Other Birds

While we're waiting to go to the DR, other bird projects fill the gap.  The Delaware-Otsego Audubon Society is in the midst of the annual autumnal HawkCount.  Everyday for months, a master birder goes to Franklin Mountain near Oneonta, NY to count the migrants passing by.  The location is ideal, as proven by the numbers and variety of birds counted.  Ospreys, sharp-shinned hawks, bald eagles, peregrine falcons... the list goes on. Yesterday's red-tail count was 335!  The first golden eagles of the year came through - 9 of them! Maybe one carried a telemeter from our Golden Eagle Project. We see about 200 goldens/year, as an average.  Broadwing hawks often number over 200 per day consistently over a period days of good flight.  A good migration day is clear, with winds coming from the north.  The birds "hop on" these winds which can zoom them south, nice and easy. As if flying thousands of miles is easy, but every little bit helps.

A quick look at numbers.  In September of this year, 1804 broadwings were observed! Sept. of 2013,  the number was 1986!  Total fall number for 2013 was 1993, but in 2010, they counted 2342! That's alot of birds, and very important data for NYS and national data bases.

 

Sharp-shinned Hawk

 

Cooper's Hawk

Recently, I've been spending time on a mountaintop in northern New Jersey, experiencing a smaller scale of the same migration phenomenon. There, we count migrants and band as well the ones we capture in mist and bow nets. They are released with USFWS bands, in hopes that their journey can be tracked.  Whatever the bird, migration is a tricky business, and the combined effort across the spectrum will result in better management and conservation practices.

 

Red-tail Release