sometimes all over the sky.

Always the target bird would seem undeterred and continue on its way with only the slightest discernable twitch of primaries. This sort of drama does present a problem for site leaders, because...

as everyone is watching the show, there's a chance that something really good is flying past behind them!

Where were you...?

2009-10-29T07:51:00.000-07:00

Where were you on September 11? For most of us hawkfolk, the answer is "on my watchsite." For those whose vistas include the Manhattan skyline, the day etched a terrible memory. For others of us, the horrifying news arrived with some of our volunteers. Then came the oh-so-surreal disconnect: the beautiful late-summer sky, the eternal mountains, the southbound hawks passing overhead, the "how can this be?" feeling.

At Little RoundTop in New Hampshire we have almost constant airtraffic, large and small, military and civilian. The cessation of flights hit us slowly, but how strange yet eerily peaceful the skies became that day and those that followed. Six of us stood in the outdoor chapel atop the hill that morning joining hands in prayer for our country, for the victims of those heinous acts, for peace.

We now observe the anniversary of that day with a moment of silence and remembrance. September 11 was particulary poignant this year. Following a morning gathering at their firehouse, two local firemen visited our site. While they were there a Bald Eagle drifted past.

Part Two: Where are all the hawkwatchers? Expand your inner circle…

2009-10-26T20:52:00.001-07:00

Are you having trouble finding volunteers? Let them know you’re out there! Here are a few tips that might help sites make connections with the public and increase participation.

Partnering with local research and non-profit organizations:
It’s worth asking around at your local conservation or education-based non-profits if there is any interest in partnering at your site. Many organizations are looking for engaging citizen science projects or community-based initiatives – as educators or researchers. Besides, they often have the experience and expertise necessary to help your site.

Tapping into existing networks like local communities, outdoor/birding clubs or scout troops: There is a huge resource of clubs and outdoor groups that are interested in helping out with a good cause. At the Pack Monadnock hawkwatch, we’ve connected with local Boy Scout troops who remove trees each year - maintaining our view and helping with trail maintenance. Scouts may also be interested in earning merit badges, such as Bird Study, or participating in other required ecological studies. All they need may be a little guidance.

Sites can also work towards bringing more raptor education into classrooms. Some middle schools have an entire “raptor segment” or run annual hawkwatches from school grounds in which kids learn how to collect data and make field observations. Contact your local middle school to inquire about these programs.

Contacting local universities and colleges:
Often just making a connection with local colleges and talking to professors about the importance of raptor monitoring goes a long way. I have found that many institutions are searching for projects in which to involve their students and are often unaware of migration monitoring efforts.
Each year at our watchsite, New Hampshire Audubon offers fall practicums, or apprenticeships, to area graduate students. Students assist the main counter with counting and interpretation responsibilities in exchange for school credits. Two previous practicum students are still involved in the hawkwatch as main counters – proof that this program works!

Offering presentations and field trips to local sites:
At the start of each fall season, I organize a few raptor ID presentations at local venues and publicize them widely. This is always a great opportunity to enroll new volunteers in the count.
Another idea is to offer free trips to hawkwatch sites early in the season, which works to engage people and keeps them coming back. Partnering with local outdoor groups such as NH Audubon chapters, I lead some peak-season trips – usually winners for wooing the crowd. Encourage young birders, especially, to get involved and ask for their help counting – most of the time, that’ll be enough to bring them back.

Create a welcoming atmosphere at hawkwatch sites: a place where people feel comfortable visiting and asking questions. Creating incentives to get people involved makes a big difference. Offer t-shirts, volunteer hats or free silhouette guides to those willing to volunteer.

These are just a few ideas that may be helpful to increase involvement or membership at your hawkwatch. If you are struggling to find volunteers and would like some help reaching out, please contact me, Julie Tilden - Monitoring Site Coordinator at tilden@hmana.org. Your data is valuable! We at HMANA are striving to help sites as best we can and to ensure long-term raptor migration monitoring.

Where are all the hawkwatchers?

2009-10-24T22:51:00.000-07:00

As HMANA’s Monitoring Site Coordinator, I reach out to a lot of hawkwatch sites across North America. One of the things I enjoy most is checking in with sites and talking to folks about how their seasons went, hearing stories and highlights, as well as changes they’ve seen in raptor populations or movements over the years. One thing is for sure – each site is unique, with its own system of operation, its own methodology, its own nicknames for landmarks, and of course, its own quirky crew of dedicated counters.

