Meet the Commissary Ridge crew!
Text by Dan Green Well, there are only a couple of weeks left in the season and the Commissary Ridge HawkWatch crew still hasn't submitted a blog post. Fortunately, this is easy enough to fix. We've had a pretty good count so far. We have had above-average counts on most…
Bonney Butte: The Gray Ghost
Text by Ceeanna Zulla What a whirlwind of three weeks it’s been at the Bonney Butte HawkWatch! Since we last blogged, Jerry Ligouri along with fellow HawkWatch International staff and veterans visited the site on one of busiest weekends yet. With all the extra eyes in the sky, we spotted a…
Eagles and Other Creatures at Manzanos
Text by Keelan Dann Another week of migration has passed here at the Manzano Mountains HawkWatch and this one has been filled with the unexpected and beautiful: warm weather, bobcats, bears, falcons, eagles, and more. During and surrounding peak the crew anticipates many days busy with birds and…
Grand Canyon: High Winds and Hawks
Text and photos by Casey Weissburg and Kumara MacLeod This strange and blustery season does not cease to surprise us! As winds intensify, the hawks keep coming. Thursday put to rest our fear of falling short of the historic average with a late season push of over 300 raptors and the…
Grand Canyon: Accipiters Abound!
Text by Ben West We just finished up our sixth week of counts at the Grand Canyon HawkWatch. As of Sunday, October 9, we’ve counted 4,142 migrating raptors so far this season, meaning we need less than 900 raptors to surpass the average season total of 4980! As is typical,…
Manzanos "vortex" of birds
Text and photos by Marie Soderbergh What an exciting week our Manzano Mountains HawkWatch crew has had! As we closed out September and are getting into the swing of October, the birds have certainly been soaring our way! We caught our first Peregrine Falcon of the season, along with the…
Chelan: Peregrine v Sharp-shinned
Text by Jessica Buskirk Another week seems to have passed as quickly as a Peregrine Falcon dive bombing a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Seriously though, that was a sight we witnessed right next to us on the obs. Peregrine Falcons not only resemble fighter jets (or really the other way around) but…
Ferruginous Away - Migration is on!
Blog by Jesse Watson Raptor migration is in full swing and nothing is more exciting than observing thousands of hawks headed towards their wintering grounds (or breeding grounds in the spring). One North American raptor species that we don’t often hear about during migration is the Ferruginous Hawk. Although a…
Chelan Ridge: A Kestrel Makes 1,000
Text and photos by Jessica Buskirk and TC Walker Welcome to mid-season at Chelan Ridge! We’ve been busy on top of the mountain with great visitors from all over the state. Our very own Jesse Watson and Dave Oleyar, many Chelan Ridge vets, returnees, and first time visitors from the…
More Uncommon Birds at the Grand Canyon
Text and photos by Casey Weissburg, Kumara MacLeod, and Ben West Although this week started with a promising day of good weather and raptor movement, Monday was soon followed by what is now a weekly pattern for us, of disruptive storms and strong south winds bringing dramatic drops in numbers.…