A 2017 Farewell from the Manzanos
Text and photos by Danny Erickson Greetings from Capilla Peak! The fall raptor migration is sure starting to slow up here for the Manzano Mountains HawkWatch with fewer birds counted and trapped as we close in on the end of the season. It is well past peak migration, but we have…
A day in the life of a migration monitor on Chelan Ridge
Text and photo by Magill Schumm A day in the life of a migration monitor at the Chelan Ridge HawkWatch: 0630 Your alarm goes off. You stick your head out of your sleeping bag, try to sit up, realize how much colder the outside world is and then hit snooze…
Manzanos Counting Strong
Text and photos by Jessica Taylor The past few weeks at the Manzano Mountains HawkWatch have been very exciting. It started out with four consecutive weather days right as peak migration was kicking off. The team was worried we were going to miss all the birds as we headed down the…
A Diversity of Migrants at the Grand Canyon
Text by Earl Johnson It's peak season here at the Grand Canyon HawkWatch and the birds are continuing to move through. Some great birders from the Prescott Audubon Society braved the weather on September 27th and came up to see some migrant raptors. As always, it was a blast to…
Manzanos: The Peak is Still to Come
Text by Tucker Davidson Migration has really been taking off as we’ve recorded almost a thousand birds in just the past week. Our biggest day of the season so far has been 229 migrants from Obs and 44 Accipiters in hand. Our current count as of 9/25 is 2,276 raptors…
Budding Biologists Visit Chelan Ridge
Text and artwork by Alma Schrage Hallo from Chelan Ridge! On Sept 16 and 17 we had our annual Hawkfest to celebrate the raptors we see here at Chelan Ridge HawkWatch. Our visitors who made the trip up to our site got to see Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks released, and…
Meet the Grand Canyon Crew
Text and photos by Earl Johnson Counting started at the Yaki Point, Grand Canyon HawkWatch on August 27th, and is slowly picking up as we near the peak season. About the crew this year: Greg Cooper was born and raised in New York but has called the West home for…
Meet the Chelan Ridge Crew
Text and photos by Magill Schumm Hello all and welcome to the Chelan Ridge HawkWatch blog for the 2017 migration season! It has been an exciting start to the season for newbies and seasoned crew members alike. We began the count on August 25th and commenced trapping on the first of…
Meet the Commissary Ridge Crew
Text and photos by Will Britton Commissary Ridge HawkWatch is entering it’s 4th week and things are starting to heat up raptor-wise. Weather-wise, things are seriously cooling down after a warm first couple weeks. In typical Commissary Ridge fashion, we have donned layer upon layer to count migrant raptors. The…
Meet the Corpus Christi Crew
Text by Matthew Mills On the verge of migration's peak, the Corpus Christi HawkWatch crew has already tallied over 31,000 raptors for the season. Highlights include a first site record for Gray Hawk (!) and the first Aplomado Falcon since 2011. In addition, two early records have been broken this year:…