Summer 2003 - Golden Gate Raptor Observatory

Transcription

24
P A C I F I C
R A P T O R
R E P O R T
SUMMER
2003
CONTENTS
T H E
N E W S L E T T E R
O F
T H E
G O L D E N
G AT E
R A P T O R
O B S E R VAT O R Y
Summer 2003
HAWKWATCHING 1A: SOFT EYES AND HARD CASH
Allen Fish
3
ROBOLURE: HOW WILL IT HAPPEN?
Buzz Hull
4
UNDER THE DOUBLE EAGLE
Tim Behr
6
Lynn Jesus
11
Allison Levin
14
Buzz Hull
16
Siobhan Ruck
24
SWAINIES OF THE BUTTE VALLEY
Kathy Fraser Odell
26
PEREGRINATIONS: DIURNAL RAPTORS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Simone Whitecloud
30
ARE REDSHOULDERS HABITAT-SPECIALISTS?
THE BANDING GROOVE
STRETCHING THE SOUTHERN LIMITS
THE COOLNESS OF KESTRELS TRANSCENDS LANGUAGE BARRIERS
DONORS
34
VOLUNTEERS
35
AMERICAN KESTREL [JIM LOMAX] COVER: RED-TAILED HAWK [BARBARA SAMUELSON]
2
CONTENTS
T H E
N E W S L E T T E R
O F
T H E
G O L D E N
G AT E
R A P T O R
O B S E R VAT O R Y
Summer 2003
HAWKWATCHING 1A: SOFT EYES AND HARD CASH
Allen Fish
3
ROBOLURE: HOW WILL IT HAPPEN?
Buzz Hull
4
UNDER THE DOUBLE EAGLE
Tim Behr
6
Lynn Jesus
11
Allison Levin
14
Buzz Hull
16
Siobhan Ruck
24
SWAINIES OF THE BUTTE VALLEY
Kathy Fraser Odell
26
PEREGRINATIONS: DIURNAL RAPTORS OF SAN FRANCISCO
Simone Whitecloud
30
THE BANDING GROOVE
THE COOLNESS OF KESTRELS TRANSCENDS LANGUAGE BARRIERS
DONORS
34
VOLUNTEERS
35
fpo
AMERICAN KESTREL [JIM LOMAX] COVER: RED-TAILED HAWK [BARBARA SAMUELSON]
2
SUMMER 2003
D I R E C T O R’ S N O T E
HAWKWATCHING 1A
n
Soft Eyes and Hard Cash
Allen Fish
like the
Golden Gate, spotting raptors can be far from
easy. Speed-flappers like Merlins and hill-hugging Sharp-shinned Hawks can be mere blurs or blips in
your visual field. Soaring birds, like Red-tailed Hawks
and Turkey Vultures, may turn circles at altitudes right at
the limit of your visual range. So, how do you spot them?
E
VEN AT A WELL - KNOWN MIGRATION SITE
time. Learn the classic silhouettes for three raptor types:
buteo, falcon, and accipiter. Now you are within a fieldmark of a species’ identification—theoretically.
For the impatient among us, an alternate route is to stand
among people who seem to know what they’re doing and
ask “How’d you know what that was?”
THE HAWKWATCHER’S TOOLS
It may sound obvious,
but your eyes—not your
binoculars—are your primary tool. Learn to relax
them, to defocus them,
to let them see the entire
range of your visual
field. Think of Dustin
Hoffman learning to be
a gunslinger in Little
Big Man. Buddhists
call this “soft eyes.”
Binoculars are mandatory. Sure, you can pull back and
take in the bigger sky of soaring, gliding, and stooping
birds of prey, but the essence of watching hawks is to
focus in on the bird. You’ll want to see the subtle muscular flexes of tail and wing feathers in response to
wind and lift. You’ll want to see the hooked bill,
the dangling talons, and the glint of reflection in those all-seeing eyes.
There are two guiding principles for buying
binoculars: (1) you get what you pay for, and (2)
buy the best you can afford. If cost makes you shudder,
remember that this isn’t for some football scrimmage
that may happen a thousand times an autumn. This
is for birds of prey—scarce, quick, furtive, thrilling.
When that silvery-blue-backed adult Northern Goshawk
pumps its wings across your field of view, you want to
drink it with your eyes. You may not see this again for
decades, if ever.
Stay unfocused and
[SIOBHAN RUCK]
scan the horizon, scan
the sky, and let your focused attention respond to movements—the flutter of a leaf, the wave of an arm, distant
cars, a plane. Scan, focus, discard. Scan, focus, discard.
Somewhere out there will be a hawk. Scan, focus, hang
on. Track the hawk’s flight. Stay with it. Now, without
moving your face or eyes, reach down to your chestthumping pair of binoculars and pull them up to your
eyes. If you still had the hawk in your eye-view, your
eyes should still have them in your bino-view.
So, what is the best money-is-no-object, hawkwatching
binocular? Easy. Swarovski ELs. They are just a few years
on the market, created from the mind-melds of a team of
professional birders. Two EL sizes are available: 10x42s,
which will maximize your magnification, and 8.5x42s,
which will afford you a better field of view, a steadier image, and greater light-gathering for a slight loss of magnification. The tag for either hovers around $1,500.00.
Ouch. Did that make you jump? Yes, but think again
Is it a bird of prey? Maybe. A good clue is if the bird has a
shorter head compared to a longer tail. This trait includes swifts, swallows, and nighthawks as well as raptors,
but for the most part it works, eliminating crows, ravens,
cormorants, and waterfowl. So now what? Field guide
3
PA C I F I C R A P T O R R E P O R T
RESEARCH NOTES
of your eyes. Think of what you will see. This is your life;
there are no replays.
ROBOLURE
How Will It Happen?
There are many binoculars that cost less than the ELs and
still work beautifully for spotting hawks. Each is a tradeoff of cost, weight, magnification, field-of-view, steadiness, and brightness. These are my favorite hawking
binoculars for a range of pocketbooks, and the July 2003
cost as listed by Eagle Optics, a superb web-retailer for
birding equipment:
Swarovski
Swarovski
Zeiss
Nikon
Swift
Bushnell
Nikon
EL
8.5x42
EL
10x42
SLC
10x50
Classic Dialyt
7x42
Superior E
10x42
Audubon
8.5x44
Legend
8x42
Action
7x35
n
Buzz Hull
Feeling that great energy under my wings
—I can fly forever with this free ride—
twist my tail a little—a little adjustment
of my primaries—wait! There’s a chance
for an easy meal—I didn’t even know
I was hungry—look at that bird struggling down there—all I have to do is glide
down there and pick it up—getting closer. Hmm… it’s starting to look a little
funny—but all I have to do is reach out
—hey, wait a minute—something’s not
right—I’m outta here—what was that
Frankenstein?
28.9 oz. $1469.00
27.5 oz. $1529.00
41.3 oz. $1329.00
28.2 oz.
$919
26 oz.
$799
25.6 oz.
$355
30.1 oz.
$279
24.3 0z.
$99
This is a good time to find raptor field guides, with
three complementary books currently in print. The
Peterson Field Guide to Hawks of North America by
Clark and Wheeler (second edition) is the most versatile, with color photos, field-guide illustrations, and descriptions of the raptor species seen north of Mexico,
all packed into a typically small Petersonesque package.
HO KNOWS WHAT REALLY HAPPENS to initiate a Red-tailed Hawk starting its hard stoop
on a RoboLure, or on any prey for that matter? What is the final clincher to make the hawk complete
the attack? How many hours have I sat in a blind waiting
and watching the process, and how often have I seen the
attacking raptor pull out of its stoop at the last second
and then just go away? Why? What did it see? Or hear?
Or not see or hear? What didn’t work that the raptor
didn’t finish the hunt?
W
Peterson authors William Clark and Brian Wheeler have
also produced a larger book, The Photographic Guide to
North American Raptors, essentially a slideshow that
guides the reader through all the plumage variations
of each species.
More than a decade ago, birding’s best writer, Pete
Dunne, teamed with a then-unknown David Sibley to
produce Hawks in Flight—a lively and innovative approach to identifying birds of prey through “jizz.” Jizz
(“general impression, size, and shape”) is a kind of gestalt
approach that includes shape, behavior, field marks, and
intuition as part of the equation toward deducing a Harrier from a Kestrel. Hawks in Flight is specifically geared
for use at a hawk migration site, emphasizing the precise
shape and action of each flying raptor.
As a raptor bander working at a migration trapping station, I want to catch and band every passing raptor.
I know that banding is of its greatest value only if I get
information about recoveries, and that I will hear of these
human–hawk encounters with only 3 to 5 percent of the
birds I band. Each raptor that I don’t band is a missed
opportunity, perhaps a critical bit of information that
I will never know regarding migration routes, or wintering habitats, or human-caused hazards to survival.
GGRO Director since 1985, Allen Fish moonlights as the Samsonite Gorilla of birding binoculars. Send yours in today.
4
SUMMER 2003
RESEARCH NOTES
Since the late 1980s, the GGRO has committed
much time and many resources to developing an
effective mechanical lure for trapping raptors.
Any mechanical lure will only be worthwhile
when its level of success—how many hawks it
catches—reaches the level we can achieve with
live lures. In the 2001 banding season, we carefully tested RoboLures in contrast to standard
lures at one of our four blinds. The study revealed that even our best RoboLures were only
about 30 percent as successful at capturing
hawks as live lures, even though the two styles
of lures caused the same number of raptors to
initiate an attack.
Our objective is to learn about raptor movements in order to contribute to raptor conservation, and a 30 percent success rate simply is not
acceptable. Our usual capture of an average
1,200 raptors annually means that we earn between 30 and 50 encounters (recoveries) annually. If we were only to band 400 hawks in a season,
the number of recoveries would drop to less than
20. Another way to look at this problem is to
think about the already slow process of data
accumulation taking three times as long.
How do we get inside these raptors’ heads? How
do we learn what they are seeing, hearing, and
responding to? Or not responding to? Several
years ago we researched available literature about
hunting behavior of raptors, about escape and
avoidance behavior of prey birds, and about raptor perception. And there is very little out there
that is relevant to our problem. So we continue
in our blind efforts to create lures that look good
to us. We continue to guess what will be attractive to the raptors. And we continue to make little steps forward in our quest for the perfect
RoboLure.
Our plans for RoboLures in 2003 include:
n
To field test full-sized RoboPigeons with pow-
erful motors and gears that can flap fully
spread pigeon wings at top speed over a full
range of movement.
n
n
n
n
n
n
To test a variety of jacket and vest treatments
to see if there might be a color or a texture
that will be more attractive to hawks.
To continue development of a RoboSnake.
To continue the development of RoboBirds
with full ranges of motion—wing flap, tail
flick, wing folding, head bobbing and turning,
hopping, pecking.
To continue development of a continually circling flapping bird in the center of a net enclosure.
To continue to work with our mechanical owl—
RoboBubo—combined with an overhead net.
To continue to test “Bird-on-a-String,” a nonelectric Robo that has a flapping action powered
by the trapper tugging on the line and causing
the bird to “fly” along the front of a mist net.
In other words, we are unashamedly shotgunning
for a big Robo breakthrough. If this discussion
stimulates anyone to join us in our search for an
answer, I would love to hear from you. Email me
at [email protected].
GGRO Research Director Buzz Hull banded his
20th season at the Golden Gate in 2003.
5
A WORLD-WEARY
ROBOWAXWING
BREATHLESSLY
AWAITS A NAÏVE
AND HUNGRY
COOPER’S HAWK.
[BUZZ HULL]
2 0 0 2 H A W K W AT C H R E P O R T
UNDER THE DOUBLE EAGLE n Tim Behr
B
Y W R I T I N G T H I S A RT I C L E IN THE FORM OF A JOURNAL , I
hope to provide you
with not only a sense of the 2002 season, but also of the progress of a migration
season in general. I realize that this may seem to rely inordinately on the numbers, but numbers are the principal product of the GGRO Hawkwatch. The
information contained herein was gleaned from the GGRO Hawkwatch Journal,
the Hawkwatch Today button on the GGRO website, and my own memories.
NORTH QUADRANT SPOTTERS
ANSWER KISLING’S FIRST
QUERY OF CALIFORNIA RAPTOR IDENTIFICATION (“HOW
DO YOU KNOW IT WASN’T A
JUVENILE REDTAIL?”) IN THE
POSITIVE. [TEAM PHOTO BY
DAVID JESUS; REDTAIL BY
JIM LOMAX]
6
SUMMER 2003
8/6/02
RAPTOR SIGHTINGS IN THE
MARIN HEADLANDS DURING AUTUMN*
My season commenced on the second day of our 2-week
orientation cycle. I left my Novato home for the Marin
Headlands with measures of both hope and trepidation.
In 2001, my Tuesday I Team had suffered the tribulations
of interminable FOG. That led to our “earning” the Corbaley Cup, a somewhat dubious distinction bestowed upon the Hawkwatch team with the fewest hours of counting during a given season.
2002 Raptor Rate
(Hawks/Hour)
Hours
I arrived at GGRO’s Fort Cronkhite office, where my
team met with Allen Fish prior to going up on Hawk
Hill, which was blissfully clear. We practiced the quadrant-style counting system for a couple of hours to
reacquaint ourselves with the process. In so doing, we
were lucky enough to be graced by the presence of a
juvenile Bald Eagle. This bird was the second August
record for Marin County. Remarkably, the first was by
my team in the prior August. Would this Bald Eagle
be a harbinger of glories to come, or would it be a curse
on this new season?
8/27/02
Beset by one of the foggiest Augusts on record, GGRO’s
Hawkwatch teams operated in fits and starts. Long hours
were spent looking at raptor slides and waiting for the fog
to clear. When not reviewing slides, many of the teams
could be found wandering the Gerbode Valley, or joining
Steve Bauer and Herb Brandt along Conzelman Road
above Kirby Cove in search of a raptor fix.
