Meet the Hawkwatchers - Anna Stunkel - Bradbury Mountain, ME

Anna Stunkel at Golden Gate Raptor Observatory

1 Tell us a little about your history!

I grew up in Natick, Massachusetts, and have loved birding since elementary school. My family has always loved spending time outdoors and they encouraged my interest in birding. I started getting into birding by visiting local hotspots (especially Mount Auburn Cemetery, an excellent warbler stopover site) and joined a young birders club. I was fortunate to have some wonderful mentors at Mass Audubon who took me on birding trips and let me help with passerine and saw-whet owl banding. My fascination with birds kept growing with each of these adventures. When it came time to apply for college, I knew that I wanted to study ornithology and ecology. Most of all, conservation biology and animal behavior fascinate me, so I focused my studies on those areas. I went to school at College of the Atlantic in Bar Harbor, Maine, where I had the opportunity to take field-based classes visiting nearby Acadia National Park, Great Duck Island, other areas of Maine, and Costa Rica. These courses were unforgettable, and I learned so much from my professors, classmates, and our adventures.

2 How long have you been counting hawks? Where have you counted before?
I've been counting hawks for three fall seasons. Just after graduating college, I did an internship working as a hawkwatcher and raptor bander at Golden Gate Raptor Observatory, in California. Before then I had little experience as a hawk counter, but instantly loved it. The site is an amazing place to observe a variety of raptors, some of which were new to me as an east coaster. The staff and volunteers at GGRO are excellent teachers and I learned so much about hawkwatching and raptor research.

For the past two falls, I worked as a hawkwatcher for Intermountain Bird Observatory, at Lucky Peak in Idaho. I had the opportunity to work with a great field crew, supervisors, and hawkwatch partner, and also had a chance to do more outreach work.

3 Where are you counting this year? What do you like most about the watch?

This spring I am counting on Bradbury Mountain, near Freeport, Maine. The count is sponsored by Freeport Wild Bird Supply (website here and Facebook Page here) and Leica Optics (which provides me with amazing quality optics for the duration of the season). There is a link to the hawkwatch page, which includes our hawkcount.org page that is updated daily, on the Freeport Wild Bird Supply website.

I have just started the season at this site, and am very happy to be back in Maine where I am familiar with the diverse birdlife and ecology of the region. In particular, I was excited to get started at this site because education and outreach are an integral part of the program. Bradbury Mountain State Park is one of the most visited state parks in Maine, so many people come up and ask questions about the hawk count. I am also pleased that the hawkcounter is responsible for recording both raptor and non-raptor migrant numbers, thus adding useful data to the program. My supervisors, Derek and Jeannette Lovitch, own Freeport Wild Bird Supply and are highly knowledgeable regarding local areas to go birding as well as useful hawkwatching and birding ID suggestions.

Anna Stunkel and a Red-tailed Hawk 

4 What is it that you especially like about raptors. What turned you on to hawkwatching? What was the first site you visited?

I love the power, beauty, and agility of raptors. Their diversity in plumages and hunting techniques also amazes me. When I was a kid, I visited Wachusett Mountain hawkwatch in Massachusetts and became fascinated by the beauty of these birds and the sheer numbers moving through. I especially love falcons, with their fierce personalities, speed, and intelligence. Anyone is likely to feel a sense of awe watching raptor kettles, which is another one of my favorite aspects of hawkwatching. While working in Idaho, we watched large kettles each containing up to one hundred Turkey Vultures streaming overhead, and were able to share the spectacle of these often under-appreciated birds with visitors.

5 What do you like particularly about the world of hawkwatching? 

I love both the moments of solitude and the outreach and education involved in hawkwatch. Spending time alone on a mountain while watching birds is an excellent way to develop focus and tune in to the natural world. At the same time, one of the main reasons that I enjoy hawkwatching so much is that it provides a chance to teach visitors about these birds. I think that this aspect is just as important as collecting accurate data, especially when it comes to teaching children. Young children tend to have a wonderful enthusiasm about new and interesting things in nature, and they are the next generation who should learn to enjoy and care for the natural world.

