New York is home to an impressively diverse array of natural habitats. The Empire State’s various ecoregions run the gamut from the beaches and marshes of Long Island to the grasslands and high peaks near the Canadian border. The Adirondack Mountains are perhaps the wildest, most distinct region of the state, representing the southern edge of the boreal forest biome … Read More
First day of hawk watching in Belize!
Woken up early thanks to some Howler Monkeys around 5 am, I hit the road early for birding. The road that my house is on is actually very productive for local species and also warblers; it is just one street over from the coast, so I think migrants just use it all day long. Perhaps everywhere in Belize is like … Read More
Jo Hays Vista – September 2011 Report
Coming into September with only 100 raptors, the other primary Jo Hays hawkwatchers and I were ready to see things heat up. We put in a total of 13 days (51.75 hours) worth of observation time at Jo Hays which resulted in 1888 raptors being counted during the month! Due to the limited visibility at Jo Hays, northwest winds are … Read More
Jo Hays Vista – Another nice Broad-winged Count
I spent 8 hours today hawk watching at Jo Hays Vista. The weather was nice and birds were on the move, despite almost the very light wind speed throughout the day. Chuck Widdman, Ian Gardner, Joe Verica, and many others stopped by throughout the day to help with the count. We ended the day with 353 raptors migrating past. Of … Read More
Jo Hays Vista – 574 Migrant Raptors!
Today we had 574 raptors migrant past Jo Hays Vista, the biggest one-day count during the fall ever at JHV. The flight was dominated by Broad-winged Hawks, but seven other species of migrant raptor also made appearances. Most of the birds were either really high up or really far out to the north. Although, almost all of the kestrels flew … Read More
Jo Hays Vista – Season Total Doubled!
Yesterday, I spent most of the day hawk watching at Jo Hays Vista hawk watch. While I didn’t get nearly as many raptors as Hawk Mountain (more than 1600!), I more than doubled Jo Hays season count. This was mainly due to small kettles of Broad-winged Hawks that consistently came through between 1:00 and 2:00. Kettles ranged in size from … Read More
Jo Hayes Vista – August 2011 Report
Most hawk watches in Pennsylvania don’t start officially counting until September 1st each year but at Jo Hayes we took advantage of some of the beautiful August days that we had and officially started on August 10th. We ended August with exactly 100 raptor migrants and considering that only 29.5 hours worth of observation time were put in over the course … Read More
Idaho Highlights
Anna and I have been working here in Idaho since April 4th. It has been a wonderful and bird-packed three and a half months, but now it must come to an end. On July 11th, Anna and I will begin our road trip down to Blythe, California, where we will be working for the remainder of the summer. For this … Read More
Birding around McCall, Idaho – 3 lifers!
This past weekend, Anna and I made a last minute decision to drive up to the McCall area to do some birding for our days off work. We left Saturday night after work and drove up to Cascade. We birded Cascade Lake till dark and camped there for the night. When we first arrived to the lake, it seemed pretty … Read More