First Winter Raptor Survey

Yesterday I, my wife, and our ten-day-old daughter went out to bird the area south of Davis, CA. as part of the Winter Raptor Survey that has been started by the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA).  I am on the HMANA board of directors and have been helping to organize this winter raptor survey.  We are hoping it will grow into a nation-wide monitoring system of the raptors that spend the winter months anywhere in North America.  To run a survey route all that is need is a bit of local raptor knowledge and four days a year.  Each volunteer sets up their own route in an area, and then drives that route one day in November, one day in December, one day in January, and one day in February.  After driving the route (which should be between 30 and 100 miles long), and identifying all the raptors seen, the results are entered into an online database and compiled.  Repeatedly surveying the same route several times each winter gives a better measurement of how many individuals and species are using a particular area, and will result in a more accurate overall population estimate.

The route that I am running was established by a former graduate student in the Avian Sciences Graduate Group at U.C. Davis that he used for his masters research (he established many routes throughout California, so if anyone wants to run an established route, contact me).  This route works its way through an area land that is used for crops, orchards, and cattle and sheep range land.  It is about 40 miles long and took us about 4 hours to run (12 to 4). The day was a bright and sunny one with no clouds and a cold wind out of the northwest.

It was a wonderful day of birding, and my daughter’s first birding outing!  She slept in her car seat the whole time except when we stopped to feed her and change her diaper.   In total, we saw 96 raptors of 10 species.  The species were Turkey Vulture, White-tailed Kite, Northern Harrier, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-tailed Hawk, Ferruginous Hawk (a beautifully marked adult), American Kestrel, Merlin, Peregrine Falcon, and Prairie Falcon.

Other birds we saw included Loggerhead Shrike, Savannah Sparrow, White-crowned Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, American Pipit, Least Sandpiper, Killdeer, Cattle Egret, Great Egret, Great Blue Heron, American Crow, Common Raven, Mallard, Brewer’s Blackbird, Red-winged Blackbird, Double-crested Cormorant, and European Starling.

I am already looking forward to January’s survey!