Some sites have paid staff counting fixed hours while others may only have coverage on weekends, big days, or during broad-winged hawk season. There are sites run by universities, middle schools, non-profit organizations, bird clubs and state parks, to name just a few.
Overall, the majority of sites are run by volunteers – dedicated people who just love to be outside each fall - watching migrants overhead, and perhaps passing on an appreciation of raptors to others.

These volunteers are what make HMANA and the HawkCount Network strong. However, HMAMA is concerned as more and more sites with long term data sets slip off the map due to the lack of staffing and volunteer presence at sites. Watchsite coordinators throughout the country have been reporting that they “just don’t have enough volunteers”. People are busy and many just don’t have the time to donate to hawkwatching. In some cases we are seeing the older generation, who may have initiated sites in the 1970’s and 1980’s, unable to continue counting and having difficulty finding people to pass the torch on to.

Where are all the new and upcoming hawkwatchers? It’s difficult for young budding biologists to accept counting positions with little or no compensation – and even if they do, what’s the incentive to keep them coming back year after year? Even though many sites are making huge strides in outreach and education, I feel we can do even more to engage the next generation of counters and make known the importance of raptor monitoring. It is clear that we need a resurgence of new blood in the hawkwatching community. This means reaching out to young people and getting them involved. Below are a few ways I feel we can do this:
· Partnering with local research and non-profit organizations
· Tapping into existing networks like local communities, outdoor/birding clubs or scout troops
· Contacting local universities and colleges
· Offering field trips to local sites
· Creating a welcoming atmosphere at hawkwatches

In my next post, I’ll go into detail regarding these efforts and how we can go about making connections to improve hawkwatch participation.

Please add your thoughts and ideas.

Following Raptors South - A Glimpse of Migration in Costa Rica

2009-10-22T18:39:00.000-07:00

Many of us are deeply absorbed in the passing of migrants each fall. Here in New England, we treasure those crisp days bright with red-shouldered hawks and changing foliage. A kettle of 50 broadwings overhead may be all you need to get you through the week. But when they leave us in chilly New England, do you give thought to where they are heading? As I watch an osprey soar overhead in New Hampshire, I can’t help but envision its route…island hopping from Florida through the Caribbean until it reaches South America and shooting straight through Brazil. Or a merlin, forever in a hurry, tearing down the Atlantic coast and hugging the gulf until it settles somewhere in central Mexico.
HMANA’s http://www.hawkcount.org/ website is a phenomenal resource for pulling together all the pieces of this puzzle. It is one of the best tools we have for understanding the big picture: what species are moving, how many, where they are going, and when they are moving. How great to be able to learn of raptor movements all over the continent with a few clicks of the mouse.

When we think about migration on a different scale, massive movements of raptors passing in the tens of thousands a day, we often think of Gulf coast sites or Veracruz, Mexico, well known for tallying an astounding 5 million raptors each fall! Well, I wanted to briefly highlight a migration monitoring site that doesn’t get much attention but has a lot to offer and is located in one of the most biologically and culturally rich sites in the world - the Kekoldi Hawkwatch in Talamanca, Costa Rica.
Here, tucked into the rainforests of the Caribbean lowlands inside an indigenous reserve, stands a canopy tower perfectly situated for monitoring migrants. All southbound birds are funneled through a narrow 5 km stretch between the Talamancan Mountains and the Atlantic coastline. In addition to millions of raptors, swallows and dragonflies cover the skies, warblers pour through in waves, intermingling with resident forest birds and common nighthawk counts have reached 20,000 in one day.

Since 2000, Kekoldi has been a volunteer-run site active during most fall and spring seasons. However, it struggles at times to find enough counters. This is unfortunate, given its biological significance and history of counting 2- 3 million raptors of 15+ species. I was lucky enough to spend two seasons at Kekoldi, assisting in the count and collecting data on Peregrine Falcon migration. The potential for research at this site is outstanding and it is critical to pursue for our understanding of raptor populations and movements in the tropics. Currently, HMANA is striving to assist the Kekoldi hawkwatch in adding data to the HawkCount database and by establishing continuous counts and so it can become a contributer of long term data.
To put this all into perspective, when we are swimming in broad-winged hawks up here in the northeast, the Kekoldi watchsite has already counted 200,000 Mississippi kites. As we welcome late season redtails and goshawks in mid-October, the skies above Kekoldi are covered in one million broad-winged hawks. By October 25th, a half a million Swainson’s hawks will be passing overhead. By the time November rolls around in New England, we are packing it in, or maybe withstanding the last few cold days, hoping for a golden eagle or two. But in Kekoldi, turkey vultures are just getting started and will total over one million by mid-December.