2002 Raptor
Sightings
Average
1989–2001
524
511
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
White-tailed Kite
Bald Eagle
Northern Harrier
21.10
0.20
0.15
<0.01
2.52
11,046
106
79
4
1,318
6,129
77
43
0
611
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper’s Hawk
Northern Goshawk
11.16
5.29
<0.01
5,844
2,769
0
3,913
2,110
2
Red-shouldered Hawk
Broad-winged Hawk
Swainson’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ferruginous Hawk
Rough-legged Hawk
1.29
0.34
0.02
23.29
0.06
0.02
677
180
9
12,194
34
12
251
112
3
7,351
19
7
Golden Eagle
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Prairie Falcon
0.04
1.28
0.40
1.20
0.02
21
670
208
105
12
17
546
114
89
6
Unidentified
2.59
1,358
1,660
69.93
36,614
23,063
Total
* Not to be cited except by permission of the GGRO.
9/7/02
As the fogs of August began to relent in September, the
migration season truly got underway. The numbers of
Cooper’s and Sharp-shinned Hawks started their annual
climb towards the peak of season. Mike Weber’s Saturday
I Team was the first to register a 10-species day highlighted by a well-seen Prairie Falcon and by a very early, very
distant first Merlin of the season.
On one of the occasions that we’d been able to count
from Hawk Hill, three Prairie Falcons were the most
notable sightings. However, on this Tuesday afternoon,
Steve Bauer scoped a long-winged seabird several hundred feet above Kirby Cove. I got it in my scope also, as
did other Hawk Hill regulars, and we all puzzled over this
wayward seabird for the entire five minutes it was in view
and beyond. After much discussion, we concluded that
we had seen a Booby of some kind. We were once again
reminded that we can only TRY to identify every bird we
see. Even with this mysterious Booby sighting, August
could not turn to September fast enough.
9/14/02
Lillian Armstrong’s Saturday II Team saw the first Broadwinged Hawk of 2002. Its arrival has historically announced the arrival of the peak of season and this year
was no different. Our hawk sightings per hour (hph)
7
rose from the 50 hph range at the beginning of the month to 88 hph.
9/16/02
The dam broke and the accipiters
were “dashing through the fog.”
Lew Cooper’s Monday I Team broke
the 100-hph barrier with 107 hph.
The Sharpies came through accompanied by Broadwings and a Prairie.
9/17/02
I went to bed the previous night with
visions of Sharp-shinned Hawks
dancing in my head. I dreamed that
I arrived the next morning to a crystal-clear Hawk Hill. As I truly made
the turn up Conzelman Road that
morning, my dreams became reality.
I could not get my Tuesday I Team out
of the GGRO office and up to the top
of the Hill fast enough. Fog-free days
around the autumnal equinox are
what some of us live for, and I was
not about to let us miss a minute of it.
WHITE VULTURE REFLECTIONS
The first time I saw Moby Vulture was Saturday,
October 12, on Hawk Hill, and I was confused.
I had been on the look-out for this remarkable Turkey
Vulture ever since hearing about Barbara Samuelson
and Greg Gothard’s sighting on September 8 of
a leucistic Turkey Vulture near Muir Beach—just eight
miles up the coast. My curiosity was further piqued
by a subsequent sighting from Hawk Hill in late
September. Regardless, I was not ready for what
I saw.
At first, I tried to turn it into a Ferruginous Hawk
because a Ferrug was the only raptor I could think
of that was that white and that big. But it was not
long before I realized it was THE Vulture and all
eyes were upon it. The feathering on the back, the
wing coverts, and tail were all a very light camel
brown; the primaries were quite white; and the head
was pinkish with a white bill. It spent several hours
wandering around the Headlands with other TVs.
Moby’s distinctive plumage provided us with a
unique opportunity to study the movements of an
individual vulture within the Headlands. If his/her
behavior is in any way representative of a local
Turkey Vulture (think of the value of telemetry),
then many of my own reservations about repeating
counts of TVs in our hawkwatch numbers are
allayed. I do not believe that we would have
recounted the flock it was traveling with more than
once that day. Add that to the fact that I saw it on
only four subsequent occasions during the course
of the season and I am led to believe that we may
not be counting the same TVs on a daily basis.
The hawks were moving through
from the very start of the morning.
By 11 AM, the sky was full of hawks
and they were crossing the Golden
Gate one right after the next. There
was little of the balking at the water
crossing that we regularly witness at Hawk Hill. Scarcely
a moment went by that day when I would focus on a
given hawk and not see several more coming in the background. The 905 sightings (151 hph) that we counted
that day exceeded my team’s total number of sightings
for all of 2001. At the end of the day, we were sore-eyed
and tired; but most of all, we were elated.
–Tim Behr
is that it most likely will happen on the first clear day
after the autumnal equinox.
The 953 sightings (159 hph)
tallied by Dennis Davison’s
Sunday I Team did in fact
establish the standard for
2002. The 13 species included 345 Sharpies, 22 Broadwings, “tons of Redshoulders,” Merlins, Peregrines,
and a Ferruginous Hawk.
I was sorry I missed them.
9/29/02
Stefanie Arthur’s Sunday II
Crew got the first Hawk Hill
view of a local leucistic
Turkey Vulture, gradually
dubbed “Moby.” Add that
to 889 sightings (148 hph)
of some 12 species and once
again I was sorry to have
missed a day. But the intervening days provided some
of the most consistently good
hawkwatching in my memory for both diversity and volume. The Sharpies just kept
coming and I was reluctant
to see September end.
10/1/02
My Tuesday I Team had another great day with 590 sightings (98 hph) of 11 species. Along with a Ferrug, we
finally saw the first Golden Eagle of 2002. I do not
believe that we had ever entered October without having
seen a Golden earlier. We figured we were receiving our
just rewards after the privations of 2001.
9/22/02
10/2/02
People often ask me at the beginning of the season,
“What’s the the biggest day of the season?” My answer
Sue Pemberton’s Wednesday I Team hit the season’s
diversity jackpot with 14 species. Their five-buteo day
8
SUMMER 2003
(Ferruginous, Swainson’s, Broadwing, Redshoulder, and
Redtail) repeated a feat accomplished on September 19.
Some people attributed this good fortune to Steve
Bauer’s apple fritters. Keep them coming.
Merlins, and a late adult Broad-winged Hawk. Needless
to say, I did not want October to end any more than I
had wanted September to end.
11/2/02
10/11—13/02
November started with the continuing buteo push, great
diversity, and a touch of comedy. Mike Weber’s Saturday
I Team had a spectacular and befuddling day. The 621
sightings (104 hph) of 11 species, including a couple of
Peregrines, three Merlins, and a sub-adult Golden Eagle
provided the backdrop for one of those bizarre occurrences that forever mark a season.
Columbus and Indigenous Day weekend brought crowds
and the roar of the Blue Angels. But the hawks flew undaunted by the din. John Boyd’s Friday II Crew matched
the 14-species mark that would be high for the season.
Saturday the twelfth gave me my first look at Moby
Vulture among the nearly 100 hph of 11 species that day.
Sunday provided more of the same, with 102 hph of
12 species and the madding crowds.
We were standing our vigil on the North Platform of
Hawk Hill when we saw a couple of vehicles drive onto
the Rifle Range in the Rodeo Valley below us. The driver
of one of the vehicles, an SUV, decided that he was going
to practice off-road driving by going up and over the historic berms on the Rifle Range. We were appalled and
aghast. This fool had apparently not realized the power
of the cell phone. We were so annoyed that we reported
this jerk to the Park Police, initiating a low-speed chase
that culminated in the culprit’s arrest above Kirby Cove
over half an hour later. Although the complete story is
too long and convoluted for this entry, if you are interested, ask me about the parrot not being loaded and I will
tell you the entire saga.
10/23/02
David Jesus’s Wednesday II Crew finally caught a break.
After being beleaguered by fog for much of the season,
they got their just reward, 2002’s first Rough-legged
Hawk. It was their first full day on the Hill. Their 397
sightings of 11 species were a welcome respite.
10/24/02
Fran McDermott’s Thursday II crew had been suffering
from that same fog affliction. Their first full day on the
Hill produced 560 sightings (94 hph) of 12 species. A
dark-morph Rough-legged Hawk and two Peregrines
provided several highlights. In fact, one Peregrine came
so close I had to put down my frame-filled binocular
to get a better look.
11/7/02
The numbers leading up to this date were tapering
off in the face of an oncoming El Niño storm. Fran
McDermott’s long-suffering Thursday II Crew was
scheduled, and would not be denied. As GGRO Banders were leaving the Headlands because of the weather, Fran led her intrepid group to the top of Hawk Hill.
During their four-hour stint they counted 116 hawks
of six species. It took 50 mph winds and driving rain
to dislodge them from the Hill. Their perseverance
that day kept the Corbaley Cup from being awarded
for 2002.
10/27/02
Stefanie Arthur’s Sunday II Crew was blessed again. A
juvenile Bald Eagle took its place among the 740 sightings
(123 hph) of 12 species. The Merlin and the Roughleg
were no slouches either.
10/29/02
My team’s last trip to the Hill in October was a continuation of the streak of spectacular late October days. The
Redtails were all over us, some 285 of them. Interspersed
among 629 sightings (105 hph) of 12 species were two
Golden Eagles, three juvenile Ferruginous Hawks, five
That night, near-hurricane force winds lashed the Headlands, scattering the Hill 88 Blind, as Herb Brandt put it,
onto Hills 89, 90, 91….
9
11/17/02
12/7/02
It was November 11 before the skies once again became
our friend. Following a comparatively uneventful week,
Dennis Davison’s Sunday I Team proved that in 2002, the
hawks came ever on Sunday. Having been served up a
Harlan’s Redtail two weeks previously, falcons were on
the menu this day. Among their 535 sightings (82 hph)
there were 19 Merlins, 7 Peregrines, and 8 Kestrels. However, these were the sideshow, as once again the Hawk
Hill Comedy Club was open for business. This time the
Rifle Range was the stage for a performance artist. This
guy was filming himself repeatedly jumping off a stack of
hay bales, naked. That was the only thing I did not regret
missing on Sundays in 2002.
Our final weeks in December rewarded us with several
observations of Moby Vulture, and two Harlan’s Redtail
sightings. I did not witness the one on Sunday, December
1, but on this penultimate day of the season, we saw a
light-morph adult Redtail that carried a mostly-white
tail with a black subterminal band and a red tip. Was it a
Harlan’s? Or a Harlan’s intergrade? Who can say? It was
a beautiful buteo.
11/25/02
EPILOGUE
The consistently excellent hawkwatching continued right
into our final two-week cycle, a period typically characterized by lavish end-of-season potlucks, and the occasional rare bird. Lew Cooper’s Monday I Team had little
time to dine. Hawks were everywhere. This was our latest-ever big flight, with an astonishing 621 sightings (104
hph) of 12 species. Those fantastic numbers did not tell
the whole story.
A brief look at the numbers over the last ten-plus years
reveals that new records were established in many areas,
including 69.9 hph and 36,646 total sightings (just surpassing those statistics for 1999). New high counts were
established for four species, with 11,046 Turkey Vultures,
677 Red-shouldered Hawks, 34 Ferruginous Hawks, and
9 Swainson’s Hawks. A ten-year high of 12 Prairie Falcons provided us “falcophiles” with a number of great
looks. We added the “Sweet Spot” to our ever-growing
lexicon of location names in the Headlands. Near-record
numbers of eight more species (Osprey, White-tailed
Kite, Northern Harrier, Merlin, Sharp-shinned, Cooper’s,
Broad-winged, and Red-tailed Hawk) were observed.
This all occurred during a season of 524 hours (just off
the ten-year average of 523 hours).
12/8/02
Moby Vulture was with us for the last-day-of-the-season
bash. It seemed appropriate to me that it was there to
usher out this truly remarkable season.
Imagine someone calling out a falcon and you tell them
it’s a Peregrine that you see up close; but he says, “Oh no,
it has dark axillaries!” Sure enough, we had simultaneous
point-blank sightings of a Peregrine and a Prairie. Perhaps the moment I regret most was when Herb Brandt
caught me with my hands and mouth filled by a sandwich. He had a big accipiter that he suspected was our
elusive first Goshawk of 2002. But it got away before we
could get an adequate look at it. Damn!
Although we had no 1,000-sighting-days in 2002, three
times we exceeded the previous season’s high of 884
sightings. We went over 100 hph on 17 occasions, including the latest ever on November 25th . The sole blemish
on this extraordinary season was the lack of a Goshawk.
But the Sharpies and the Redtails just kept on coming.
That Bald Eagle that we saw at the dawn of the season
turned out to be anything but a curse!!!
11/30/02
Sometimes it is really hard to get people’s attention—
especially with the sumptuous spreads being laid out daily. This was just such a day. Looking north through my
spotting scope, I shouted, “Bald Eagle!” Hardly anyone
responded until I added, “I’m not kidding!” Later that
day, we added a Golden for a rare double-eagle day.
Bird Guide Tim Behr has spent ever y waking hour on Hawk
Hill for well over a decade, save for fall Sundays, which
belong to the Niners.
10
SUMMER 2003
2002 TELEMETRY PROGRAM
n
Lynn Jesus
13 TH YEAR , in the
GGRO Telemetry Program,
we attempted to answer a simple question—where are they going?—
but the answer was and is in no way
simple. Our 13 years are divided into
three separate studies. We began in
1990 studying the movements of juvenile Red-tailed Hawks, and in 1994,
we began studying Cooper’s Hawks.
Those first two species of course
showed us dramatically different flight
paths and styles. So in May 1998,
a group of telemetry-savvy GGRO
volunteers met to contemplate, and
strategize how we could conduct a
multiyear study of the various species
that are less frequently banded in the
Marin Headlands.
F
OR THE
HENRY ALTORFER RELEASES ORION FROM SLACKER RIDGE, WITH THE SAN
During the 2002 tracking season, GGRO banders provided the Telemetry teams with two Red-shouldered Hawks.
