Raptor Migration Fall Season 2011 - Week 2

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!

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!

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

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

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

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

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.