Busy days are a beautiful spectacle, and I love watching large kettles. I appreciate that hawkwatching is an art, and ID is more about general impressions, flight style, and shape than it is about field marks. While it is always wonderful to appreciate the beauty of raptors up close, distant IDs provide the greatest and most challenging learning moments.

I love meeting a variety of people from all walks of life who volunteer their time towards hawkwatching. I have listened to some fascinating stories from these people, learned from them, and enjoyed many good times.

6 Unfortunately hawks don’t migrate year round. What do you do for the rest of the year?

During the rest of the year, I work for other seasonal fieldwork positions as often as possible. These have included work on seabird islands (Petit Manan, Maine and Southeast Farallon, California), and a woodpecker project (Hastings Natural History Reserve, California). Each of these projects has provided a great learning opportunity and the chance to work in beautiful places. During the winter, I work as an artist and elementary school substitute teacher.

Anna's Office at Bradbury Mountain Hawkwatch

7 If you could go and count hawks anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

I would love to see the River of Raptors in Veracruz. It would also be amazing to visit Eilat, Israel, which is one of the best migration sites in the world for raptors as well as other birds. The photos of sheer raptor numbers at these sites are stunning! There are so many other places that I would like to visit and count hawks. Others include the Goshute Mountains, Hawk Ridge, and Cape May.

8 What do you like to do when you aren’t watching hawks (or birding)?

I love to draw and paint, and think that sketching is a great way to become familiar with birds (as well as other wildlife and plants) and make careful observations. I also enjoy horseback riding, looking for reptiles and amphibians, and listening to ‘70s music.

9 Do you have a personal blog, website, flickr page etc that we can keep up with your adventures?

I have a deviantart account where I post artwork and fieldwork photos (link here), along with an art blog (link here). 

Meet the Hawkwatchers - Ryan MacLean - Quaker Ridge

Ryan MacLean and Friend

1/ Tell us a little about your history!

I grew up just about an hour north of NYC in Katonah NY. As a kid I developed a huge love of raptors, taking out pretty much every library book I could that had pictures of them and going to as many raptor centers and falconry shows as I could to watch them up close. Then when I was 10 I went to Mount Peter Hawkwatch in Warwick NY and instantly became hooked on watching them in the wild instead of captivity. I remember it was a late September day (post Broad-Wing season) so it wasn't an epic day numbers wise, but seeing 10+ different species of hawks in their element was enough to blow my young mind. 

A couple years later I discovered that Quaker Ridge Hawk Watch in Greenwich CT was only 15 minutes from where I lived so I started going there pretty much every day after school. Over the next several years I basically received my hawkwatching education by sitting on the lawn there watching and learning. I went to Bard College in Dutchess County NY where I studied music, but I continued to bird very frequently while I was there and always made time to get back down to Quaker Ridge for Broad-winged Hawk season. After I graduated in 2013 Quaker Ridge was seeking a counter (some guy named Luke Tiller had decided to leave and head to California) so I immediately applied and was accepted. 

Ryan MacLean, Ted Gilman, John Hannan, Rosabel Miro at Quaker Ridge

Where are you counting this year?

Three years later I'm now in my third season counting at Quaker Ridge. Each season has had a distinct set of highlights, with my first year having nice Broad-winged Hawk numbers and last year having a record crushing number of Red-Shouldered Hawks (1,046 birds). Our hawkcount page can be found here (link) as well as our Facebook page here (link). Last year I even created an Instagram page for the hawk watch to share some of our great bird photographers' pictures of hawks we see. As of now I think we're only the second hawkwatch to create an Instagram and I hope more do in the years to come. You can view the page here (link).

Tell us what you like most about the watch you are currently at?