Each raptor told us its unique story. Each found a distinct place to pass the time, and each required a different
radiotracking style.
FRANCISCO SKYLINE BEYOND. [DAVID JESUS]
like a singular direction, but tracking raptors going north
requires auto-bound humans to immediately choose between a route to the east of Mt. Tamalpais (elevation
2,571 feet), or on Highway 1 to the west of Mt. Tam.
No single highpoint offers good coverage of both routes.
ORION (JUVENILE RED-SHOULDERED HAWK)
S EPTEMBER 27, “Orionthe-Hunter” was released from South Slacker
Hill not far from the Golden Gate Bridge. It
immediately flew east behind Slacker Blind, and then
west at a low altitude toward the valley floor, eventually
choosing to roost on the south side of Rodeo Lagoon.
O
Orion found it relatively simple to head north to the east
of Mt. Tam and then suddenly turn west. However, our
three tracking teams had to “protect the north” from a
sprinting raptor, maintain vigilance over the Mt. Tam
and central Marin County territory, and cover the coastal
route. For several hours, none of the teams picked up a
signal. Then, after miles of driving along winding coastal
roads, Team 1 located Orion along Highway 1.
N THE AFTERNOON OF
The next day, at mid-morning, Orion lifted off from the
roost tree, drifted over the Marine Mammal Center, and
began heading north. Now, traveling north may sound
Orion’s place of choice was a riparian area located in the
11
Point Reyes National Seashore, approximately 2.3 miles
south of Olema. NPS Rangers from Pt. Reyes were helpful in providing us access to the Bolinas Ridge Trail, as
well as to other off-road sites. Orion favored the area to
the west of Highway 1—along the Olema Creek and the
Rift Zone Trail, and north of the Five Brooks Trail—but
was occasionally observed to fly across Highway 1 on
short forays. Libby Rouan and Ben Lavender wrote: “We
noted several other Redshoulders in the neighborhood
and commented on the pristine Redshoulder habitat we
were in.”
NOMAD (JUVENILE RED-SHOULDERED HAWK)
with a bit of wanderlust,
the telemetrists chose “Nomad” for the name
of the second Redshoulder of the season. After
being released from South Slacker Hill at 4:25 PM, Nomad
headed east towards Sausalito and found a roost tree in
East Fort Baker.
H
OPING FOR A RAPTOR
At midmorning on October 4, Nomad lifted off and
began its journey. The teams were well positioned for
Nomad’s flight, and the San Pablo Ridge Team became
the hub as Nomad flew first north, and then east into
the Sacramento Valley. As the San Pablo team tracked
and communicated Nomad’s changing position through
Marin, Sonoma, Napa, and Solano counties, the two
mobile teams tried to keep up, as well as find an occasional highpoint in which to get crossbearings. And then
the mobile teams hit the great expanse of the Sacramento
Valley. No roost site was identified that first evening;
however, late bearings indicated that Nomad was east
of Mt. Vaca, somewhere between Vacaville, Woodland,
and Sacramento.
And what did this “pristine Redshoulder habitat” mean to
the telemetry teams? On September 30, Libby and Ashley
Sexton reported: “We were busy all day with off-roading,
gate-opening, and discussing theories regarding what this
bird is doing in its tiny, tiny territory, which it has inhabited for the past 3 days.” This raptor’s tiny, tiny territory
within the convoluted coastal terrain meant that the
teams were either positioned “close-in” (on Highway 1
or on Bolinas Ridge) recording the micromovements
of Orion, or they were waiting on a highpoint (prepared
for another macromovement) and receiving no signal.
For the next two days, the teams were unable to pinpoint
Nomad’s location. All our modes of communication
(cell phones, pagers, and radios) broke down. The
Sacramento Valley was a broad black hole for communication, and it also lacked useful highpoints for getting
raptor signals.
The close-in position required frequent recordings of signal location, characteristics, visuals, and other animals in
the area. Sometimes the teams even had time to record
interesting human interactions, such as this from Cheryl
Kraywinkel and Richard Ferris’s journal notes: “Orion
stayed put from 0930 ’til we left for the day at 1830.
However, we did get a chance to count 83 motorcycles,
27 trucks with horse-trailers, and too-many-to-count
drivers all in a hurry to get somewhere more important
than where they were coming from.”
On both October 5 and 6, two teams remained stationary
on distant highpoints, such as Mt. Vaca, Mt. Diablo, or
various locations in the Sierra Foothills, while one mobile
team tried to close in on Nomad. Only sporadic signals
were picked up, and the bearings indicated that Nomad
could have been as far east as the Foothills.
The teams stayed with Orion for a week, through October 3, when GGRO banders provided us a second Redshouldered Hawk to track. Later autumn tracking found
that Orion moved 2.5 miles northwest to an area of similar habitat west of the Bear Valley Trail, between the Mt.
Wittenberg Trail and the Meadow Trail. Henry Altorfer
also noted that NPS was conducting controlled burns
in the area, but it is unknown whether these conditions
might have influenced Orion’s move to that location.
Our tracking strategy was the reverse of what we used
with Orion. Instead of having local teams constantly
recording Orion’s micromovements, we had to resort to
using three highpoint teams, each receiving only sporadic
signals from Nomad. In order to locate Nomad, a local
team had to be close enough to pick up a signal across
these flatlands. On October 7, we added a fourth team
12
SUMMER 2003
2002 FLIGHTS OF JUVENILE
RED-SHOULDERED HAWKS
Sacramento
Shaded area shows
approximate range.
Exact location unknown
Oct. 20, 2002
Oct. 17, 2002
Oct. 7,9,11,12, 2002
Santa Rosa
Orion
Petaluma
Nomad
Oct. 10,2002
N
Sept. 28-Oct. 3, 2002
Marin Headlands
Oct 3, 2002
California
Sept. 27, 2002
PACIFIC
OCEAN
0
so that there could be three highpoint teams and one
mobile team to zero in on the elusive Nomad. Success!!
50
100 miles
(i.e., watched) Nomad leaving the grove, flying over the
flatlands, sometimes remaining on the ground for up to
20 minutes, and eventually returning to the grove located
at Roads 38 and 106. During late-season tracking on
October 17, Henry Altorfer determined that Nomad had
moved northeast to a group of trees near the Glide Tule
Ranch, and on October 20, Henry found Nomad’s
evening roost near the eastern end of Road 34. This
indicates a drift to the northeast of approximately 4 miles
from Nomad’s original roost site over a two-week period;
however, both areas have similar flat fields and farmlands.
Bearings from the three highpoint teams at 8:44 AM
crossed in the area south of Davis and east of Hwy 113.
The mobile team scoured the fields, picking up several
signals surrounding the area in which Nomad was finally
located. By noon, Team 4 was at the intersection of
Roads 38 and 106. Later in the day, the teams from Mt.
Vaca and the Sierra Foothills came to the Yolo Bypass
Wildlife area, just west of the Sacramento Deep Ship
Channel, and confirmed Nomad’s location near the intersection of Roads 38 and 106.
MAKING SENSE OF SHOULDERS
And so in 2002, GGRO’s Telemetry Program can answer
the question—Where are they going?—for two more
Red-shouldered Hawks. These two “Shoulders” chose
entirely different habitats, and required dramatically different tracking techniques. GGRO Telemetrists must
be tenacious and patient, creative and adaptable; but in
the end, the result is the exhilarating feeling of learning
a little bit more about the real lives of the raptors that visit the Marin Headlands each fall.
Nomad chose a hangout in the middle of flat grasslands,
corn and tomato fields, grazing land, wildlife refuges, and
duck hunting clubs! Other raptors in the area included
Red-tailed Hawks, White-tailed Kites, Northern Harriers,
American Kestrels, and Turkey Vultures. Nomad chose
a small grove of old eucalyptus trees that served as an
island in the middle of the Yolo Bypass Wildlife Refuge.
Hunters from the various duck clubs were extremely
helpful in offering us combinations to gates that allowed
access onto the private lands.
Telemetr y Coordinator Lynn Jesus was recently recognized as
the California State Authority on Access Roads to High Places.
Thankfully, this is not a governor-appointed position.
On October 9 and 11, the teams had visuals on
13
2002 BANDING PROGRAM
THE BANDING GROOVE n Allison Levin
DEAR R EADER : For me, the 2002 banding season started out
with the proverbial kick to the head. I took it as a bid for my attention.
banders and telemetrists like to talk about. Especially
the banders—we take weather very, very seriously.
GGRO banding
season. John Payne (bander extraordinaire) and
I were at the Hill 88 Blind, and it was at the end of
a perfect day. Good company, clear skies, and willing
hawks when—let’s see, how would the game “Clue”
describe it? “The Wind did it, with a Door, in the Marin
Headlands Entryway.” Thirteen staples to the head later,
I was all fixed up. (And I got away easy—by the end of
the 2002 season, that same wind took down the Hill 88
Blind itself, turning it into toothpicks and kindling.)
I
T WAS THE SECOND DAY OF THE
If you ever have a chance to visit the GGRO office (and I
hope that you do), pull up a chair and read a few pages of
our collective Banding Journal. You’ll find that weather is
written about almost as much as the hawks that we lure.
To quote:
“The amount of morning fog was absolutely insane!”
(Siobhan Ruck, September 15) “It was hot.” (Jeff Acuff,
November 7) “The day went something like this: hawk,
rainshower, hawk, squall, hawk, hail!, hawk, more rain.”
(Greg Brown, December 20) “Beautiful day. Very warm
in the morning with no wind. Breeze picked up around
noon. Lots and lots of RTs – most of which ignored us.”
(John Ungar, September 10) And, at the end of one birdless day, bander Ralph Pericoli wrote only this: “The cursed
Mind you, this was not a typical banding adventure. Most
of the time we are able to keep our blinds year to year to
year, and not many banders are sporting Frankenstein
hairdos (just me!). I tell you my story not so much for the
sympathy (bon-bons can be sent in care of the GGRO
office), but because I want to talk about the wind and the
sky, and weather in general. It’s what hawkwatchers and
A PEREGRINE AND TWO PAIR O’GRINS. RAPTORS ARE JUVENILE RED-SHOULDERED HAWK, JUVENILE PEREGRINE FALCON, PRAIRIE FALCON, AND ANOTHER JUV
REDSHOULDER. BANDERS CHRISTINA SHERR, CRAIG NIKITAS, ANN RUFFER, AND DIAN BAHR. (PHOTOS BY DAVID JESUS, EXCEPT FOR CRAIG AND THE PEREGINE,
WHICH IS BY GREG GOTHARD.)
14
SUMMER 2003
2002 BANDING PROGRAM
South Wind!” Arrrr, matey, and pass
me the bottle—or, on second thought,
how about one of those cubes of
chocolate cherry hazelnut fudge,
guaranteed to bring in falcons?
Something you won’t easily find in our
Banding Journal is much talk about
the dedication that we bring—and
why we continue to be so enthusiastic
through wind, fog, and California’s
bitter winter chills. (I think the dampness gets deeper into the bones than
even the Midwest’s fiercest.) Like most
passions, what motivates each of us is
hard to explain.
RAPTORS BANDED IN THE MARIN
HEADLANDS DURING AUTUMN*
Annual Average
Totals
2002 1992-2001** 1983-2002
Northern Harrier
47
9
193
Sharp-shinned Hawk 508
387
4903
Cooper’s Hawk
602
493
6796
Northern Goshawk
0
4
Red-shouldered Hawk 39
10
182
Broad-winged Hawk
0
1
13
Swainson’s Hawk
0
3
Red-tailed Hawk
453
340
5845
Ferruginous Hawk
0
0
2
Rough-legged Hawk
0
0
3
Golden Eagle
0
0
2
American Kestrel
61
46
631
Merlin
26
14
174
Peregrine Falcon
1
4
41
Prairie Falcon
3
1
17
Total
1,741
1,306
18,809
them, taking them in hand,
measuring and banding and
releasing them—completely
empties my mind of anything else. I am transported,
and if the question is “to
where?” I’ll tell you the
answer: Here and now.
I find my Flow. Or, as we
hipsters liked to say, “It puts
me in the groove.” In the
groove, too much thinking
can get in a person’s way.
For me, being captivated
by the here-and-now is a
rare, if cliched, event. And
Certainly, we go because of the birds.
* Not to be cited except by permission of the GGRO.
it is completely satisfying:
** 1992 through 2001 are used for comparison due to similarity
But I think that our notes about the
of methods for all years beginning with 1992.
If I ever did possess any
weather also say much about what
grace, this is when it would
motivates us, more than simply which
emerge. Amazing that stepway the wind was howling. Yes, the weather does help
ping away from more lofty thoughts can feel so joyous,
weave a story into our successes and failures, but the
but I think this is what happens to many people in the
weather is also something we can point to when we want
act of their passion, whether they are fishermen, painters,
to say, “Something about what I am doing out here is
dancers, mountain climbers or toddlers. It happens to
powerfully different.” The weather is, in my estimation,
banders as we navigate the elements and depend on our
one of the more tangible aspects of a pursuit that is as
reflexes and take part in the beauty that surrounds us.
transcendent as true besotted love.
As it turned out, banding this season was not a typical
When I make my early-morning drive to the Marin
experience for any of us. In an exhilarating confluence
Headlands and a day of hawk banding, I step out of my
of Flow among 99 volunteer banders, with some help
cozy old Toyota and into an environment that physically
from the wind, and—oh yes—the raptors themselves,
grabs and grips me. The sky becomes a presence instead
it was a banner year of records set. It took all of us to
of empty space; it is huge and aggressive. Instead of feelband a record total of 1,741 raptors. This year in particuing cramped in familiar streets and stuffy rooms, I am
lar, no matter who banded the 26th Merlin, the
swallowed up by deep, sweeping hills; the rough chapar44th Northern Harrier, the 39th Red-shouldered Hawk
ral colors and textures and smells that surprise me every
(leaving aside the record-matching numbers of Prairie
time; and the feeling that I am the intruder while the
Falcons, Cooper’s Hawks, Sharp-shinned Hawks, and
locals—coyotes, foxes, sparrows, and mountain lions—
Swainson’s Hawks)… during this 20th year of the GGRO
are assessing me. Having stepped out of my normal life,
banding program, it seems that the groove held us all.
nothing that I do is routine. Nothing that will happen
Landscape Architect & freelance writer Allison Levin coordinatcan be predicted. I pay attention to it all.
ed all the off-season bird care for 2003, ensuring her place
in the eternal avian groove.