I think it’s important to keep these migration schedules in mind. It gives me a new perspective on migration and reminds me of the bigger picture. It also makes me value the count data I collect daily, and the feeling that I’m contributing to something larger.

Interested in visiting this secluded raptor hotspot? A HMANA tour to the Kekoldi Hawkwatch may be in the making for fall 2010. Stay tuned!

Where I hawkwatch when time is short

2009-10-19T08:49:00.001-07:00

I can’t tell you the number of times I’ve heard people say, "I don’t have time to drive to (fill in the name of a hawkwatch here) to go hawkwatching."

I dearly love hawkwatching but as editor of Hawk Migration Studies and also with a day job, I have far less time for it than I’d like. Hawk Mountain Sanctuary is about 90 minutes away, and even nearby Waggoner’s Gap, north of Carlisle, Pennsylvania, is a 45-minute drive.

I can very much relate to the complaint about not having enough time for hawkwatching. Sometimes, a couple of hours is all I can scrape together, and I don’t want to spend most of that driving. So what’s a girl to do?

Well, I often hawkwatch in what is roughly my backyard. I’ve created my own personal hawkwatch. I go to a parking lot of a nearby ski resort that sits at about 1000 ft. elevation and provides a nice open view. There’s no leading mountain edge to funnel the raptors so the number of raptors isn’t always great. But, occasionally the numbers are fine, and even when they’re not, I always see at least a few things.

So far, I’ve never seen a Golden Eagle, Northern Goshawk or a Peregrine Falcon from my parking lot hawkwatch, but I always have hope. For all the other species found in the eastern U.S., I’ve had at least one sighting. Red-tailed Hawks, Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks, along with a variety of American Kestrels and the occasional nice flight of Broad-winged Hawks are the mainstays. Harriers, Osprey and Bald Eagles make regular appearances. I’ve seen a Merlin here exactly once, ditto the Rough-legged Hawk, and Red-shouldered Hawks are seen less often than I would have expected.

But, when I only have a few free hours for hawkwatching, coming to this spot is a lot better than spending most of that time in the car on my way to or from one of the big hawkwatches. I’ve had a Cooper’s Hawk land on a nearby light pole and proceed to eat something. I’ve seen a big kettle of Broad-wings suddenly fall out of a cloud and almost drop on my head. I’ve seen Ravens and Common Loons and flocks of songbirds heading north or south. I take my dog, a comfy lawn chair and my binoculars and it’s a wonderful way to spend a few hours. And it’s much, much better than using most of my free time in the car.

So do any of you have your own strategy for how to get out hawkwatching more often?

Fall Hawk Migration Studies is out!

2009-10-15T07:34:00.000-07:00

This is Carolyn blogging again here this morning. As editor of HMANA’s Hawk Migration Studies, I am happy to report to HMANA members that the fall edition of our journal is now mailed and should be in your hands. If you haven’t gotten your issue yet, please contact membership secretary John Weeks to report a delivery problem.

The new issue of HMA has flyway reports from fall 2008 all across the continent, plus an interview with Kate Davis about her lovely new falcon book and the work she does with Raptors of the Rockies in Montana. Former HMANA chair Will Weber has an extensive article about all kinds of raptor mortality, covering the topic in more detail than I’ve ever seen before. We also have some spectacular raptor photos from Vic Berardi, among others, and lots of other good information ranging from the increased sightings of Mississippi Kites from our own Paul Roberts to the finding of a 2500 year old gyrfalcon nest.

If you’re not a member of HMANA yet, now is a good time to join (here) and have John W. send you the latest issue.

Today’s photos were all taken by David McNicholas, a HMANA board member who’s also a wonderful photographer. A migrating Merlin decided to "eat on the run," so to speak, and David captured the event for all of us to enjoy.

Loads of Odes

2009-10-13T08:38:00.000-07:00

It was a very cool and wet spring and early summer in the northeast, apparently ideal conditions for producing loads of odes – dragonflies and damselflies. My wife Julie and I noticed many more odes than usual while hiking in the Maine mountains in August.

