'Tails' from a Braddock Bay banding station....

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk - Braddock Bay Raptor Research

Although Braddock Bay, the destination for the forthcoming HMANA Raptor ID Workshop (link here), is best known for spring migration and raptor banding it also annually tracks the movement of dispersing hawks in the late summer, when the Braddock Bay Raptor Research (website here) open their nets again to band mainly young Red-tailed Hawks. As a hawkwatcher, it has always amused me that whilst watching many birds heading south in fall Braddock Bay is still catching the northbound movements of these young birds.

Recently an incredible story of one of these juvenile Red-tailed Hawks reached us at Braddock Bay via Jeff Bouton. Back then he was a bander extraordinaire with Braddock Bay Raptor Research and Braddock Bay Bird Observatory though now he is probably best known to most of you as the birding expert at Leica Sport Optics. Anyway, all the way back on the 3rd of September 1991 Jeff banded a Red-tailed Hawk at Braddock Bay, as part of the annual late summer juvenile Red-tailed Hawk movement. Recently, 22 years later, Jeff received word that the band from that bird was recovered in Pennsylvania after the bird had been found dead. Though somewhat sad, for a hawk that is a pretty good run and in fact this makes it one of the 10 oldest wild Red-tailed Hawks on record. 

Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk - Jeff Bouton

Jeff noted in his message that the day they banded the bird was not a particularly exceptional day for raptors at Braddock as they had captured and banded a mere 10 Red-tailed Hawks. To me that seems pretty good, but then we are comparing it to the kind of days where well over 100 birds have been banded at the Braddock Bay stations. As Jeff noted in his message to BBRR though:  

"...One of those 10 birds however would turn out to be exceptional. One of the largest birds of the day, which took the largest band size acceptable for the species (7D), was just reported found dead near Marion Center, PA. This means the bird lived over 22 years in the wild and makes it the 10th oldest wild Red-tailed Hawk on record!"

Though the above photo of Jeff was taken at the time, it probably isn't of the bird in question as Jeff reckons it to be a little too small. To me it's incredible to imagine this tenacious bird staking out its territory and surviving quite so long in the wild. Out of interest Marion Center, PA is about 250 miles south from Braddock Bay so the bird obviously did a little more wandering before settling down. Data like this shows the continued value of raptor banding. The USGS page on Longevity Records for North American Birds provides a useful educational tool when people ask those inevitable 'how long do they live' type questions about raptors, or any other birds for that matter (visit their page here).

"Mr Grumpy Pants" - Luke Tiller

Coincidentally one of the oldest Red-tailed Hawks in captivity is held by Anne and Paul Schnell. Anne is co-director and heads up the banding efforts at Braddock Bay Raptor Research. Anne and her husband Paul have educational birds and Pauls birds are a major part of the BBRR's educational and outreach events. Their 35 year old Red-tailed Hawk, affectionately called 'Mr Grumpy Pants' still gets called in for publicity duty and my first season at Braddock Bay I ended up posing in the snow alongside Mr Grumpy Pants for the cover of the local newspaper. Grumpy was born in 1978 and is an imprint, as a result of being fed by hand once removed from his nest. As far as I can ascertain, the oldest recorded captive bird died at 36 and a 1/2 years

HMANA Opposes Extended Lifetimes for Eagle Take Permits

Recently, the American Bird Conservancy hosted a webinar to discuss the possibility that the USFWS may be about to issue the first incidental eagle take permit for an industrial wind power project under the Bald and Golden Eagle Protection Act.  The webinar featured a wind power project of concern to Oklahoma’s Osage Nation for which the issuance of a take permit may be imminent.  Although the permit for the Osage project may be the first to be issued, there are others in process that could develop close on its heels.  

The ABC webinar also discussed the expansion of permit lifetimes to 30 years, which the ABC has been opposing.  On the basis of its newly revised wind power siting and development policy, HMANA’s conservation committee has sent a letter to the Secretary of the Interior supporting ABC’s position. 

HMANA’s conservation committee will be monitoring the eagle take permitting process and the proposed USFWS permits being considered, including the take permit for the Osage turbine development project.  The committee also will actively engage in the public review of those projects.   

Problems with the USFWS Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines

Problems with the USFWS Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines

Yesterday, we discussed the change in HMANA’s support for the new Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines (LBWEG).  One of the problems with the LBWEG for siting wind turbines is that compliance with them, including detailed consultation with the USFWS, is voluntary. The eagle take-permitting process can be seen as a strategy to address this deficiency, an enticement to developers to work with the USFWS in siting and developing energy projects. 

The USFWS grants incidental take permits based on a developer’s commitment to incorporate specific features and standards in their projects and perhaps engage in certain activities that mitigate any harm to eagles as a result of any specific project. In theory, the developer is protected from prosecution for any incidental killing, injuring or interfering with Bald or Golden Eagles caused by the project.  In exchange for this benefit, the USFWS is able to influence the siting, development and implementation of projects.  

Currently, incidental take permits must be renewed every five years, but the service is proposing to extend the life of a take permit to 30 years.  While  this extension may further encourage developers to engage with the USFWS through the permitting process, HMANA feels this extension:  

• neutralizes the effectiveness of post-construction mortality monitoring 
• protects the developer from submitting to public review of a project’s actual harm to eagles
• protects the developer from a review of the project’s compliance with the conditions of the take permit.  

As a result of these concerns, HMANA opposes any extension of the time period for take permits that removes the opportunity and necessity for periodic public review.  Further, HMANA finds the current five-year life span of take permits to be appropriate.