Every moment of working with the hawks—luring for
15
GGRO BAND RECOVERIES 2000 TO 2003
n
Buzz Hull
A
S ALLEN AND I REVIEWED THE STATUS OF OUR BAND
A second long-distance traveler was recovery #569, a
Cooper’s Hawk that was banded on September 8, 2002,
by Dian Langlois and recovered at Lake Havasu City,
Arizona, on March 17, 2003. This bird traveled at least
600 miles in the six-month period between banding
and recovery.
recovery reporting, we became painfully aware of
the degree to which we have fallen behind in reporting to you. We want to keep all of our volunteer banders and PRR readers informed about what we are learning from the banding data regarding West Coast raptor
movement. In the last Pacific Raptor Report band recovery
article, Marion Weeks reported the circumstances of 24
encounters of birds banded at the GGRO. Since early 2001,
we have received an additional 115 reports of encounters
and are clearly falling behind in keeping up with the data.
A third recovery, #558, is exciting because of time, not
distance or direction. This encounter extends the known
survival time for a Sharp-shinned Hawk banded at the
GGRO. This female Sharpie was one I banded as a juvenile on September 15, 1995, and was encountered in El
Toro, California on January 1, 2003,—seven years and
three months later. This is a bird that was reported as
“alive, released; band left on bird,” so it’s not done yet.
In order to get the information to you in a more timely
way, we are streamlining our procedures just a little. As
many of you already know, we receive just a skeleton version of the circumstances of each band or bird encounter
from the Bird Banding Laboratory. We attempt to verify
and also to flesh out each report through correspondence
and telephone conversations with the finders. In this issue, we report what information we have to you, and will
keep you informed in greater detail of the more interesting and significant encounters as the information becomes available to us. In this article, therefore, you will
only get short snapshots of many of the encounters.
A fourth recovery, #559, a Red-tailed Hawk banded on
December 16, 1988, illustrates one of the difficulties with
band-recovery data. We would love to believe that the
hawk lived until September 2002, when the band was
found. However, a phone call from Russ DeLong to the
finder revealed that the band (#1807-07306) was found
on a gravelly stretch of beach at Klamath Lake, Oregon,
with no sign of the bird or its remains. So, as much as we
would like to believe that the Redtail lived to the grand
old age of almost 14 years, we have no way of knowing
even approximately how long the bird survived.
Now that I have prepared you for a short and boring
discussion of way too many band encounters, I need to
highlight some very exciting encounters that were
among the most recent reports from the BBL. By far the
most exciting was recovery #579, a juvenile Red-tailed
Hawk that traveled from the Marin Headlands where it
was banded by GGRO Intern Ben Lavender on October
6, 2002, to Guadalupe in south-central Mexico and was
encountered on January 31, 2003. The map distance between the two locations is over 1,500 miles; this is the
minimum distance traveled in the period of slightly less
than four months.
Thanks to volunteers Ann Ruffer and Greg Brown,
and especially Marion Weeks, for managing the correspondence that deepened our knowledge of these birds.
Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk banded 10/21/00 by William
Corning; found emaciated 10/26/00 near Walnut Creek,
Contra Costa Co., CA; reported by Susan Heckley, Director
of the Lindsay Museum where the hawk was treated. The hawk
had esions on both feet, suggestive of avian pox. The GI tract
was necrotic and the air sacs were compromised, suggesting
a possible fungal infection.
472
16
SUMMER 2003
CANADA
Vancouver
Vancouver
Island
Santa Rosa
Napa
Petaluma 6
Seattle
Washington
San Rafael
Richland
4
4
Portland
Oakland
Salem
Oregon
San Francisco
5
Livermore
Daly City
Bend
Hayward
2
2
Medford
San Jose
California
Redding
Red-tailed Hawks
Reno
Lake Tahoe
Cooper's Hawks
Santa Rosa
Sacramento
Sharp-shinned
Hawks
2
Marin Headlands
Modesto
3
2
2
Other species
Fresno
2
Number of birds
found at location
Ridgecrest
PA
N
Bakersfield
C
IF
Lake Havasu City
IC
Santa Barbara
O
Los Angeles
2
2
C
0
E
100
A
N
50
San Diego
Ensenada
17
MEXICO
150
200 miles
GULF OF
MEXICO
MEXICO
Red-tailed Hawks
Zacatecás
Cooper's Hawks
Sharp-shinned
Hawks
PA
Mexico City
C
Other species
IF
2
Number of birds
found at location
IC
O
Veracruz
BELIZE
CE
AN
GUATEMALA
N
EL SALVADOR
HONDURAS
NICARAGUA
COSTA RICA
473 Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk
banded 9/17/00 by Anne Ardillo;
found dead 1/19/01 at Pescadero,
San Mateo Co., CA; reported by
Cameron Stent.
banded 9/6/00 by Jennifer Zamanian; found dead 1/24/01 at San
Rafael, Marin Co., CA; reported
by Rosalie Caesari.
Juvenile Red-tailed Hawk
banded 9/18/00 by David Jesus;
found injured 10/8/00 somewhere
in San Mateo Co., CA; reported by
Chris Sanders. The hawk was
delivered by Peninsula Humane
Society staff to the Wildwood Veterinary Hospital in Portola Valley
with a cracked beak, a hematoma
on one wing, and a multiple-fractured left ulna. It was anaesthetized,
treated, splinted, put on antibiotics,
force fed 2 mice and returned to
the PHS, who eventually released it.
475
banded 12/8/00 by Maura Eagan;
476
Elliott Henderson & Joe McEvoy.
banded 11/17/00 by Su Corbaley;
found dead 1/15/01 along Highway
37, two miles east of Sears Point,
Solano Co., CA; reported by David
Yerzy. The hawk’s neck was broken;
the finder assumed it was hit by a
vehicle.
477
banded 12/10/00 by Richard Horn;
found injured behind a building
12/19/00 at San Francisco, San
Francisco Co., CA; reported by Susan Kelly of the Peninsula Humane
Society. Susan reported that the
hawk “must have hit the building
because he had severe head trauma
and the upper beak was missing.
He was euthanized on arrival.”
478
banded 10/3/00 by Daniel Saucedo;
trapped 1/1/01 at Novato, Marin
Co., CA; reported by Stan Moore.
479
banded 12/1/00 by Maura Eagan;
found dead 3/7/01 at Boulder
480
18
Creek, Santa Cruz Co., CA;
reported by John Robinson.
banded 12/11/00 by Laurie King;
found dead 1/24/01 at the Petaluma
P
Dumps, Marin Co., CA; reported
by Karen Murad.
banded 12/12/00 by Chris Briggs;
found dead 2/27/01 at Sun City,
Riverside Co., CA; reporter and
finder unknown.
banded 9/6/00 by Buzz Hull; found
dead after being hit by a vehicle
5/19/01 at Napa, Napa Co., CA;
reporter and finder unknown.
Juvenile Cooper’s Hawk
banded 9/22/98 by Mamiko
Kawaguchi; trapped at bird banding station 3/4/01 at Coyote Creek,
Santa Clara Co., CA; reported by
Sherry Hudson, Coyote Creek
Riparian Station, San Francisco
Bay Bird Observatory.
484
banded 9/5/00 by Bill Prochnow;
SUMMER 2003
found dead 1/5/01 at San Rafael,
Marin Co., CA; reported by Stan
Moore.
Adult Cooper’s Hawk banded
10/3/00 by Daniel Saucedo; found
alive but died later 3/15/01 at
Danville, Contra Costa Co., CA;
reported by Kathy Sostaric. To
quote from the report: “Bird fell
out of a tree and rolled down a
sloping, tiered backyard. Ms.
Sostaric went to check bird right
away because of dog on premises.
Took awhile to die.”
486
banded 9/8/00 by Su Corbaley;
found electrocuted 4/1/01 at New
Cuyama, Santa Barbara Co., CA;
reported by Dorothy Tallman of
Pacific Wildlife Care. To quote the
report: “The bird had severe electrical burns severing most of the muscle off the radius and ulna bones
of one wing. The wing was ‘dead.’
The leg with the band was burned
through the pad of the foot and the
leg was green and swollen. The
bird was severely emaciated from
the electrocution. Other than that,
the bird was in good feather condition. Euthanized on 4/2/01.”
487
488 Adult female Sharp-shinned
Hawk banded 10/16/00 by David
Jesus; found injured 4/5/01 near
Seattle, King Co., WA; reported
by Sarvey Wildlife Care Center,
Arlington, WA.
Juvenile female Cooper’s
Hawk banded 09/30/00 by Craig
Nikitas; found dead 10/8/00 at San
Jose, Santa Clara Co., CA; reported
by Roland Itaya. Hawk was found
on the ground with “an injury on
the right wing” and no clear cause
of death.
489
Hawk banded 9/23/00 by Will
Corning; found dead 5/7/01 at San
Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo Co.,
490
banded 10/15/00 by Pat Overshiner; found dead 10/21/01 at
Fremont, Alameda Co., CA;
reported by Vicky Eggert.
CA; reported by Quinn Taubenheim. “The bird was pretty well
mangled. At first, I wasn’t even
sure it was a bird.” No clear cause
of death.
497
banded 12/16/00 by Nancy Mori;
found dead 4/24/01 at Hudson
Vineyards, just west of Napa, Napa
Co., CA; reported by Jason Steven
Kesner. “Pretty well scavenged.
Little flesh on skeleton. Bones
bleached and intact but carcass
looks like it’d been there a couple
of months or more.”
498
491
Adult Red-tailed Hawk banded 12/16/99 by Josh Hull; found
dead 4/26/01 at Mason Co., WA;
reported by Don Huson. The hawk
was found in a field near a Christmas tree farm. “Mostly feathers
and dried legs. The band is what
caught my eye. The bird may have
been there a month.”
492
493 Juvenile female Cooper’s
Hawk banded 9/13/98 by Michael
Arnold; found dead 10/28/98 about
10 miles east of Forbestown, Butte
Co., CA; reported by Robert Cook.
The hawk was found on the ground
at the west side of a building with
several windows.
Hawk banded 9/19/00 by Maura
Eagan; found dead 9/30/00 at
Ridgecrest Co., CA; reported by
Crestwood Veterinary Hospital.
Hawk banded 9/26/00 by Pat
Overshiner; found dead 8/1/01
at Chester, Plumas Co., CA;
reported by Pat Horn.
495
banded 10/3/96 by Russ DeLong;
found live, later died 8/1/01 at
Castro Valley, Alameda Co., CA;
reported by Rose Britt, Sulphur
Creek Nature Center.
496
19
banded 11/11/00 by Nancy Mori;
found dead 10/25/01 at Issaquah,
King Co., WA; reported by Kay
Baxter.
banded 9/27/00 by Marc Blumberg;
found dead 11/29/01 at Alameda,
Alameda Co., CA; reported by
Timothy Burr, SW Division of
the Naval Facilities Engineering
Command.
499
Hawk banded 9/25/95 by Jon Hunt;
found injured 12/14/01 at San
Diego, San Diego Co., CA; reported
by Project Wildlife’s Raptor Team.
500
Hawk banded 9/8/97 by Karen
Scheuermann; found dead 12/14/01
at Downey, Los Angeles Co., CA;
reported by California Department
of Fish and Game, Chino.
501
banded 9/8/97 by Kirk Bates; found
live 12/17/01 at Richland, Benton
Co., WA; reported by Heidi Brunkel.
banded 9/5/00 by Daniel Saucedo;
found dead 12/20/01 at Leggett,
Mendocino Co., CA; reported
by Richard Anderson.
503
banded 11/25/99 by Kathy Brazee;
found dead by injury 1/13/02 at
Atherton, San Mateo Co., CA;
reported by Jennifer Stokley.
504
banded 12/13/99 by Kimberly
Holbrook; found dead 1/25/02 at
Gold Ray Dam, Jackson Co., OR;
reported by William Kuenniger.
505
Juvenile American Kestrel
banded 8/24/99 by Greg Gothard;
trapped and released 2/8/02 at
San Rafael, Marin Co., CA; reported by Stan Moore.
506
banded 11/25/94 by Brendan
White; found dead hit by car
1/20/02 south of Santa Cruz,
Santa Cruz Co., CA; reported by
Gretchen Hurley.
banded 11/25/00 by David Hickey; found dead hit by car 3/8/02
near Williams, Colusa Co., CA;
reported by Brett Gomes.
Juvenile female Sharpshinned Hawk banded 9/23/01 by
Anne Ardillo; found dead 9/30/01
at Lagunitas, Marin Co., CA; reported by Janelle Fazackerley.
509
Juvenile male Sharp-shinned
Hawk banded 9/26/01 by Claire
Gallagher; found dead 12/27/01
at Scotts Valley, Santa Cruz Co.,
CA; reported by Paul Vernier.
510
Juvenile female Sharpshinned Hawk banded 9/23/01
by Joe Burns; found dead by injury
11/12/01 near Long Beach, Los
Angeles Co., CA; reported by David
Thraen.
511
Juvenile male Cooper’s Hawk
banded 9/3/01 by Allison Levin;
found live 2/4/02 near Talmage,
Mendocino Co., CA; reported by
Peggy Seaman, Crittercare Wildlife
Rescue, Ukiah.
512
banded 10/13/01 by Joe Foo; found
dead from window strike 10/16/01
near Belvedere, Marin Co., CA;
reported by Lauren Mack.
