The spring raptor migration is here! We kicked off our spring count at the Tubac HawkWatch on February 15th, with our two crew members, and many local friends and partners, counting through April 30th. We hope you’ll visit the site to witness the migration of uncommon US species, such as Gray, Short-tailed, and Common Black Hawks. During the peak week of the Common Black Hawk migration, we are back again hosting the Tubac HawkWatch Festival, where you can shop for merchandise and optics, listen to a new slate of expert guest lectures, and enjoy lots of birdy activities. Mark your calendar for March 13th-17th!
And now, let us welcome the 2026 Tubac HawkWatch crew members, both veteran hawkwatchers!
Melissa Marshall
Melissa has a degree in Wildlife, Fish, and Conservation Biology from the University of California, Davis, and has worked across the West on a wide range of bird and mammal projects. She is stoked to be returning to Tubac this spring to continue birding and chatting with locals and visitors, and of course, looking for Green Kingfishers in the morning before the count starts. This will be Melissa’s second season at the Tubac HawkWatch, but she has also served a season at the Goshute Mountains HawkWatch in Nevada. After being gifted a monocular this year, Melissa was finally able to combine her two favorite hobbies: running and birding. She also loves cross-stitching and baking (which are harder to combine). Her favorite raptor is the Merlin.
Nathaniel Cooley
Nathaniel graduated from Washington State University in 2025 with a degree in Wildlife Ecology. He has been birding since his second year of college, and it quickly became a central aspect of his life—most of his free time is spent outside birding. This is his second season hawkwatching with HWI, serving in the fall of 2025 at the Corpus Christi HawkWatch. Nathaniel is recently back in the country from a birding trip to Ecuador with the Corpus Christi Audubon. His favorite raptor is the Rough-legged Hawk, beautiful and always a treat to see in the snow-covered fields of eastern Washington.
If you need help planning your trip or are curious about how the count is going during the season, join our “Friends of Tubac HawkWatch” Facebook group! There, you can chat directly with our crew and other bird nerds excited about the spring count.
Thanks to our partners at the Tubac Nature Center and to HWI supporters for making raptor population monitoring in Arizona possible. You can play a role in raptor conservation, too. Click here to invest in the future of the migration network: https://hawkwatch.org/supportmigration/
This blog was written by Sammy Riccio, our Communications Manager, as well as our 2026 crewmembers. You can learn more about Sammy here.