The variety and numbers of each species can be incredible at certain times during the season. While some hawkwatches are strictly ridgeline concentrations of birds and others are coastal, Quaker Ridge is really a combo of both since we're at the very bottom of a line of ridges that extends southward through Connecticut and only 6 miles from Long Island Sound. You can get a great push of Broad-Wings and then a late day falcon flight as an added bonus. Over the last few years, we've also experienced an unprecedented increase in Red-Shouldered Hawks. From late October through November we've witnessed almost mini Broad-winged like flights of Shoulders often in kettles of 10 or 20 birds. This makes sitting out in the cold extremely rewarding even late into the season. Since I'm housed on the property during the season I also frequently wake up early to catch early morning warbler flights, which can often be excellent. Even when it's a slow day the hawkwatch lawn is always such a relaxing place to hang out at and the regulars that come out to the watch are a great bunch. We even had a family of bobcats visit us a couple years ago.

Merlin: Quaker Ridge - Luke Tiller

What is it that you especially like about raptors?

To me they're the most free-spirited of all the birds but at the same time the hardest working. Since they're at the top of the food chain they possess this carefree yet determined attitude that always rubs off on me, particularly during migration. They have incredible distances to travel yet thanks to the power of thermals and updrafts they get the joyride of a lifetime from Quebec to Ecuador every year. But at the same time, one misstep along the way could cost them their life. In a way viewing the migration and appreciating it makes you live in the moment and at the same time appreciate that fragility. I was really drawn in to how therapeutic hawkwatching could be but at the same time make you work hard.

What do you like particularly about the world of hawkwatching? The spectacle? The ID challenges? The camaraderie of being at a hawkwatch? The outreach? Something else?

Over the past several years of counting I've really come to love the overall process of identification by impression. At Quaker Ridge we get many very high birds due to our low elevation, which has made me learn to appreciate and acquaint myself with the shapes of the birds at that altitude. Above all it makes a Merlin zipping by you point blank even more jaw-dropping. It also makes you sit and think about the magnitude of just how far the birds are going and how we can possibly bridge communities and cultures in order to ensure their protection after they leave the continent. At Audubon Greenwich we've made connections with numerous Audubon organizations in Central/South America and as a result cooperated together in conservation efforts focused on hawks. 

Olive-sided Flycatcher Quaker Ridge - Luke Tiller

I also love how hawkwatching can be such a universal form of birding since its easy to share with people and get them excited about it. I've seen many non-birder friends and many visitors to the Audubon Center become instantly hooked after viewing a kettle of Broad-winged Hawks or a Bald Eagle. If you spend enough time at a hawkwatch you get to know enough people that it becomes a great social gathering and reunion of sorts each season too. You get excited not only to see the hawks but old friends every fall.

Unfortunately hawks don’t migrate year round. What do you do for the rest of the year?

I spend a lot of my non-hawkwatching/birding time focusing on my other love of music. I play guitar, drums, bass, mandolin and keyboards and write/record my own material with my band Meadowhawks and I've played/studied in many other groups ranging from rock bands, jazz groups and orchestras. My ultimate dream is to have enough success as a musician to tour frequently and bird as much as I can along the way, even using my platform as an artist/performer to make the people aware of issues like bird/habitat conservation that aren't really talked about in the music world. This past year I also worked at Audubon Greenwich's summer camp, which is a great program for kids to learn about and observe nature. Some of the kids that came to the camp are now actually coming to Quaker Ridge Hawkwatch and getting really into hawks, so it looks like the future is in good hands.

Saw Whet Owl: Quaker Ridge - Luke Tiller

If you could go and count hawks anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

Last year I had the pleasure of meeting Rosabel Miro, the executive director of Panama Audubon and one of the hawkwatchers at Panama City's Ancon Hill. We were floored to learn that last year they counted two million raptors in one day including a million Turkey Vultures and hundreds of thousands of Broad-winged Hawks and Swainson's. I don't know how I could ever possibly manage to count that many birds but I would absolutely love to go there and witness something like that in person. Cape May, Duluth or Corpus Christi also come to mind since not only are hawks a spectacle at those places but so is the entire bird migration in general. 

What do you like to do when you aren’t watching hawks (or birding)?