513
Hawk banded 10/7/01 by Vasken
Kevorkian; found live, a possible
window strike 10/13/01 at Ventura,
Ventura Co., CA; reported by Pete
514
RANDY BREAUX LECTURES ON THE FINE POINTS OF ACCIPITER IDENTIFICATION AIDED BY A JUVENILE
COOPER’S HAWK. [BARBARA SAMUELSON]
Triem, Ojai Raptor Center. Diagnosed as having “moderate Central
Nervous System deficit indicated
by partially closed left eye and
vestibular nystagmus; repeat motions of head 20-degrees from
centerline to right.” Treated with
dexamethasone for nystagmus.
Force fed. Slated for release around
Halloween 2001.
515 Juvenile male Cooper’s Hawk
banded 9/16/01 by Claire Gallagher; found dead 10/21/01
at Sweetwater National Wildlife
Refuge, San Diego Co., CA; reported by Chula Vista Nature Center.
Nikitas; found dead 11/3/01 at
Comptche, Mendocino Co., CA;
reported by Jennifer Dishon.
Hawk banded 10/5/01 by JD Durst;
found dead 10/19/01 near Newark,
Alameda Co., CA; reported by
Manual Silva.
Hawk banded 9/22/01 by Anne
Ardillo; band read on live bird
20
in field 12/2/01 near Santa Cruz,
Santa Cruz Co., CA; reported by
Glenn Stewart.
banded 9/16/01 by Christina
Althoff; found dead 3/5/02 at
Petaluma, Sonoma Co., CA;
reported by Steve Coffin.
banded 11/29/01 by Buzz Hull;
found dead 2/4/02 near San
Gregorio, San Mateo Co., CA;
reported by David Stariha.
banded 8/21/01 by Dione Armand;
found dead 11/28/01 at Petaluma,
Sonoma Co., CA; reported by
Lindy Long.
banded 8/27/01 by Claire O’Neil;
found dead 3/23/02 at San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA; reported
by David Peters.
banded 9/5/01 by Steve Rock;
found dead 12/18/01 in San
Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA;
reported by Officer Jason Kent.
SUMMER 2003
banded 9/18/01 by Ann Ruffer;
found dead 3/23/02 at Stockton,
San Joaquin Co., CA; reported by
Mike Luksic.
banded 12/12/01 by Terryann
Halloran; trapped again 12/14/01
by Ralph Pericoli; found injured
12/18/01 at San Rafael, Marin Co.,
CA; reported by Jackie Walton,
Wildcare, San Rafael. Later died.
525
banded 10/9/01 by Ann Ruffer;
found dead by injury 1/31/02 at
San Francisco, San Francisco Co.,
CA; reported by the Peninsula
Humane Society.
banded 10/31/01 by Terryann
Halloran; found dead due to wire
or tower strike 11/24/01 at Middle
Two Rock Road, Sonoma Co., CA;
reported by Don Waxman.
Adult Red-tailed Hawk banded 11/27/01 by Steve Dumdei;
Steve Coffin.
528
banded 12/11/01 by Lee Morse;
Veana Pearson.
530 Adult Red-tailed Hawk
banded 10/17/01 by Toby Rohmer;
found dead hit by car 11/22/01
at Daly City, San Mateo Co., CA;
reported by Jen Keefer-Stokley,
Peninsula Humane Society.
Steve Rock; found injured 4/7/02
at Santa Monica, Los Angeles Co.,
CA; reported by Neil Deruyter.
531
Greg Gothard; caught live 4/15/02
532
at Salinas, Monterey Co., CA;
reported by Susan Rianda.
banded 11/3/01 by Will Rodriguez;
found dead 2/15/02 at Sunol
Regional Park, Alameda Co., CA;
reported by William Zagotta.
533
banded 10/8/99 by Dan Gottsegen;
found dead from striking object
other than wires or tower 4/14/02
at Occidental, Sonoma Co., CA;
reported by Michelle Tatersall.
534
banded 11/18/01 by Claire
Gallagher; found dead 1/25/02 at
China Camp State Park, San Rafael,
Marin Co., CA; reported by Diony
Gamoso.
Robin Kelley. “I found this hawk
during a morning hike. There
appeared to be some damage to
the rib cage. The wings were spread
and the hawk was on its stomach
with the head turned to the right.
While the hawk lived, it used to sit
in all of its splendor on the branches of a partially dead tree on top of
a ridge. There are no other Redtailed Hawks visiting the tree or the
sky within my view and it’s a shame
I no longer see this beautiful bird.
It’s a mystery to me what caused the
hawk’s death and why it was so easily found on a private road in the
Santa Cruz Mountains. Old age?
Bad food source? I’m pretty certain
it wasn’t West Nile Virus, as it hadn’t been in California at that time.”
banded 9/1/95 by Jimi Scheffel;
found injured, later died 8/14/02
at Los Altos, Santa Clara Co., CA;
reported by Karen Hoyt, the Peninsula Humane Society.
540
banded 9/17/95 by Christina
Kemmler; found dead 4/30/02 at
St. Helena, Napa Co., CA; reported
by Marshall Riddle.
536
banded 8/19/00 by Mitch Skinner;
found dead as bones 6/30/02 at
Courtland, Sacramento Co., CA;
reported by Curtis Jennings.
541
Hawk banded 9/21/94 by Lynn
Bantley; found dead 6/11/02 at
Berkeley, Alameda Co., CA; reported by Jane Dremman. A local
breeding bird in a north Berkeley
neighborhood since at least 2001,
this hawk was found dead in a
backyard very close to its nest
(CHINS Report 2002). Ms. Dremman had seen the same hawk alive
on 6/4/02 in her yard. Cause of
death was not apparent. Over the
next few weeks, the male continued
to supply prey for the five fledglings
until all dispersed from the area.
542
Adult Red-tailed Hawk banded 11/23/91 by Kathy Balint; found
dead as bones 6/14/02 at Los Gatos,
Santa Clara Co., CA; reported by
539
21
banded 10/5/01 by Buzz Hull;
found dead 10/17/02 at Menlo
Park, San Mateo Co., CA; reported
by Ellie Engelmore.
banded 11/3/95 by Russ DeLong;
found dead 10/21/02 at Anacortes,
Skagit Co., WA; reported by
Richard Grill.
Hawk banded 8/20/96 by Jennifer
Rivas; trapped 9/20/96 at Palomarin, near Bolinas Marin Co.,
CA; reported by Sanja Hinic, Point
Reyes Bird Observatory. Hawk
mistnetted and released during
PRBO’s long-term landbird
monitoring operations.
543
Hawk banded 9/30/00 by Nancy
Mori; trapped 3/31/01 at Palomarin, near Bolinas Marin Co.,
CA; reported by Sanja Hinic,
544
PRBO. Hawk mistnetted and released during PRBO’s long-term
landbird monitoring operations.
Hawk banded 9/25/95 by Laura
Cholodenko; trapped 10/24/95 at
Palomarin, near Bolinas Marin Co.,
CA; reported by Sanja Hinic,
545
Hawk banded 10/23/97 by Pete
Gaughan; trapped 11/12/97 at
Palomarin, near Bolinas Marin
Co., CA; reported by Sanja Hinic,
546
Fix; trapped 11/13/01 at Palomarin,
near Bolinas Marin Co., CA; reported by Sanja Hinic, PRBO.
Hawk mistnetted and released
during PRBO’s long-term landbird
monitoring operations.
Juvenile American Kestrel
banded 9/9/00 by Shari McDougal;
found dead 11/23/02 at Pt. Arena,
Mendocino Co., CA; reported by
Jeanette King.
548
549 Juvenile female Cooper’s Hawk
banded 9/16/00 by Craig Nikitas;
found dead 12/2/02 at Klamath, Del
Norte Co., CA; reported by Melissa
Bukosky, California Department of
Fish and Game, Eureka.
banded 10/25/95 by Neal Johannsen; found dead 12/8/02 at
Clinton, Island Co., WA; reported
by Lori Jackintell.
550
551 Juvenile female Sharp-shinned
Hawk banded 9/17/99 by Randy
Breaux; found dead 12/22/02 at El
Cajon, San Diego Co., CA; reported
by Garrett Sanchez.
Adult Red-tailed Hawk banded 12/15/97 by David Jesus; found
dead as bones 1/16/03 at Woodland
Hills, Los Angeles Co., CA; reported
by Thomas Lee.
552
553 Juvenile female Sharpshinned Hawk banded 8/19/00 by
Nancy Mori; found dead 1/19/03
at Knights Landing, Yolo Co., CA;
reported by David Brown.
Joaquin Co., CA; reported by
Urban Stroy.
Hawk banded 10/25/02 by Steve
Rock; found dead 11/26/02 at
Atascadero, San Luis Obispo Co.,
CA; reported by Charles Woodard.
562
left out for now – information
is contradictory
Hawk banded 9/14/02 by Kathy
Bouvier; found dead 10/9/02 at
Torrance, Los Angeles Co., CA;
reported by Dirk Voerman.
555
Hawk banded 18/26/01 by Diane
Horn; found dead 2/1/03 at Santa
Clara, Santa Clara Co., CA; reported by Kellan Koke.
Mitch Skinner; found dead 11/7/02
at Agoura Hills, Los Angeles Co.,
CA; reported by Carl Kruppa.
banded 11/27/01 by Jennie Rhine;
found injured, later released
11/7/02 at Millbrae, San Mateo Co.,
CA; reported by the Peninsula
Humane Society.
John Payne; found dead 11/8/02
at Sonoma, Sonoma Co., CA;
reported by George Weiner.
554
556
Jean Perata; found dead 2/8/03 at
Bakersfield, Kern Co., CA; reported
by Dwayne Levingston.
557
Juvenile female Sharp-shinned
Hawk banded 9/15/95 by Buzz Hull;
found injured, later released 1/1/03
at Santa Ana, Orange Co., CA; reported by Dr. Scott Weldy.
558
banded 12/16/88 by Bill Prochnow;
band found 9/12/02 at Klamath
Lake, Klamath Co., OR; reported by
Doug Jackson.
559
Juvenile female Sharp-shinned
Nikitas; found dead after striking
object other than wires or tower
2/27/03 at La Crescenta, Los Angeles
Co., CA; reported by Pat Barton.
560
banded 8/26/91 by Diane Kisich;
found dead 2/17/03 at Lodi, San
561
22
563
564
565
John Keane; found dead 10/1/02 at
Sausalito, Marin Co., CA; reported
by Maja Ramsey.
566
Hawk banded 10/2/02 by John
Ungar; found dead 10/9/02 at the
Marin Headlands, Marin Co., CA;
reported by Erika Noel.
567
Hawk banded 9/29/02 by John
Keane; found dead 10/12/02 at
Cherry Valley, Orange Co., CA;
reported by Lester Nolte.
568
Hawk banded 9/8/02 by Dian
Langlois; found dead 3/17/03 at
Lake Havasu City, Mohave Co.,
AZ; reported by Lester Nolte.
569
Hawk banded 9/10/02 by Jenn
Schulzitski; found dead 12/4/02 at
Santa Ynez, Santa Barbara Co., CA;
reported by Donald Peterson.
570
SUMMER 2003
Hawk banded 9/18/02 by Audrey
Sabol; found dead 12/1/02 at Aptos, Santa Cruz Co., CA; reported
by Jonathan Collins.
571
Hawk banded 9/30/02 by Buzz
Hull; found dead 10/31/02 at
Mission Hills, Santa Barbara Co.,
CA; reported by Alfredo Romo.
572
Hawk banded 10/16/02 by Ben
Lavender; found dead 2/27/03 at
Los Angeles, Los Angeles Co., CA;
reported by Herbert Miner.
573
Jesus; found dead 11/18/02 at San
Jose, Santa Clara Co., CA; reported by Mary Murphy.
574
Hawk banded 9/18/02 by Jenn
Schulzitski; found dead 12/8/02
at Chualar Canyon, Monterey Co.,
CA; reported by Donald Peterson.
575
banded 10/19/02 by David Fix;
found due to striking object other
than wires or tower 10/31/02 at
Fremont, Alameda Co., CA; reported by Ohlone Humane Society,
Fremont. Died in captivity.
576
banded 10/30/02 by Mamiko
Kawaguchi; found dead 12/02/02 at
San Luis Obispo, San Luis Obispo
Co., CA; reported by Larry Meak.
banded 9/17/02 by Ashley Sexton;
found dead 11/22/02 at Tracy, San
Joaquin Co., CA; reported by Gina
Van Koompenburg.
banded 10/6/02 by Ben Lavender;
found dead 1/31/03 at Guadalupe,
State of Zacatecas, Mexico; reported by Alfredo Romo.
PAT OVERSHINER DISPLAYS THE PATAGIAL MARK—THE QUINTESSENTIAL RED-TAILED HAWK FIELDMARK.
[GREG GOTHARD]
banded 12/1/02 by Marc Blumberg;
found dead 12/05/02 at San Francisco, San Francisco Co., CA; reported by Daniel Gomez.
580
banded 12/17/02 by Eric Jepsen;
found dead 1/27/03 at San Mateo
Co., CA; reported by Peninsula
Humane Society, San Mateo.
581
Warham Stejer.
582
banded 10/29/02 by Lynn Bantley;
found dead 12/3/02 at Los Angeles,
Los Angeles Co., CA; reported by
Bryon Goligoski.
found dead 1/17/03 at Belvedere,
Marin Co., CA; reported by Chuck
Kamanski.
banded 9/22/02 by Joyce Wong;
23
Marin Co., CA; reported by Brina
Condon.
banded 12/4/02 by Rob Allen; found
dead 12/22/02 at Sylmar, Los Angeles Co., CA; reported by John Martin, US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Rob Allen; found dead 3/27/03 at
Rancho Palos Verdes, Los Angeles
Co., CA; reported by Pat Carroll.
