Our 1st Winter Raptor Survey for HMANA in Colorado

[aiant...@gmail.com]

My wife Liza and I conducted our first Winter Raptor Survey (WRS) for the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) in Colorado after moving here 5 months ago from New York where I had had 3 different WRS survey routes that we completed 3 times in winter – every December, January and February since 2015.

You can see our results, as well as if you’re interested in all the other WRSs conducted in the country. You can also see our results from New York where the two of us were responsible for 4 of the 5 yearly WRSs conducted in New York State:

https://wrs.hmana.org/public_html/index.php

We saw a total of 93 raptors 2 days ago:

Red-tailed Hawk        17, including 1 beautiful dark-morph.

Ferruginous Hawk     11

Bald Eagle                   36

Northern Harrier        21

American Kestrel       6

Prairie Falcon              1

Rough-legged Hawk   1

We will be doing 2 more routes in the area around Boulder, Co before the end of December, as well as doing all 3 routes in January and February 2023.

Any raptor enthusiast can do a Winter Raptor Survey on their own. It is a volunteer program. You create your own route and follow it exactly the same way each time.

If you’re interested in doing one, the best way to figure out where to create your route is to look at eBird data for the past 1-5 years for the location you are interested in – look up sightings for FH, RL, and GE – which will give you the likelihood you will see numbers of individuals of wintering species.

You can get general Information about the WRS program at https://www.hmana.org/winter-raptor-survey/

If anyone is interested in starting their own route and needs advice or help, please feel free to contact me.

Ajit I Antony

Central Park, Colorado