Next:  American Bird Conservancy’s actions on take permits

HMANA's New Wind Turbine Siting Policy

HMANA's New Wind Turbine Siting Policy

At its monthly board meeting June 17, 2013, the HMANA Board of Directors approved an update to its 2008 policy on industrial wind turbine siting and monitoring. It can be seen in its entirety on the HMANA website:  www.hmana.bbrr.org/wind-turbine-siting-policy  The update reflects changes between the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s 2003 interim guidelines and its current Land-Based Wind Energy Guidelines (LBWEG). This update also reflects HMANA’s concerns about the USFWS commitment to extending the life of incidental eagle-take permits from five to 30 years.  

HMANA strongly supported the USFWS 2003 interim guidelines, especially the stipulations that developers of industrial wind energy projects avoid known bird migration pathways and daily movement flyways, avoid features of the landscape known to attract raptors (such as ridge lines and coastlines), avoid areas formally designated as Important Bird Areas and avoid documented locations of any species protected under the federal Endangered Species Act. The current LBWEG constitute a significant departure from the 2003 guidelines, scrapping these important stipulations and failing to establish permanent and binding regulations or guidelines that provide clear, unambiguous federal guidance to the state and local entities that must make decisions about the proper siting of proposed projects.  The 2013 LBWEG are available for review at www.fws.gov/windenergy/docs/weg_final.pdf.

Next:  We’ll discuss why the new USFWS guidelines are problematic

HawkCount Now and Forever

It’s September! Horray! If you're a hawk watcher, this means it's time to head out to your favorite site and enjoy migration. You may also find yourself spending time on www.HawkCount.org. HMANA’s HawkCount database sees its heaviest traffic during the fall season as hawk watchers check out what’s being seen across the map. Aside from the up to date hourly and daily summaries, they are checking site profiles for things like species stats, trend graphs and site histories.

HawkCount.org is a free service.  Nevertheless HawkCount does cost money to run, so if you are not currently a watch site page sponsor, please consider joining the elite ranks of those who have already sponsored one or more sites.  And, to those who contributed previously, we invite you to renew your sponsorship and remain as an essential partner in maintaining and improving HawkCount.

September is Fund-raising Month on HawkCount.org, which means that we want all visitors and friends of HawkCount to be aware of the need for funding and how they can help.   To find out how you can support this valuable hawk watch resource go to http://hawkcount.org and click on one of the links in the box at the top of any page.

You can help support HawkCount “Now and Forever” either with a donation of any amount or by sponsoring the pages of a hawk watch site.  Sponsorships are available at several levels from Accipter at $75-$199 to Eagle at $1,000 and up.  Your name or the name of a sponsoring organization will be displayed on every page of the hawk watch site you choose.

New This Year!  In addition to the regular site sponsorships, we’re now offering sponsorships of non-site pages.  See HawkCount.org for details.

Thank you for helping us keep this valuable information system up and running!

Fall hawkwatching season already heating up!

The first hawkwatches are already counting and reporting data to HawkCount.  Even though few have been open for longer than a week, some interesting results are already showing up.

At two Pennsylvania sites, Hawk Mountain and Waggoner’s Gap, each has posted a record early date for the first merlin sighting.  The first merlin was seen at Waggoner’s on August 5 and at Hawk Mountain on August 15.  Waggoner’s also posted a record early Peregrine Falcon sighting on August 4.  Not to be outdone, Corpus Christi in Texas posted its first Peregrine sighting on its first official count day on August 10.  The site’s first merlin sighting came the next day on August 11.

August 17 was Corpus’ first four-digit day of the fledgling raptor season. They tallied 2802 Mississippi Kites.  August 16 wasn’t bad for the kites either, with 550 counted.

The new season has barely started and already it’s giving us something to talk about!

Calling all dragonfly enthusiasts!

HMANA has some exciting news about a fun new research opportunity and we’d like to invite you to take part. Starting this year, HMANA is partnering with the Migratory Dragonfly Partnership to assist in the better understanding of dragonfly migration. 

The Migratory Dragonfly Partnership (MDP) is a pioneering citizen science-based study of dragonfly migration in North America that was launched by US Forest Service International Programs and is chaired and coordinated by the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization that protects wildlife through the conservation of invertebrates and their habitat.  Regular monitoring and centralized reporting among participants across the US, Canada and Mexico will help to answer some of the many questions currently surrounding dragonfly migration and provide information needed to create cross-border conservation programs to protect and sustain the phenomenon.

Where do you come in? Well, what better way to monitor dragonflies than from a local hawkwatch!  Migrating dragonflies are often seen along routes used by migrating birds and hawk watchers are ideally situated to observe dragonfly migration. A lot of us are up there all day, every day throughout the migration season, so why not?

Whether you are a casual hawkwatcher on weekends or a full-time counter, you can participate in this important citizen-science project.  How much you’d like to be involved is up to you.  A hawkwatch may designate a special counter just for dragonflies or use current hawkwatchers to collect the data. Either can work! Counts are timed for as many minutes as you can cover, one, five, ten, for each hour or whenever you can. Estimates of migrant numbers are also accepted (e.g., 500 plus, less than 10, etc.) You may find you don’t have time for dragonfly watching at all which is fine, too.

Check out the downloadable data collection protocol and datasheet available at www.hmana.org. If you are associated with a particular hawkwatch, please contact me at brown@hmana.org so we can sign you up.  Please try to respond by August 15, 2013.  We will need to add some data fields to your online HawkCount data entry form.  If you would like to participate on your own, go right ahead. Data sheets should be sent to Xerces Society at the end of the migration season.

For information on the five dragonfly species MDP is tracking and how to identify them in flight go to http://www.migratorydragonflypartnership.org/uploads/_ROOT/File/MDP-field_guide.pdf.