587
banded 10/28/02 by Ben Lavender;
found dead as bones 3/20/03 at
Stockton, San Joaquin Co., CA;
reported by David Varnes.
588
banded 1/1/03 by Steve Rock;
found dead on highway 3/6/03 at
Suisun, Solano Co., CA; reported
by SMNHA, Suisun City.
589
Compiled by Buzz Hull and Allen
Fish. Some research and correspondence organized by Marion
Weeks with help from Ann Ruffer
and Greg Brown.
THE KESTRELS OF CUBA
THE COOLNESS OF KESTRELS
TRANSCENDS LANGUAGE BARRIERS
n
Siobhan Ruck
F EBRUARY 2003, I WAS FORTUNATE enough to join a Pro/Am group to study the birds
of Cuba organized by Julie Craves of the Rouge River Bird Observatory (University of
Michigan at Dearborn). We were joined by several Cuban naturalists, most notably
Orlando Garrido, author of Field Guide to the Birds of Cuba, and William Suarez, of the
Cuban Museum of Natural History, a researcher who specializes in paleo-ornithology.
Both were very generous in sharing their knowledge of the island’s birds.
I
N
Our group, a mix of professional biologists and volunteers, was conducting
bird surveys in several locations in the
south and west of Cuba. It was a twopart effort; we were taking counts to
get a baseline number and also trying
to come up with a standardized
methodology that could be used by
future birding and tour groups to continue counts in these areas.
a mixed pair breeds, the offspring are
a mix of red and white, not pink.)
Both white- and red-morphs lack the
rufous crown patch seen in continental kestrels, although sometimes a
very faint color can be seen. The
white-morph looks like a very pale
version of the kestrels I’m used to in
California. They are unmarked or
very lightly marked on the breast, belly, and flanks, and where the plumage
on continental birds is buffy or tawny,
the white-morph birds are a bright
white. Backs and tails are similar in
color to our birds, though often lightly marked. The mustache mark is
very narrow, and there is more white
on the face, especially in the cheeks
and forehead.
Cuba has been separated from the
mainland for over 30 million years,
which helps explain the large number
of endemics—29 endemic birds, with
several more soon to be split from
continental species. I’d been interested
in the Cuban subspecies of American
Kestrel (Falco sparverius sparverioides)
even before my trip, and it was exciting
to see them in the field.
The most distinctive feature of Cuban
Kestrels is their plumage. They come
in two morphs, white and red. The
two morphs interbreed freely and are
distributed evenly around their range.
You see more of the whites, but that’s
partly because they shine like little
white beacons in the treetops. (When
THE RED-TYPE FEMALE CUBAN KESTREL SHOWS A
RICHER RUSTIER UNDERPLUMAGE COMPARED TO HER
CONTINENTAL SISTERS. [SIOBHAN RUCK]
24
Red-morph birds are a dark, brick
red below, though they still don’t
show much marking, other than
some streaking on the females’ sides.
The color on their backs and tails is
somewhat darker than on continental
kestrels—especially noticeable in the
blue areas on males, but their backs
are not marked much more than on
SUMMER 2003
THE KESTRELS OF CUBA
our birds. Their mustache is slightly smaller
than the North American birds, and the
white areas on their faces are dusky.
Both Garrido and Suarez
described differences in size (theirs are
smaller) and behaviors between the North American
birds who winter on the island
and the resident Cuban birds.
Without going into excruciating detail, chief differences
are: (1) how they use the habitat (for both hunting and
perching), (2) variability in
prey preference and habitat
selection, and (3) their reaction to human presence.
I asked if the continental and
Cuban Kestrels are known to
interbreed, and was told that
the former are not known to
breed on the island; ergo, no
interbreeding. (It seems likely that the Cuban Kestrels will
be split into their own species at some
point.)
Kestrels aren’t the only Cuban attraction for
raptor lovers. There is an endemic accipiter,
Gundlach’s Hawk. The Cuban subspecies of
Common Black-Hawk is being split out as
Cuban Crab Hawk, and their Hook-billed
Kites will likely become a full species as well.
(Since returning, I’ve also learned that there
is a Cuban subspecies of Broad-winged –
wish I’d known that when we saw a few.)
And, in case you feel homesick, large numbers of North American migrants pass over
the island and many winter there.
Going back into the fossil record provides
even more raptorial delights – a kestrel-sized
falcon that was able to fly, but preferred to
run down its prey; a six-foot-tall hawk; a
very large eagle (Gigantohierax suarezi); and a
condor (Gymnogyps varoni). The nighttime
was not much better for edible prey, with a
giant owl that stood over a meter and a half
(Ornimegalonyx oteroi), another large owl
A PALE-TYPE MALE
(Bubo osvaldi), and two species of barn-owls
(Tyto noeli and T. riveroi). The island never
had large mammalian predators, so birds
filled their niches in the ancient ecosystem.
Geographic isolation has created a rich and
diverse fauna on Cuba; political isolation has
slowed the human development that threatens so many other parts of the Americas.
Change will come to the island sooner or
later, which adds a sense of urgency to raptor
monitoring studies like ours.
NOTE TO READER: Birders’ Exchange has
started a specific Cuba Initiative, to help get
binoculars and other bird study tools to the
island in spite of the blockade. For more
info, check out www.americanbirding.org.
25
CUBAN KESTREL
TAILCHASES HIS FEMALE COUNTERPART IN THE JUNGLES OF BERNEJA,
NEAR THE BAY OF
PIGS. [SIOBHAN
RUCK]
ROAD TRIP
SWAINIES OF THE
BUTTE VALLEY
n
Kathy Fraser Odell
GGRO BANDER AND USFS VOLUNTEER STEPHEN WILSON RELEASES A SWAINSON’S HAWK BACK TO THE BUTTE VALLEY GRASSLANDS. [JIM SHEA]
O REGON , I drop into California at Dorris, a bordertown that boasts the
tallest flagpole in the state, and a restaurant/
cowboy bar named Malfunction Junction. I check into
the Golden Eagle Motel, whose owner now recognizes
me as someone who comes to watch hawks. For the past
three summers, I have volunteered to help Brian Woodbridge of the US Forest Service monitor Swainson’s Hawk
nest sites and band the adults and chicks. I read about
the opportunity to volunteer with Brian in 1999 in a
GGRO newsletter. Then after reading about Klamath
Basin raptors in the Pacific Raptor Report, I was hooked.
C
fields, flying from fenceposts to trees, watching as he
worked the land. The eagle would come back each spring
and start the cycle again.
OMING BACK FROM
For each of the last three summers, I’ve spent only a week
here in Butte Valley, but when I am here, I am home. I
drive down Sheep Mountain Road each July, and I hear
the cry of a Swainson’s Hawk. I know which tree these
two adults have nested in, where they have raised chicks
for the past three years. Today, I stop my car and get out.
They come, the two adult Swainson’s, flying toward me,
then circling overhead. I close my eyes and listen to their
angry warning cries. I lift my binoculars and look to the
top of the juniper. There are two chicks this year; I can
see their fuzzy white heads above the rim of the nest.
Strangers are noticed in this valley. But all I had to say
was that I was here to watch the hawks, and I was in.
They all have a story to tell about raptors. From the
grocery clerks to the inspectors at the California Agriculture station, from the waitstaff at Sharon’s Restaurant to
the cashiers at the Texaco, from the ranchers to the firefighters at Goosenest Ranger Station. One rancher told
me about a Bald Eagle that followed him around in the
I write in my journal: “July 10—first stop off 97 going
north—2 chicks in high nest. Parents not around. Got
pictures.” I continue on down the road to the foot of
Mahogany Mountain. This is where a rancher once asked
three of us—all volunteer nest-watchers—if we were
26
SUMMER 2003
ROAD TRIP
“environmentalists” before he allowed us to walk his
property. All of the ranchers in Butte Valley know about
Brian’s work with the Forest Service, and if I say I’m
working for him, that’s the magic word to get me onto
their property. I met only one rancher in three years who
wouldn’t allow us on his land, and that was because he
was being protective of “his hawks.”
They fed heavily on grasshoppers and crickets, as well
as on small animals.
Driving down any road, I see hawks sitting on telephone
poles, treetops, and fenceposts. I expect to see as many
Swainson’s as Redtails. The perched Redtails show more
neck than the Swainies. I begin to be able to identify
them without binoculars. “Coffee smells so sweet here in
morning in Butte Valley.” We start hiking through the
scrub and dry grass at 5:30 AM. We start before dawn
cause it gets very hot, and this is the best time to set up
mistnets for trapping the Swainson’s.
Many mornings at dawn, I stop on the side of one of the
roads that crisscross the valley. I get out my binoculars
and point them in any direction, and find raptors. There
are Golden Eagles here. There are Bald Eagles, Prairie
Falcons, Ferruginous Hawks, American Kestrels, Redtailed Hawks, and even Northern Harriers. But I come
for the Swainson’s. “Mount Hebron—drove to RR tracks,
down gravel road—saw antelope in field. Adult BE sharing kill with four TVs.” Trains come through Butte Valley
day and night. Wherever I am in this valley, I hear the
wail of the train whistle. The open, endless space here
gives a feeling of freedom and joy. But when I want to
see hawks, I follow the mowers. Irrigation rings cover
most of the fields, and you might see five species of raptors lined up along these rings. Dawn is the best time to
see them. Ground squirrels stick their heads out of their
holes every four or five feet. It is comical to look at them.
“Squirrels watch me,” I wrote in my journal.
look for new
nests, check on previously successful nests, and
count the chicks. We keep journal notes on the
locations, on the ages of chicks, and on the best place to
set up nets for the next morning. (The last two summers,
I worked with Chris Briggs, who was a GGRO intern in
2000.) I love tramping through the sage and scrub. I
find bleached bones, scat, lava, a coyote skeleton, animal
tracks, and feathers. “Under tree found old pellets, feathers, down on limbs, lots of scat. No signs of current use.”
O
N THE FIRST DAY IN A NEW AREA, we
Brian taught us how to look for Swainson’s Hawk nests.
They like the tops of trees, mostly junipers near open
fields. Nest-searching reminded me of the childhood
game “Hotter, hotter, colder, colder,” except that the
hidden prize this time was a Swainson’s nest with chicks.
That morning, after the mowers left, there was a juvenile
Bald Eagle, looking like someone had splattered white
paint onto his dark feathers. He looked bewildered by all
the activity. Lined up next to him were adult and juvenile
Goldens, Redtails, Ravens, Swainson’s, adult Balds, and
TVs. All were lined up together watching the ground
squirrels. I realized the squirrels were watching me as I
leaned against my car. Everyone’s watching everyone
here. “Drove down Sheep Mountain Road—so quiet—
thermals not up yet.” In a Pacific Raptor Report article
on raptor-touring the Klamath Basin, Allen Fish wrote,
“When the ground squirrels are visibly running, this
region can be hilariously thick with raptors.” What was
surprising to me was seeing so many adult Bald Eagles
sharing kills with TVs. I also saw Swainson’s Hawks
hunting like Harriers, but they generally spent a lot of
time perching on the ground like Ferruginous Hawks.
We hike for miles through sage and junipers, along lavastrewn hillsides, into deep valleys, watching the sky. We
are getting close (hotter); we hear a far-off cry from a
Swainson’s. The closer we get to the nest, the closer the
adults fly, the louder and more urgent their cries. We
spread out, covering more distance and checking more
trees. I hear a distant yell. It’s Chris, and he has found
the nest. We all come running. The pair is now circling
the tree, and they are close and very loud. Two Swainson’s are in my binocular view at the same time, one a
dark morph. I almost trip and fall backwards.
Chris climbs the tree carefully. It’s a thick-limbed juniper,
35 feet high, and he can’t see the top. When he finally
reaches the nest, we circle the tree, and watch from the
27
ROAD TRIP
ground. He reaches blindly into the nest, trying
to hang on to the tree with his other arm. We
follow him with our binoculars and direct his
hand. He picks one chick at a time out of the
nest and bands it while sitting on a branch just
below the nest. The adults are angry, and take
turns diving at Chris with their talons outstretched. We yell, “Here they come!” and he
ducks again and again.
I hear Brian yell “Duck!” The wingbeats are close now, the screams in
my ears. I duck below the nest.
Whoosh!—the wings pass nearer;
they are both diving at my head. I hold
my plastic camera up and point it in
the direction of the chick. I pray it is
a good picture. I climb down as fast as
I can and we run to the truck. Once
again, one adult follows us, as the other circles the nest. Brian said it is the
male who chases us; the female stays
near the chick.
Chris returns the chicks to the nest and quickly
climbs down the tree. We run as fast as we can
away from the tree, not wanting to disturb
them anymore. One of the Swainson’s follows
us to the car; one of them stays with the nest.
They do that almost every time. In the Field
Guide to Hawks of North America, Clark and
Wheeler state “Swainson’s are sometimes aggressive in nest defense, especially if they have
chicks. SH have struck human intruders.”
“Saw possible Swainson’s—third pole
to left, west on Shady Dell Rd.” I wave
goodbye to Chris as he drives off for
the day. It is early evening and I must
leave for home the next morning. I sit
in my plastic lawn chair beside the dirt
road, watching the skies for a SwainA TYPICALLY WARY JUVENILE
“Up at 5:30 this morning—shoes so full of
son’s. Maybe this time I can find a new
SWAINSON’S HAWK GIVES JIM THE
thistles and weeds, can’t wear them, socks,
OLD UP-AND- DOWN. [JIM SHEA]
nest site. I settle in, leaning back with
too.” One morning Brian asked if I wanted to
my binoculars in my lap. It is still very warm, and the sun
climb the tree and see the chicks while they were still in
casts shadows on the hills above me. I am covered in road
the nest. I didn’t hesitate, even though he warned me
dirt and dust.
about the talons of the adult Swainson’s, protecting the
nest. He had seen a bander with a shredded scalp and
A juvenile Golden flies above me, heading east. From
blood running down his face. Brian would yell when
the south I hear a Swainson’s cry before I see the bird.
they were close.
