Winter Raptor Survey for HMANA

[aiant...@gmail.com]

This is our 3^rd season doing volunteer Winter Raptor Surveys (WRS) in Colorado for the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA), since moving to Denver from Cornwall, Orange County, New York. We had done 8 seasons in NY,  along 4 different routes.

We conducted our 2^nd Winter Raptor Survey of this winter season yesterday, going from Bennett to Jackson Lake on an all-day trip along small dirt roads, mainly. This route was begun only in December 2023, and we did it 3 times in December 2023, and January and February 2024.

We had the best numbers and quality along this route this time, with a total of 69 raptors including:

Prairie Falcon 5

Merlin 6

Ferruginous Hawk 4

Golden Eagle 1 adult

Sharp-shinned Hawk 1

Northern Harrier 3

Bald Eagle 2

American Kestrel 34

Red-tailed Hawk 13

 

Our 1^st WRS of this season was in South and East Boulder a week ago. I did not post the results on COBirds as there was nothing special we saw. We did see 60 raptors:

FH (Ferruginous Hawk) 3

AK (American Kestrel) 18

RT (Red-tailed Hawk)  32

BE (Bald Eagle) 6

NH (Northern Harrier) 1

 

Anyone can do a Winter Raptor Survey (WRS) for HMANA, if you know of an area which has wintering raptors, and you have reasonable raptor ID skills. As you do it, your skills will improve.

https://www.hmana.org/winter-raptor-survey/  is the official website with plenty of information on how to conduct a survey. You can do as little as one survey a year in January, or go whole-hog as we do, doing a survey in December, January, and February; and we do 4 different routes – which means we do one a week for the 3 months.

If you need help creating one, you can always count on me to come with you and help set up a route.

Robert Beauchamp has had a WRS along the Nunn Raptor Alley since 2022 after I posted our results, and had encouraged raptor enthusiasts to start their own WRS. He did his 1^st WRs of the season, also yesterday, and you can read his report, as well as ours at https://wrs.hmana.org/public_html/index.php  where you can find reports of every WRS in the country on the main page.

If you want to find WRSs in other states, go to the left sidebar, and click on Survey Map, zoom in and click on the WRS you want.

This is a good way of finding raptors if you’re interested in going and looking for them. If you don’t have a WRS, you can only see the general area the raptors were seen. Since I have a WRS, I can see specific details of when, and where specifically, a particular raptor was seen on anyone’s WRS.

Contact me if you have any questions.

Ajit and Liza Antony

Central Park, Colorado

[aiant...@gmail.com]

Hi everyone.

Many of you may not know at there is a regular series of talks on Wednesdays once a month open to all, under the auspices of HMANA, on topics related to raptors.

This Wednesday,  a very pertinent talk on the Winter Raptor Survey  that anyone can sign up for, see below. If you're interested you can ask questions as well during the program.

You can also sign up to get emails from Julie Brown regarding future Lunch & Learn programs.

Previous talks are available on YouTube as well, if you search for "Lunch & Learn." You can find topics on raptor ID, raptor migration, etc.

I have seen most of them, either live,  or on recording, and have always come away knowing more.

Ajit Antony

Central Park, Colorado

December Lunch & Learn
Wednesday, December 11, 2024

12pm eastern 
We're looking forward to getting WINTERY this week! Vic Berardi, HMANA board member and chair of the Winter Raptor Survey committee will be joining us to talk about the Winter Raptor Survey program. He will discuss how to participate in this community science program, some of the raptors that you might see, and an update on the data that's been collected over the years. 

Vic Berardi is the founder of the all-volunteer Illinois Beach State Park Hawk Watch, which has conducted twenty-five seasons of full-time hawk migration monitoring since 2000. In 2013 he co-founded a new site at the Fort Sheridan Forest Preserve, also on the shore of Lake Michigan, in Highland Park, IL. Both of these sites contribute data to the study of raptors migrating along the western coast of Lake Michigan and through urban areas. Vic served as the Central Flyway Editor for Hawk Migration Studies for several years. In 2014 he was the recipient of HMANA’s Appreciation Award for his outstanding service furthering hawk migration studies and conservation. In 2009 he was awarded the Service to Chicago Area Birders by the Chicago Audubon Society. In 2007 he was awarded the Grassroots Conservation Leadership Award for raptor education and research. Vic is also an accomplished photographer and regularly donates his photos to raptor conservation efforts. Many of his photographs have been on the covers of Hawk Migration Studies. He has also contributed to books by well-known raptor experts, including Brian Wheeler, Jerry Liguori, and Brian Sullivan. 

This program is FREE and open to all. Registration is required, please click the link below to register.
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAvf-CvqD4jGNZqYKx7kZzW3V8dltb74Lqf

For those not able to join via Zoom, we will live stream the program on our HMANA Facebook page as well. Recordings of all programs will be available on our website, hawkmigration.org, following the event.

Hope to see you there!

Julie Brown

raptor migration and programs director

Hawk Migration Association

www.hawkmigration.org