This September we enjoyed an above average flight of American Kestrels at Wachusett Mountain for the past decade, one of the leading hawk watch sites in Massachusetts. Not only were the numbers up, but we noticed that many of the kestrels were “insecting” out in front of the mountain, often kiting and hovering in pursuit of insect prey. We frequently saw the kestrels continue overhead with dragonflies visible in their talons, dissecting their ode prey in flight. Also had one adult Merlin come in right on the summit and dive down after an insect, to the point that we first thought it was a nighthawk until we got a full look at it! (At the same time, we saw far fewer Monarch butterflies and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds migrating past Wachusett than usual.)

Doing Lighthouse Point in New Haven, Connecticut, last week, we had some great kestrel days (over 200), and saw many with dragonflies in their talons. I don’t know my odes, but one female had a gigantic dragonfly in her talons and was carrying it like the jumbo Air Force jet carrying the Space Shuttle beneath it. Also saw several Merlins going after insects high overhead. I was surprised, however, to see a Sharp-shinned Hawk with a dragonfly hanging from her landing gear, munching in flight. I’ve seen kestrels, Merlins and Peregrines, not to mention Short-eared Owls, eating in flight, but I’ve never seen an accipiter doing so.

I know that kestrels migrating over Hawk Ridge in Duluth do so at the same time as odes migrating around the western point of Lake Superior, feeding on their fellow travelers as they fly? Has anyone else seen a notable increase in odes at their hawk watches this year?

Pepperspecks and the Visibility of Hawks

2009-10-08T20:00:00.000-07:00

It was a mezzo mezzo Broad-winged Hawk migration at Wachusett Mountain in Princeton, Massachusetts, this fall. The numbers were less than half our long-term average and about three quarters of the average for the past ten years.

Compounding the disappointment, many of the broadwings were pepperspecks, so high in the sky that some people thought we were counting floaters in our eyes. How high were these pepperspecks? In Flight Strategies of Migrating Hawks (1989) Paul Kerlinger says that at Cape May, NJ, broadwings were difficult to see with the naked eye when 625 meters, or roughly 2000 feet, directly overhead against a cloudless sky. Broadwings were generally seen with the naked eye below 550 m (1800 ft) but somewhat difficult to see beyond that. When using 7X binoculars, single broadwings directly overhead were difficult to detect at 1,100 m (3600 ft). Kerlinger notes that in Texas flocks of hundreds of broadwings observed on radar could be missed by observers with binoculars when the hawks were flying less than 1600 ft above ground level about a mile from the observers.

Today I was hawk watching at Lighthouse Point in New Haven, Connecticut, one of my favorite sites for looking at accipiters and falcons. It is a great site to see and compare Sharp-shinned Hawks with Cooper’s Hawks, and today I was trying to photograph them, with limited success. I was in a parking lot between two small woodlots, somewhat sheltered from a 10-13 mph northwest wind gusting to 22 mph. Early on, the birds were low, often just above treetop levels, but they gradually worked their way up in late morning to the limits of unaided vision.

Occasionally, they would stack up, soaring and hanging into the wind. One time, I had 8 Sharp-shinned Hawks stacked up in a single column from the treetops to the limits of unaided vision. It looked like the skies over Kennedy airport early on a Monday morning, but these air travelers weren’t looking to land. They were trying to decide if they wanted to fly 5-7 miles over the bay in that wind, or circumnavigate the bay. Kerlinger says that sharpies become difficult to see against cloudless skies between 400-500 meters (1300-1600 ft.) overhead and disappeared above 700 m. (2300 ft).

Later in the day when I had given up all hope of photography because of the birds’ altitude, one of the excellent observers at Lighthouse would find a sharpshin or kestrel flying at the limits of naked vision. When one bird was found, we would often find another half dozen birds in the immediate area, once our eyes could focus on something. On one occasion I found a Peregrine rowing across the sky almost directly overhead, beyond unaided vision and approaching the limits of binocular vision. While directing other observers to the Peregrine, I discovered two more following in an almost direct line at the same altitude, which suggests these broadwing-sized birds were probably around 3600 ft. high.

A number of factors that I have not addressed affect the visibility of hawks. Several books and articles published in the '80s addressed the issue to an extent, but I’ve not seen much done “recently.” Is anyone aware of “visibility studies” done at a hawk watch near them?

Tree-osks

2009-10-06T06:27:00.001-07:00

Is your watchsite one of those fortunate enough to always have multiple observers? Do you also have a designated "education" person? And maybe you have a weather station and one of more kiosks or signs with information about hawk migration, identification. Do you know how lucky you are? Did you realize you are envied?