If there aren't any hawks to be seen I'm usually out chasing warblers, sparrows, shorebirds, ducks, gulls, butterflies or whatever else is around. I also have a major soft spot for owls and you can easily get me out at 2 AM for a Christmas Bird Count to go owling. When I'm not birding or exploring the natural world I'm usually playing/writing/recording music or going to see concerts with friends. Aside from that I enjoy British comedy, baked goods and hard cider.

Bobcats at Quaker Ridge - Stefan Martin

Do you have a personal blog, website, flickr page etc that we can keep up with your adventures?

You can check out my band Meadowhawks at our website (here) or our bandcamp (website here). I'm always looking to connect with fellow hawkwatchers/birders so feel free to friend me on Facebook as well (personal page here) . I also recently created a facebook group for birders like me in their 20s called '20something Birders' since I feel like birders in our age group haven't really had a place to connect. Its still kind of in the infant stages but hopefully it'll become a fun meeting-place for us college/post-college bird lovers (link here). 

Meet the Hawkwatchers - Erik Bruhnke - Corpus Christi Hawkwatch

All hawkwatches rely on the skill and enthusiasm of their respective counters. Here at HMANA we thought it would be fun to interview a few of the hard working members of the hawkcounting community and ask them everything: from how they found their passion for hawkwatching to what they like to do on their days off. First up in our series Erik Bruhnke who is counting at Corpus Christi Hawkwatch in Texas this season.

If you have a great counter at your site this year who you think deserves a little wider recognition leave a message on the blog post or send us a message and we will send them the interview questions too!

Erik Brunkhe

1 Tell us a little about your history: where did you grow up? What got you in to birding? Did you study ornithology or something similar at college? How long have you been counting hawks? Where have you counted before.

I grew up in a little town of Pewaukee near Milwaukee, WI. I’ve been interested in birds and nature since I learned how to walk. My birding spark moment was when I found a Cape May Warbler, Blackburnian Warbler, and Bay-breasted Warbler bathing in an artesian creek just down the road from where I was attending college (Northland College in Ashland, WI). All three of these were life birds and being all new to boreal warblers, this experience got me hooked in a special way. Growing up I’d go on nature walks with my mom, dad, brother and sister on the weekends. Always had my binoculars with me.

I studied biology in college, specifically through a natural resources degree. It was great taking all of the “ologies” which helped establish a special sense of place. I aided teaching field ornithology and ornithology for several years while in college, and I continued to teach field ornithology as an adjunct professor for two additional years after graduating.

The first six fall seasons after college I worked at Hawk Ridge (Duluth, MN) as a count interpreter, and would aid the count on my time off throughout the fall. I have counted raptors for the Duluth spring count for several years. Having moved to Texas last year, this is my first fall counting raptors in Texas.

Broad-winged Hawks - Erik Brunkhe

2 Where are you counting this year? 

I am counting at Corpus Christi HawkWatch. There Facebook Page can be found here (link) and their individual page on Hawkcount.org is here (link). I love the massive flights of raptors at the Corpus Christi HawkWatch. The kettles of Mississippi Kites and Broad-winged Hawks are spectacular. The occasional Zone-tailed Hawks are a thrill and beautiful treat to see. I’m looking forward to the massive push of Turkey Vultures that I’ve heard about… The daily sightings of Green Jays, Inca Doves, and Olive Sparrows are icing on the cake for this wonderful site.

4 What is it that you especially like about raptors. What turned you on to hawkwatching? What was the first site you visited?

I really enjoy the beauty and identification of raptors. They’re large and their colors and markings are gorgeous from so many angles. Red-tailed Hawks are one of my favorite raptors. They are often overlooked, and their complex array of plumages throughout North America is stunning. Having seen nesting Krider’s Red-tailed Hawks in North Dakota and many forms of Red-tailed Hawks coming through Hawk Ridge (and many birding travels elsewhere), it’s hard not to admire this wonderful species.

