Sammy Riccio

Salt Lake City, UT: (October 13th, 2026)—After nearly 100 days on his own, the hawk that had all of Utah’s eyes to the sky is finally home. The Harris’s Hawk, named Stax, was recovered on Tuesday, October 6, 2026, following months of monitoring and recovery efforts by HawkWatch International staff, volunteers, and countless community members

“All right, give ’em a toss!” Conservation Biologist Dr. Jordan Herman crouched first to give herself some momentum, then launched the 3.5-kilogram Golden Eagle, freshly accessorized with a metal USGS band from the Bird Banding Lab a blue-colored band with the alphanumeric “WV”), and a backpack-mounted satellite transmitter, into the air. We both stood in

As you may have seen, wildfires across the West have made the 2026 fall migration season one of our most challenging yet. According to InciWeb, over 4.5 million acres have burned in the United States this year as of early September. This includes 2.3 million acres in Oregon and more than half a million acres

A few years back, I tried my hand at making a hat featuring an embroidered raptor. No matter how many times I worked back and forth with our embroiderer at the time, we couldn’t get it right. I fully own that it was mostly my fault for having no idea how to best set up

EDIT 9/23/26: Due to continued fire activity, clean-up efforts, and forest closures tied to the Grasshopper and Whiskey fires, we have suspended operations at the Bonney Butte and Manzano Mountains HawkWatch for the 2026 season. To honor our commitment to offering crew members hands-on experience, we’ve added a fourth member to the Grand Canyon HawkWatch