He dives at the Golden, chases it away to the north. The
Swainson’s then heads south and I lose sight of it. Soon,
I reach the top of the tree, find a nest made of sticks,
a juvenile Bald appears and also flies east. Now there
grasses, and dried wheat stalks. I hear the wings of the
are three TVs circling near the eagle. I hear a Swainson’s
adult male and female circling nearer, their cries closer
angry cry but I again can’t see him. Soon I do; he is
and closer. Sticking my head above the nest, I am within
diving on the Bald and chases it away. He doesn’t seem
inches of the five-to-six-week old chick. He is full-sized,
to mind the vultures and circles around them for a
but his head is covered with white down. His beak is
while. He disappears to the south again. There is a nest
wide open but he is soundless. I look into his dark eyes
somewhere near here. I lean back and close my eyes;
and am awed by this creature.
I have nowhere to go.
“Hi!” I said. What a profound thing to say. If this chick
Kathy Fraser Odell is a passionate GGRO Hawkwatcher
survives, he will fledge soon and then leave Butte Valley;
and unstoppable defender of habitat for hook-beaked birdlife.
She also appears as “Aunt Kathy” in Joelle Fraser’s 2002
he will leave California. The ranges of Swainson’s Hawks
bestseller, The Territor y of Men.
extend from the interior of Alaska to the pampas of
Argentina.
28
SUMMER 2003
IN MEMORIAM
WA R R E N P LU M B
[ 1 9 2 6 – 2 0 0 3 ]
T
When his condition no longer allowed
him to actively track hawks, Warren then
volunteered to drive or ferry team members out into the field. He was always
willing to help. During the 2001 season,
Warren even helped by being a “drop-off ’ point
for equipment; of course, when we picked up the
receivers, he had made sure that all were properly
charged.
H O S E O F U S W H O H AV E
B E E N in the Golden Gate Raptor
Observatory (GGRO) Telemetry
Program for a long time will always remember Warren as a gentle, quiet, detail-man who
loved tracking hawks on telemetry. Warren
joined the GGRO in the early 90s and began on
David Jesus’s Hawkwatch Team; however, he was
soon bitten by the Telemetry bug. He remained
on Hawkwatch until complications of earlier polio meant that he could no longer stand against
the wind on Hawk Hill. He then moved indoors
to the GGRO offices and became the GGRO library guru who organized, categorized and
“modernized” our Raptor Library.
Warren was a quiet, humble gentleman. He
enjoyed waiting with the teams at the GGRO
offices and watching the transmitters being
applied to the hawks. Once, when we were
shorthanded, we asked Warren if he thought he
could mix the epoxy. Warren humbly replied,
“I think so. I was a polymer chemist.”
Telemetry allowed Warren to continue active
participation in the GGRO as we tracked juvenile
Redtails throughout California. Warren was atop
Oat Mountain when one juvenile Redtail took
one look at the Los Angeles basin, made a U-turn
around Oat Mountain, and eventually flew back
north over the Grapevine.
Later, when we had a recurrent problem with
transmitters slipping or moving on the feather
shaft after releasing the hawk, Warren became
our resident expert. He bought several types
of epoxy, tested them, and then, based on his
suggestions, we rewrote the protocols for applying epoxy to the transmitter. End of problem.
But that wasn’t enough for Warren. He then
made faux transmitters so that volunteers could
practice applying transmitter to feathers.
Warren was a problem-solver, and once—when
equipment problems meant a Yagi antenna was
unavailable—he developed a method to track
using only the roof-mounted Omni. To aid a
highpoint team, he fabricated a mounting piece
that allowed a Yagi to be mounted on a tripod so
that the signal could be consistently monitored.
Warren frequently noted how much he enjoyed
Telemetry work, and wished he could be out
tracking.
Prior to GPS devices, Warren would take all
of the teams’ datasheets, determine the exact
location of each team, and then measure that
location to the millimeter .
He missed his time in the field, and now we will
miss our detail man, our polymer chemist, our
communications man, our inventor, our resident
expert, our teammate, and our friend.
—Lynn Jesus
29
P E R E G R I N AT I O N S
DIURNAL
RAPTORS OF
SAN FRANCISCO
n
Simone Whitecloud
AN ADULT PEREGRINE DEFENDS ITS HOME TURF—THE SAN FRANCISCO-
G
OAKLAND BAY BRIDGE—ABOVE SAN FRANCISCO’S EMBARCADERO.
OT HALF A DAY FREE , OR EVEN HALF A MINUTE ,
[DAVID JESUS]
to get a raptor fix? No need to travel far; San
Francisco is chockful of busy birds any time of
year, and public transit makes sites available to the environmentally minded or car-less. Fall and spring provide
migrants, and winter yields residents, many of which remain to nest in the spring. While it is possible to see all
19 species of West Coast raptors, some are rare. But isn’t
that all the more reason to cast the occasional glance to
the promising skies?
Hawk Hill in the Marin Headlands, so too is the city subject to the ever-changing winds. The best site for migration-watching changes daily due to these conditions, so a
few local experts recommend a preliminary trip to Twin
Peaks (Muni Line 37). Here, it’s possible to see where the
greatest action may be, which could be right overhead.
From this second highest point in the city, fall migration
comes to life with sightings ranging from Red-tailed
Hawk and American Kestrel to the occasional Whitetailed Kite and Northern Harrier. Rarer spottings include
Bald Eagles, Rough-legged Hawks, one Golden Eagle, and
a kettle of seven Broad-winged Hawks in September
2002. As on Hawk Hill, the best time for viewing these
hurried migrants is from 10 AM to 2 PM, although Merlins
tend to zip through at sunrise. Why not brush up on
your skills during a pre-work pit stop?
Diligent watch of the city’s sky can help fill in some of the
mysteries of raptor life in an urban area, not to mention
details of suspected but as-yet-unrecorded nesters. The
joys of refining hawkwatching skills on a lunch break or a
trip to the grocery store can also add to our knowledge of
the behavior of these wild creatures as our world meshes
with theirs. So keep your binoculars handy and a watchful eye on the heavens.
If wind conditions are too harsh on Twins Peaks, Grand
View Park at Moraga and 15th (Muni Line 66) is a great
spot in an easterly wind. This site boasts the personal-
MIGRATION WATCH-SITES
Just as hawk watching is affected greatly by weather on
DO
YOU
H AV E
A
FAV O R I T E
RAPTOR
HOTSPOT
30
IN
CALIFORNIA?
SEND
IT
IN!
SUMMER 2003
1
SAN FR
AN
Golden
Gate
Bridge
CISC
O BAY
Lafayette
Park
Lindley
Meadow
Br
M
San Francisco
AR
MISSION ST.
Lone Mountain
JFK Drive
Buena
Golden Gate Park
Vista
Park
Strawberry Arboretum
Buffalo
Hill
Paddock
Grand
View
Twin
Park
Peaks
CESAR CHAVEZ
Chain of
Lakes
y
Presidio
Public
Service Inspiration
Point
Hospital
KE
T
Ba
Baker Beach
Lobos Creek
id
ge
Battery
Boutelle
VAN NESS
Common sense tells one that there must be
a spot just across the bay from Hawk Hill that
acts as a point of entry for the aquaphobic
raptors. In the Presidio, on the west side of
the Golden Gate Bridge immediately west
of the Toll Plaza and Fort Point (Muni Lines
28 and 76), is just such a place, which actually
allows a view of Hawk Hill: Battery Boutelle.
Unfortunately, this site presents a few problems. While you may see a distant speck leave
Hawk Hill, it may veer east mid-Gate, and
never give you a good look. (Why not try the
east side of the bridge? Lighting is less favorable.)
Hawk
Hill
h
Ocean Beac
Mt. Davidson (Muni Line 36) is, at 927 feet,
actually the highest peak in the city by 5 feet.
It is also the only point in the city to have
provided a peek at a Northern Goshawk in
the fall of 2002. (Which one-ups Hawk Hill,
where there were zero sightings of this bird
in 2002.) Also seen on the mount: a Ferruginous Hawk, and the usual flow of Redtails
and Kestrels.
Marin Headlands
PARK PRESIDIO BLVD.
best SF hawkwatch of local expert Brian Fitch,
who raked in 40 birds in a few hours, including a Golden Eagle. Okay, it’s no Hawk Hill,
but how many other cities can offer such
delicacies?
.
ST
280
101
Mount
Davidson
India
Basin
Balboa
Park
Lake
Merced
John
McLaren
Park
Fort
Funston
GE
0
NE
VA
AVE
.
1 Mile
35
Bay
View
Park
lines 29, 52, and 54), Lone Mountain on the campus of
the University of San Francisco (Muni Lines 31 and 43),
and downtown. Biologist Josiah Clark speculates that
downtown SF attracts the younger migrants, who see
the towering buildings as cliffs, and they move to catch
thermals there. That means plenty of goofing-off opportunities for students and professionals alike!
The birds also tend to come into SF very high, again
making ID difficult. This can be remedied by watching
in conditions that push birds down, such as a low fog
ceiling. The final difficulty with Battery Boutelle is in
relation to national security—setting up a scope at the
base of any bridge is less than advisable these days. If
you’re okay with just binos, bird away! This is one of the
few places in the city a Prairie Falcon has been seen.
One final site of interest—Bay View Park (Muni Lines 15
and 29) hilltop provides an excellent view to the south,
and so is a choice spot for watching the spring migration.
This is the only spot in the city to host a Swainson’s Hawk
sighting.
Any point offering a good vantage of the city can provide
nice looks at the watered-down flow of migrants. “No
matter where I station myself, there always seems to be
distant raptors to the east and west of me; they’re just not
as concentrated once they cross the Gate,” says Fitch.
Three other suggested locations are McLaren Park (Muni
WINTER RESIDENT RAPTORS
Finding birds of prey in the city is pretty easy—go to the
green places or areas with a high density of raptor food—
31
pigeons, starlings, rats, and gophers,
not to mention our songbird-gathering friends, birdfeeders. Or take
a look up: the birds use the city as a
hunting ground in and of itself, a
mosaic of open areas and perches,
especially Redtails, Peregrine Falcons,
and accipiters, which follow flocks of
finches from feeder to feeder.
the migration season, and lessons from Hawk Hill were beginning to fade . . . sadly, it remained an “unid’d accipiter.”)
Should your way out of the
park include a ride down Park
Presidio Boulevard (Muni Line
28), keep your eyes on the
many eucalyptus trees that line
the road—I’ve seen a juvenile
Cooper’s Hawk in hot pursuit
of songbirds, an unidentified
falcon (hey, I was driving!),
and a Redshoulder hunting
from a lightpost during my
commute into the city.
Remember to check anything that
might be used as a hunting perch—
a power tower, a telephone pole, a
treetop, a church steeple, or rooftop.
While the whole city offers the oppor- A DARKER-TYPE MERLIN (SUBSPECIES SUCKLEYI) TAKES
tunity to see birds of prey in action
ONE LAST LOOK AROUND BEFORE SETTLING INTO LUNCH.
[DAVID JESUS]
(what could be more exciting to see
than a Peregrine stoop on a pigeon over
If you’re shuttling around by bus, both the 28 and 29
Geary Avenue on your dreary commute?), there are cerlines take you directly from the Presidio to Golden Gate
tain hotspots, which also happen to be the more natural
Park—which is also accessible by the 5, 16 AX BX, 18, 21,
areas of the city.
33, 44, 66, and 71, not to mention the many lines that
The Presidio (Muni Lines 28 and 29) is home to Merlins,
pass within a couple blocks of the park, including the
Red-tailed, Red-shouldered, Cooper’s, and SharpN Judah. As these are living and moving creatures you
shinned Hawks. American Kestrels are found there
seek, keep your eyes open as you travel through the park,
as well, though their numbers in the city have declined
for they could be anywhere.
over the last 10 years.
One favorite spot in the eastern side of Golden Gate Park
At Baker Beach (Muni Line 29), Peregrine Falcons and
is the Arboretum, in which reside Cooper’s and SharpRedtails hunt in the strong winds coming off the ocean
shins, and where Redtails and Redshoulders hunt overand up the cliffs; Redshoulders lurk in the nearby
head. A second is Strawberry Hill in Stowe Lake, where
cypresses and pines. While in the park, visit two great
Redshoulders maneuver in the many Monterey cypresses
lookouts: (1) Inspiration Point, which is off Arguello
and pines, and above which, Redtails soar. The area
Blvd. (a seven-block urban hike from Muni Lines 43 or
around JFK Drive and 8th Street, also in the eastern half
28), and (2) the parking area of the Public Health Service
of the park, is a hangout for our two most common
Hospital (Muni Line 28) near 15th Avenue.
buteos as well.
The first is good for spotting Sharpies hunting neighborhood feeders. The second overlooks Lobos Creek, a
restoration site that is home to the few remaining California quail of the Presidio, which hungry hawks regard
as fair game. From here it is possible to see raptors working the Avenues. (It was a pleasure to spot four Redtails
and a diving accipiter in our 10-minute break there in
mid-February. It was my first accipiter since the end of
In the western half of Golden Gate Park, the open
gopher-filled fields of the Buffalo Paddock make an
excellent hunting ground for Redtails, as does Lindley
Meadow. Further west is the Chain of Lakes, where
accipiters and Redshoulders prey upon the many well-fed
starlings, blackbirds, and small rodents. Once you’re this
far, why not continue west to Ocean Beach (Muni Lines
5, 18, 23, 31, 38, 48, 71, N, L), where Redtails and Pere32
SUMMER 2003
grines are seen with regularity, and an occasional coastal
Osprey puts in an appearance.