I’ve been into hawkwatching since my very first visit to Hawk Ridge (Duluth, MN) during my freshman year of college back in 2003. There was something about seeing Broad-winged Hawks kettling overhead, a new phenomenon I had never seen before. I got to witness one of their many Northern Goshawks in-hand from the banding station. There were miles of colorful aspens and maples mingled through spruce tops as far as I could see, with Lake Superior bracing the slope of this site. My whole first experience at Hawk Ridge was breathtaking, and I couldn’t wait to come back and watch hawks again.

Zone-tailed Hawk - Erik Bruhnke

5 What do you like particularly about the world of hawkwatching? The spectacle? The ID challenges? The camaraderie of being at a hawkwatch? The outreach? Something else?

I enjoy the solitude, the beauty witnessed, and pleasant challenge of hawkwatching. Hawkwatching has plenty of fast-paced moments where the birds are streaming and zipping by, and hawkwatching also is filled with many moments of soaring birds in the distance and overhead, allowing for careful study and appreciation of each bird. The spectacle of raptor migration is simply incredible. Raptors do something that other non-raptors don’t. I love all birds, and raptors as a whole are quite unique.

Hawkwatching is like a treasure hunt. As we watch raptors more and more, we learn about subtleties that makes each raptor species that-species. Studying the behavior, structure, and form of each bird that flies by puts a smile on my face, and it’s great to be in the presence of other people who smile and understand the hawkwatching addiction as the migrating raptors fly by. There is something to be said as well, about hawkwatching at hawkwatching sites. Areas like this are great for networking with other people who understand the world or hawkwatching, whether it be a profession or hobby. It’s also a great teaching opportunity to point out birds to friends and others in the area, to share the excitement of the migration.

Corpus Christi Hummingbird Feeders - Erik Bruhnke

6 Unfortunately hawks don’t migrate year round. What do you do for the rest of the year?

I run my own birding tour business, Naturally Avian. I also lead birding tours for Victor Emanuel Nature Tours. Throughout the latter half of each year I lead Texas Pelagic trips that depart from South Padre Island, TX. When I’m not leading birding tours I work regularly at Quinta Mazatlan, one of the World Birding Centers in McAllen, TX. I write periodically for birding magazines and enjoy speaking and leading trips at birding festivals. I’m a part-time bird photographer too.

7 If you could go and count hawks anywhere in the world, where would it be and why?

I have a few answers…

First off, I’d love to visit Gunsight Pass (Alaska) someday. Red-tailed Hawks are one of my favorite birds, and I think it would be thrilling to partake in the cool, refreshing elements up there while seeing Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawks among the many northern raptor and non-raptor species. Big raptors are great! Snow is fantastic too.

It would be fun to visit the River of Raptors in Veracruz some day. Having spent this season counting at the Corpus Christi HawkWatch, I have a feel for the massive lines of raptors and what it is like to count them. I think it would be interesting to see the masses of birds moving through in a different setting too. Every hawkwatch has its charm, and Veracruz is on the bucket list.

To a site I’ve worked at before, I have to say it would be great to visit Hawk Ridge (Duluth, MN) again. I love the powerful changing of the seasons, with the sights, sounds, smells and temperatures varying from day to day. The flight of Northern Goshawk, Red-tailed Hawks, Bald Eagles and boreal birds all-round is quite a spectacle.

Harris's Hawk - Erik Bruhnke

8 What do you like to do when you aren’t watching hawks (or birding)?

I enjoy cooking and baking. Camping and long hikes hit the spot too. It’s fun to sketch birds. When the outside conditions are right, snowshoeing and cross-country skiing are great. I’m a fan of craft beer as well, and enjoy a good pint while reading bird books.

9 Do you have a personal blog, website, flickr page etc that we can keep up with your adventures?

For Facebook, friend me! I use my personal Facebook page to post pictures and birding-related matters daily. I also have a Naturally Avian Facebook page too. My business website Naturally Avian can be found here (link), and you can find the trips and tours I’m leading for VENT here (link). My personal blog is not up yet, but I'm working on that soon!