Birders sought for raptor survey

If you've wanted to get to know our Northwest raptors better, now's your chance. The East Cascade Audubon Society's Winter Raptor Survey Project is now underway. Jeff Fleischer, who is spearheading the 15th season of surveys under the auspices of Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA), says this is the first time that more than 300 survey routes will be in play. 

Over 225 raptor watchers are involved with surveys conducted once a month on more than 16,000 miles of transects located throughout Oregon, Idaho, and along the Washington side of the Columbia River from the ocean to the Tri-Cities. Also from Walla Walla, along with the California portions of the Klamath Basin in south central Oregon and Northern California.

As coordinator of this project, part of Fleischer's duties is to ensure as much coverage as possible for the routes that already exist. Following is a list of current routes that are now vacant and looking for someone to adopt them:

• Curry County North: 55 miles

• Portland I-205 to Sandy River: 52 miles

• Corbett: 44 miles

• Gresham: 49 miles

• Boring: 48 miles

• Myrtle Creek: Riddle - 60 miles

• Canyonville: 45 miles

• Hood River: 81 miles

• Klamath Marsh: 56 miles

• Agency-Ft. Klamath: 82 miles

We're located a long way from most of those areas, but you may know of someone living in one or more of those locations who wishes they, she, or he had the opportunity to get to know our raptors better, and would like to participate in a local survey. This isn't just for the birders who cut their teeth on binoculars, but for people who want to get to know other birds as well.

Winter Raptor Survey (WRS) encourages raptor enthusiasts to collect information on wintering diurnal raptors, and teach novice birders who would like to become Citizen Scientists "how to." This protocol is a set of guidelines enabling motor vehicle-based observations to be recorded in a standardized format which is scalable to the skill of the observer, length of survey route and detail orientation and capability of the surveying party.

The survey's goal is to collect - by means of uniform methods - wintering raptor information that can be useful to researchers, land management, planning agencies, and regional birding organizations. The goal of the program is also to have an enjoyable citizen science experience and bring on board new observers.

Results will be published in Hawk Migration Studies, the publication of HMANA, and eventually be incorporated into HawkCount, the HMANA database of spring and fall raptor migration monitoring site observations. For more information visit http://www.hmana.org, and/or contact Jeff Fleischer at [email protected]