On the subject of Peregrines, it should be mentioned that
there are two known nesting pairs in the vicinity of the
city, one of which is on the Bay Bridge, the other on the
Golden Gate. Since falcons begin protecting nesting territories in the fall, these birds can be seen hunting over
the city almost year-round. They tend to hunt over the
more urban areas, where pigeons are common and competition is scarce. Besides looking for them on or near
the bridges, Sutro Tower (Muni Line 36), Fort Funston
(Muni Line 18), and pigeon-heavy downtown are good
possibilities, as is Heron’s Head, a jut of land north of
Hunter’s Point and India Basin (sorry, not easily accessed
by bus). This last site is also one of the few places in the
city to see Osprey and Northern Harriers.
A JUV REDTAIL CHECKS THE CALIFORNIA ROLLING STOPS AT A BUSY
INTERSECTION. [MIKE WEBER]
Lake Merced (Muni lines 17, 18, and 88) is one other
place to see Harriers and Osprey. A pair of Osprey has
been seen here for several years performing courtship rituals over the lake, but no nest has been found. Cooper’s,
Sharp-shinned, and Red-shouldered Hawks also make
this their home.
due to competition from European starlings for nest
holes, and a lack of woodpeckers for making new ones.
The search for a raptor nest can be a rewarding adventure, made possible by the frequent trips required of the
birds in nest-building and nestling-feeding seasons. Or
ask local birders, who will probably have knowledge of
locations and/or volunteer-based nest monitoring programs, such as the one that exists in the Presidio. Should
you be gifted with finding a nest, please respect the strain
of parenthood, and keep a distance.
Although these parks are regarded as hotspots, don’t limit
your endeavors to only their vast greenery. Smaller parks
such as Buena Vista (Muni Lines 6, 7, 66, 37, and 71) and
Lafayette Park (Muni Lines 1 and 12) harbor enough
food to keep at least one bird interested, in this case a
Redshoulder and a Redtail, respectively. Merlins are
actually widespread in wintertime SF, but difficult to
pin down to a specific location.
The city eagerly awaits your hungry eyes; how can you
pass up the opportunity to mix a little pleasure with your
daily business? Local birders who have made this a way
of life, and whose knowledge and dedication made this
article possible, include Steve Bauer, Josiah Clark, Allen
Fish, Brian Fitch, Alan Hopkins, Ben Lavender, Kim Meyer, Dan Murphy, and Allen Ridley. Many thanks for their
willingness to share hard-earned information. Happy
raptoring!
NESTS IN THE CITY
Sorry, I won’t make this easy for you, for the simple reason that nesting raptors are sensitive to human attention.
At Golden Gate Park, a pair of Redtails—which usually
rebuild a nest from previous years—has had to expend
energy moving their nest farther and farther from human
view after a scope-filled springtime a few years back. I’ll
only go as far as saying that Redtails, Redshoulders, and
Cooper’s Hawks are common nesters in the city’s large
parks, while American Kestrels are declining in number
A 2002 GGRO Intern, Simone Whitecloud conducted bird
sur veys in the Eastern Sierra for Point Reyes Bird Obser vator y,
and pioneered “Raptor Camp” for the Crissy Field Center, all
in 2003.A skilled environmental educator on Hawk Hill, she
can be reached at [email protected].
33
2002 DONORS
Since 1985, the GGRO has asked donors and even volunteers to annually dig into their pockets for the hawks. Over the years, this show of support
has allowed us to start several innovative projects, among them the Radiotelemetry Program, the RoboLure Program, the Intern Program, and the
Docent Program. I’m grateful to the partners below to carrying us through 2002, and helping us move toward the NEXT BIG THING on the GGRO
front: a thorough analysis of two decades of banding, counting, and radiotracking data.
—Allen Fish
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Nancy Sasser • Juta Savage • Andrea & David Schearn • Rolf & Charlotte Scherman • Norma Pauline Schmid • Marilyn Schmitz • Donald
Schmoldt • Marianne Seiki • Rich Seymour • Gail Shea • James Shea • Jay Sheets • John Shellenberger • Dan Sherman • Carrie Sherriff
• Will Shor • John & Heidi Shott • Martin Sidor • Marjorie Smith • Robin Smith • Brian Smucker • Sharon Solomon • Philip Steiner • Stellar
Solutions • Anne Stephens • Joan Stewart • Angela Strehli • Bill & Tracy Strong • Hal Sugishita • Jan Sutcher • Scot Sutherland • Tracy
Swartz • Chris Taylor • Craig Tewell • Srijesh Thapa • The Orion Society • Bruce & Phyllis Thompson • John Ungar • Janet Valette • Linda
Vallee • Richard Vanderlugt • Janet Vernon • Nick & Denise Villa • Jeff Wall • Mary Watt • Michael Weber • Marion Weeks • S Paul
Welles • Richard & Virginia Welsh • Walter Wenger • Nick Whelan • Peter White • Thomas White • Franklin Whitman • David Wilbur •
Martha Wilson & Ed Lewis • Ken Wilson & Rebecca Olsen • Richard Winslow • Carolyn & A Frederick Wood • Jeanette Wyckoff • Jim
Yampolsky • Nick Yatsko • ReuvenYosef • Bob Zeiss
34
SUMMER 2003
2002 VOLUNTEERS
Biologists Dave DeSante and Dan Rosenberg closed their 1998 essay “What do we need to monitor in order to manage landbirds?”
with the paragraph below. I can think of no better way to honor the work of the hundreds of volunteers of the GGRO. This is us:
“The recruitment, training, and maintenance of a network of volunteers is thus also crucial to the success of any large-scale integrated bird
population-monitoring scheme. Ultimately, an interest in and appreciation of birds at the grassroots level must be cultivated if we are to succeed
in identifying and describing avian population changes and in developing successful conservation strategies for reversing population declines.”
—from Avian Conservation, edited by John Marzluff and Rex Sallabanks, Island Press.
Jeff Acuff • Lindsay Albert • Rob Allen • Christina Althoff • Henry Altorfer • Anne Ardillo • Kendra Armer • Lillian Armstrong • Keith
Arsenault • Stefanie Arthur • Nikki Ausschnitt • Diane Bahr • Carol Baird • Lynn Bantley • David Barry • Steve Bauer • Tim Behr •
Cathy Bell • Christopher Berner • Ardith Betts • Greg Beuthin • Janet Blasi Hayssen • Marc Blumberg • Jeff Boissier • Jennifer
Bollinger • Bill Bollinger • Carroll Botvinick • Kathy Bouvier • John Boyd • Kathy Branstetter • Randy Breaux • Max Brier • Nancy
Brink • Greg Brown • Jessie Brownlee • Jim Brulet • Shannon Burke • Joe Burns • Raymond Cachia • Bill Callaway • John Campau
• Phil Capitolo • Linda Chambers • Joan Chaplick • Donna Ciccolini • Jim Clausen • Terry Coddington • Gerald Connell • Lewis
Cooper • Susan Corbaley • William Corning • John Corson • Valerie Cramer • John Crane • Susannah Dameron • Della Dash •
Dennis Davison • Pamela Dayton • Tom Delebo • Ron DeLeon • Russ DeLong • Frank DeMarco • Annie Dizon • Steve Dumdei • J
D Durst • Wade Eakle • Roxanne Farwell • Nina Felton • Tom Felts • Mark Fenn • Richard Ferris • Amy Fesnock • Alice Fialkin • Lisa Fields • Robbie Fischer •
Allen Fish • Grace Fitzgerald • David Fix • Pat Flemming • Mary Anne Flett • Leslie Flint • Joseph Foo • Ross Forman • Alexandra Forman • Joseph Frank •
Michael Franklin • Rebecca Freed • Heather Furmidge • Claire Gallagher • Lorrie Gallagher • Betzi Gardner • Pete Gaughan • Carol Gerstein • Jack Gescheidt
• Andy Gibb • Angelo Gilbert • Joseph Glass • Sandy Golderg • Julie Goldzman • Gil Greene • Dorothy Gregor • Keith Gress • John Griffin • Keith Grimson
• Charles Groff • Aaron Haiman • Joshua Haiman • Jim Hallisey • Jennifer Hamilton • Monica Hanza • Michael Harkins • Alan Harper • Judy Harris • Ann
Heurlin • Barbara Hilbourn • Leslie Holeman • Roberta Hollier • Calvin Hom •
Diane Horn • Dick Horn • Gernot Huber • Buzz Hull • Josh Hull • Carolgene
Hunter • Jennifer Hyypio • Cheryl Ishida • William James • Eric Jepsen • David
Golden Gate Raptor Observatory
Jesus • Neal Johannsen • Donald Johnson • Scott Johnston • Debbie Kahn •
Building 1064, Ft. Cronkhite, Sausalito, CA 94965
Mamiko Kawaguchi • John Keane • Jack Kearns • Mary Kenney • Laurie King •
(415) 331-0730 • fax (415) 331-7521
Charlotte Kisling • Tom Konno • Margaret Kosek • Ann Kositsky • Cheryl
ggro@parksconser vancy.org • www.ggro.org.
Kraywinkel • Beverly Lamberson • Joan Lamphier • James Langan • Dian Langlois
PRR Editor: Allen Fish
• Ben Lavender • Brian Lebreck • Leah Lempert • Allison Levin • Ed Lewis • Fred
PRR Designer: Bill Prochnow
Lindeman • Ina Lockwood • Bob Long • Gerald Luckham • Virgina Ludvik •
PRR Copy Editors: Fran McDermott, Betzi Sylvan, Allison Busch
Elizabeth Madriz • Val Martino • Charles Massen • Mark McCaustland • Bridget
McCollum • Christie McCullen • Fran McDermott • Ewen McKechnie • Yvonne
McHugh • Stephanie McNair • Frazer Meacham • Mona Mena • Horacio Mena
GGRO Research Director: Buzz Hull
GGRO Executive Director: Allen Fish
GGRO Office Manager: Betzi Sylvan
• David Mendelson • Jay Mendoza • Thomas Menendez • Peter Meybaum • Kim
2002 Research Interns: Simone Whitecloud, Ashley Sexton,
Ben Lavender, Karalyn Rodenkirchen
Meyer • Lee Miles • Terrie Miller • Steve Miller • John Moody • Maura Moody •
GGNRA Advisor: Daphne Hatch
Nancy Mori • Lisa Morse • Tom Moutoux • Mikiye Nakanishi • Thi Nguyen • Chris
Parks Conser vancy Director of Community Programs: Doug Overman
Nikitas • Craig Nikitas • Jill North • Bob Numerof • Steve O’Donnell • Brian
Founder & USGS Advisor: Judd Howell
O’Laughlin • Claire O’Neil • Steve O’Neill • Kathy Odell • Rebecca Olsen • Pat
Theresa Rettinghouse • Jennie Rhine • Matt Ricketts • Michelle Rios • Steven Rock
The Pacific Raptor Report (PRR) is the annual newsletter of the Golden
Gate Raptor Obser vator y, but we also welcome any raptorial articles
based in the Pacific States. The Pacific Raptor Report is published once
each summer by the GGRO, a program of the Golden Gate National
Parks Conser vancy in cooperation with the National Park Ser vice. The
GGRO Season Summar y is published in the winter. Subscriptions to
both are $25 per year, with checks made out to “GGRO.”
• Kari Rodenkirchen • William Rodriguez • Toby Rohmer • Richard Romero • Laury
About the Parks Conservancy
Overshiner • Elizabeth Palmer • Phyllis Pansegrau • John Payne • Susan Pemberton
• Jean Perata • Ralph Pericoli • Danielle Perrine • Madalyn Perrine • John Perry •
Ryan Phelan • Jim Polkinghorn • Tania Pollak • Marley Pratt • Stacy Pratt • Bill
Prochnow • Sue Ellen Raby • James Raives • Alicia Raygosa • Don Reinberg •
Rosenthal • Jim Ross • Elizabeth Rouan • Siobhan Ruck • Ann Ruffer • Audrey
Sabol • Barbara Samuelson • Juta Savage • Elaine Schwimmer • Ashley Sexton •
Rich Seymour • Susan Shane • James Shea • Jay Sheets • Jennifer Shepard •
Robert Shepard • Christina Sherr • Will Shor • Jenn Shulzitski • Mitchell Skinner •
Brian Smucker • Dennis Somera • Kathy Spence • Marti Spiegelman • Jude Stalker
• Jennifer Stone • Hal Sugishita • Edith Summers • Jan Sutcher • Nancy Szymanski
• Claire Taylor • Charles Taylor • George Teiber • Craig Tewell • Srijesh Thapa •
Monica Tilley • Leslie Tribe • Terri Tyminski • Derrick Umali • John Ungar • Linda
Vallee • Kathryn Van Steyn • Denise Villa • Nick Villa • Jeff Wall • Michael Weber
• Marion Weeks • Simone Whitecloud • Diane Williams • Tiffany Williams • Ken
Wilson • Martha Wilson • Stephen Wilson • David Wimpfheimer • Joyce Wong •
David Wood • Amity Wood • Jim Yampolsky • Kai-Chung Henry Yeh • Joe
35
The Golden Gate National Parks Conser vancy is
the nonprofit support partner for the Golden Gate
National Parks. A membership organization, the
Conser vancy was created to preser ve the Golden
Gate National Parks, enhance the experiences of
park visitors, and build a community dedicated to
conser ving the parks for the future. To become a
member, call (415) 4R-PARKS or visit
www.parksconser vancy.org.
About the National Park Service
The National Park Ser vice was created in 1916 to
preser ve America’s natural, cultural, and scenic
treasures, which today number 388, and to provide
for their enjoyment for future generations. For information about the Golden Gate National Parks, call
(415) 561-4700, or visit www.nps.gov/goga.
T H E PAC I F I C R A P TO R R E P O RT
SUMMER 2003
NUMBER TWENTY-FOUR
Published by
Golden Gate Raptor Observatory
Golden Gate National Parks Conser vancy
Building 201, Fort Mason
San Francisco, California 94123
N o n - p r o f i t
O r g a n i z a t i o n
U.S. Postage Paid
San Francisco, CA
Pe r m i t No 1 1 0 4

Summer 2003 - Golden Gate Raptor Observatory

Transcription

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