Here at the 40-year-old New Hampshire site, little Roundtop, we have one person who wears many hats, only occasional helpers, no weather station and no signs. However, we DO have "tree-osks!"

A tree-osk is Little Roundtop’s substitute for a kiosk. Three trees at the site serve this purpose. Bungee cords wrapped around the trunks hold weather instruments (thermometer and wind meter) and a current conditions weather radar map, details of the previous day’s and current season’s sightings, a brochure holder with HMANA membership flyers, and another with "Hawk Watching FAQ’s" that answers the questions we always get from visitors. We also have mini-posters with the previous year’s sightings and the 25-year averages, high and low counts and a daily sighting board.

The system works pretty well, however, everything must be carried up the trail, deployed each morning and then taken down each afternoon. Visitors love our "tree-osks," but those of you that have more formal arrangements, be assured that you are indeed envied.

Hawks per Hour and Broadwings per Hour

2009-10-05T08:13:00.000-07:00

HPH = Hawks per Hour, BwPH = Broad-wings per Hour

The BwPH at Little Roundtop (New Hampshire) was way down this year. No, that doesn't mean there were fewer hawks. We don't assess population trends by HPH--that is what the Raptor Population Index is all about.

What HPH does tell us is how many hawks were concentrated during migration over a given observation spot. A site can have a very high HPH one year and a very low number the next year. If the numbers of observation hours at a given site are low, but the observers were lucky enough to record lots of hawks, then the site will achieve a high HPH. If, however, observers put in many hours of observation but the migration "tracks" that year didn't take big kettles over the site, the HPH, in this case, BwPH, will obviously be lower.

That's exactly what happened at a number of New England sites this September. Many hours were invested on these sites, thanks to excellent weather conditions. Days were neither too cold nor too hot, and sites did not need to shut down for rain. Translation: happy hawks. Great flying conditions allowed for really high Broad-wing "elevators" with no significant meteorological events that temporarily blocked the birds or steered and concentrated them near lookouts.

Just for fun I calculated the BwPH for three sites up here near the northeastern "Broadie" headwaters, looking at the years 2006 through this season. Because of the interplay of weather with the landscape, these three sites probably do not count the same hawks. For the three years before 2009, Pack Monadnock (New Hampshire) averaged 33.6 BwPH, Little Round Top averaged 18.8, and Putney Mtn. (Vermont) had an average of 15.2. Both Little Round Top and Pack saw a drop this season, but Putney saw a slight increase. The combined overall average BwPH for the three sites dropped 24% from 24.4 to 18.6, although the total number of Broad-winged Hawks counted was only 12% lower than the four year average.

What's in store for next year? Aha! That's the question that keeps bringing us back to our lookouts.

Reflections 'Neath a Big Sky

2009-10-02T08:51:00.000-07:00

I’m Susan Fogleman, a former HMANA board member and site leader for Little Roundtop Migration Observatory in New Hampshire. When I first came on the scene much was unknown about migration patterns of raptors in northern New England. Birds of prey had only recently come under federal protection. Many folks still held to the 19th century view that hawks were “bad,” and “good” birds were robins, chickadees and other songbirds.

Would-be hawkwatchers were encouraged to visit the same sites that gunners used. They not only counted hawks but educated the public about the importance of raptor conservation. Those efforts, which today seem almost primitive, have evolved into the far more sophisticated protocols most sites now follow.

September 23 was my last day as site leader for Little Round Top Migration Observatory. I spent 6+ hours under overcast skies, with little to no breeze--all for a single Osprey. I have grown up and grown old on this lookout. I have met hundreds of great people and seen thousands of migrating hawks. My eyes aren’t what they were when I began hawkwatching some 30 years ago, nor is my stamina for standing in the sun and wind for hours. I have spent many long lonely hours with lots of hawks and with no hawks, and I have had days where the hilltop was wall-to-wall with people, sometimes hawk seekers, sometimes elementary school or university students, sometimes groups from bird clubs and Audubon chapters. I pray that in all this time I may have said some one thing sometime that has led someone to an active life in conservation and nature appreciation.

Will I be able to stay away? Probably not. However, in this part of New Hampshire not many are willing or able to dedicate the time to cover the site properly. Ideally, a site needs enough observers to spell others from eye strain; a leader who makes the final call on identifications, and an educational or outreach person. Should someone take over leadership of LRT, I would help with mentoring and education.

