2010 Spring Hawkwatching Season Begins!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.