Today, I’ve pretty much given up hope for an apprentice or successor. So the work that began 40 years ago on this site comes to an end. Forty years of data need to be studied and summarized-- but that’s my next chapter.

Revision of USFWS Guidelines for Wind Power Projects

2009-09-28T18:23:00.000-07:00

In 2003 the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service published interim voluntary guidelines on the siting and development of wind power projects. The wind industry and conservationists agree that proper siting of industrial wind power projects is critical to reduce risks to birds, so vigorous guidelines are very important.

The apparent intention of the USFWS was to make the guidelines permanent in 2005 after a two-year review. Instead, however, the USFWS entered into an extended review process of the guidelines that involved the creation of a Federal Advisory Committee (FAC). A number of organizations have pointed out problems with the makeup of that FAC. Problems include concerns that the wind industry is too heavily represented on the FAC and that there are significant gaps in the committee’s representation from conservation and scientific organizations: notably, no raptor experts and under-representation of experts especially qualified to deal with avian issues in the eastern U.S.

The FAC wraps up its work next month with a more than 50 page document rewriting the guidelines. There are a number of problems with the current draft of that document: chief among those problems is that in their excessive detail the guidelines as proposed may have become inaccessible to local governments who in many instances are the final decision makers about whether a project is provided the necessary permits to proceed.

The original guidelines were pretty clear and specific, something local decision makers could grasp without a lot of coaching from consultants: those original guidelines quite simply required that developers of industrial wind energy projects avoid known bird migration pathways and daily movement flyways, avoid features of the landscape know to attract raptors (such as ridgelines and coastlines), avoid areas formally designated as Important Bird Areas and avoid documented locations of any species protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. This clarity and relative lack of ambiguity is lost in the details and verbiage of the rewrite.

Despite the level of detail in the current draft of the guidelines revision, the revision’s recommendations regarding studies to determine raptor use of proposed project areas, and subsequently the likely risk to raptors, promulgate investigations entirely lacking in appropriate rigor.

HMANA has expressed formally its concerns about the revisions of the guidelines to the USFWS and the FAC on several occasions. Now that the process is winding to a close, HMANA will continue to monitor the proposed guidelines and will comment extensively to the USFWS and the Department of the Interior in hopes that the original and fairly robust 2003 guidelines are not entirely sapped of their effectiveness.

Projects Addressing Raptor Mortality

2009-09-26T09:04:00.000-07:00

Will Weber, a member of the Hawk Migration Association of North America’s Conservation and Education Committee and past chair of HMANA’s board of directors, has initiated a new feature in Hawk Migration Studies, HMANA’s journal.

In his first article “Non-natural Raptor Mortality and a Call for Help” (HMS: xxxiv, no. 2, Spring 2009), Will summarizes the mortality factors the series plans to review and invites contributions from the journal’s readership regarding human-induced threats to raptor populations. Comments posted on “Hawk Migration Notes” directed toward preventable human-induced threats to raptors and how these threats could be addressed are one way you can answer Will’s call for help. Look for another article from Will on non-natural mortality in the recently released Fall 2009 issue of HMS.

In my last posting to “Hawk Migration Notes,” I mentioned that HMANA’s Conservation and Education committee has been particularly concerned about wind power as a source of raptor mortality. The National Wind Coordinating Committee, a consortium of wind industry representatives, environmental and consumer groups, governmental agencies and others, has acknowledged that raptors are especially vulnerable to the risks posed by wind turbines: “Compared with other avian species studied to date throughout the United States, some species such as raptors (including hawks, golden eagles, falcons and owls) appear to be at higher risk relative to their occurrence of collisions with wind turbines” (Wind Turbine Interactions with Birds and Bats: A Summary of Research Results and Remaining Questions: NWCC 2004).

HMANA’s Conservation and Education Committee is following two initiatives that are working to improve our understanding of the risk posed by wind turbines to birds, and especially raptors. The Nature Conservancy, after creating maps in Kansas, Colorado, Montana and Oklahoma that superimpose sensitive wildlife areas and areas rich in wind resources, will be expanding this mapping project to include the entire country. The project should provide developers and permitting agencies with a clear indication of which areas are appropriate for wind development and which areas should be avoided.

Another promising effort is being undertaken by a coalition of the American Bird Conservancy, the American Wind Wildlife Institute, the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the Johnson Foundation at Wingspread. This coalition will be developing tools and methodologies that will help in making appropriate siting decisions and improve our ability to protect important avian resources.