Dear Hawk Ridge Friends,
Happy Fall Bird Migration! Over 60,000 birds of approx. 120 species (including nearly 6,000 raptors of 15 species) have been counted so far since August 15! Check out the Aug. count & banding summaries below. On September 1st, our education and visitor services staff and volunteers returned to the main overlook at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve to share their knowledge and passion for birds with you! We have an awesome crew of both returning and new staff that you can hopefully meet in person or check out our "Meet the Staff" page HERE. One special staff highlight below is introducing our new full-time Research Director, Emily Pavlovic! We're thrilled to have her on the team to help lead our ongoing and future research efforts! Welcome, Emily and all the fall staff!
Please note our annual Hawk Weekend Festival is being held next Fri. Sept. 20 - Sun. Sept. 22nd. The last day for online registration is this Sunday, September 15th, so be sure to REGISTER HERE TODAY! Registration is also open for the Hawk Migration Association of North America's (HMANA) 50th Anniversary Conference being held here in Duluth Nov. 7-10th! Find out more below on these events and others, such as our evening owl programs, the international birding trip to Colombia, and more!
P.S. If you missed our last e-newsletter, you can view that and older versions by clicking HERE.
August 2024 Bird Migration Count Summary
The Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory began its 2024 fall count on Aug 15, and tallied 1,025 migrant raptors and 24,127 migrant non-raptors! Despite several days with easterly or southeasterly winds, modest totals were recorded for most raptor species. The count was conducted every day from the 15th until the end of the month, with the count significantly shortened on the 15th due to heavy rainfall.
August Raptor Totals:
Turkey Vulture (6): Average. Many resident Vultures remain around Duluth, and only a few were deemed migratory.
Osprey (30): Average. These fish eating specialists vacate the northland in the early season in search of better fishing. A month high count of 11 were recorded on August 28.
Bald Eagle (324): Above Average. Bald Eagles continue to thrive and Duluth remains the best hawk watch in the world to watch migrant Bald Eagles!
Northern Harrier (66): Above Average. Adult and juvenile harriers make early season movements in August, with a notable day of 18 on August 18th! Many harriers move in early morning and early evening when lift is weak, instead choosing to pump their wings and power through.
Sharp-shinned Hawk (284): Below Average. This follows a long term trend of decreasing Sharp-shinned Hawk in August, particularly evident in banding data. Lower numbers this month are likely related to a lack of strong NW winds that will concentrate accipiters at the Ridge.
Cooper’s Hawk (6): Average. The medium accipiter was counted just a few times this month.
Broad-winged Hawk (235): Average. An average Broad-winged Hawk count was rather surprising considering the lack of westerly winds. The vast majority of these birds were juveniles.
Red-tailed Hawk (112): Above Average. This is the highest Red-tailed Hawk count at Hawk Ridge in August since 2012.
American Kestrel (71): Near Average. Excellent numbers of dragonflies bolstered the kestrel count this month, but did not send it into the triple digits.
Merlin (18): Above Average. Merlins have been increasing steadily and the trend continues this month. It is encouraging to see a raptor species doing well.
Peregrine Falcon (3): Above Average. Peregrines come in just above the long term August average of 1.5, but will not peak until the first week of October.
Non-raptor Highlights:
The non-raptor count included 76 species. Some highlights include Great Egret (a northbound bird, likely post-breeding dispersal) Connecticut Warbler, Black-throated Blue Warbler and one magical day with nearly 12,000 Common Nighthawk at the ridge! Shorebird migration is always well underway by the time the count begins, and we were able to record 7 species including Pectoral and Baird’s Sandpipers and Semipalmated Plover. After Common Nighthawk, Cedar Waxwings were the most numerous bird in August: 2,584 birds!
We hope to see you this fall at the Ridge! Be sure to follow along with the live count on Trektellen HERE and raptor count on HawkCount HERE.
Sean McLaughlin
Lead Counter
August 2024 Banding Summary
Raptor banding at the Hawk Ridge station occurred every day from August 16th through the 31st, for a total of 16 days. The station was not opened on August 15th (the usual start of the season) due to rain. Light easterly winds throughout the month kept birds mostly high; however, a total of 44 raptors were banded at the station during August, a nice improvement from last year’s record low of 12. The Moose Valley station was covered August 30th and 31st, with 4 raptors banded.
Total raptors banded in August were as follows:
Sharp-shinned Hawk – 27
Cooper’s Hawk – 3
American Kestrel - 1
Merlin – 1
Northern Harrier – 4
Red-tailed Hawk – 12
Total: 48
Senior Research Associate Frank Nicoletti ran the Hawk Ridge station for the first two weeks of the season until the arrival of this year’s seasonal banding staff, which includes several familiar faces. Abbie Valine returns as Lead Raptor Bander for the months of September and October. We also welcome back Kara Beer in her second season as the Raptor Bander at the Moose Valley station and Liv Fortuna (a 2023 banding apprentice) in her first season as Owl Bander. This year’s Banding Apprentices are Jess Matyas and Sarah Needles (a 2023 trainee), who will spend the season learning the intricacies of trapping and banding both diurnal raptors and owls. We also welcome our new Research and Education Trainees (Arzu Pahl, June Yost, and Phil Stollsteimer), who will rotate weekly through Hawk Ridge’s three core programs of bird banding, migration count, and environmental education.
Passerine banding continues to be led by Margie Menzies & David Alexander with a crew of amazing volunteers. Fall passerine banding started at the beginning of August and runs through mid-October. A summary of the summer MAPS project at Hawk Ridge (June-Aug) and update on fall passerine banding will be coming soon!
Owl banding also starts this week, so more updates coming on that too!
Abbie Valine
Lead Bander
Summer Education Summary
It was a very busy summer for Hawk Ridge education programs with over 40 programs delivered to approx. 625 participants! Sharing the science of bird banding and seeing some of our resident breeding birds in hand was definitely a highlight with many of our groups! We continued to partner for a third year of the "Everyone Can Bird" accessible programs with the National Marine Estuarine Research Reserve- Superior, Minnesota Land Trust, Wisconsin Sea Grant, City of Superior, Embark, and indiGO. More information below on the final event for this year at Hawk Ridge on October 12th! All are welcome! Variety is the spice of life, and it holds true for summer programming as well. Other programs that have been happening over the course of this summer include other partnership programs with a number of area agencies, such as summer camps, summer student programming, Viking Cruise Line Passengers, and adult forums and presentations.
In addition, training for the fall education staff kicked off the last week in August. A wonderful mix of returning and new staff will be the friendly faces you see at the main overlook this fall (check out the Meet the Staff page)! Public education programs run every Saturday and Sunday at Hawk Ridge (check out the program calendar). If you're interested in scheduling a private program for a group (school, homeschool, other), please contact me at mmenzies@hawkridge.org or go to the Education Programs tab on our website for more info. We look forward to connecting with you this fall!
Margie Menzies
Education Director
Meet Our New Research Director!
Hawk Ridge is thrilled to announce Emily Pavlovic as the first full-time Research Director! This position is something that Hawk Ridge has been working towards for many years. We are grateful for funding from the Biodiversity Fund of the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation that helped kick off this position. Emily will be a key part of the Hawk Ridge team in leading current and future research efforts, including the long-term monitoring, bird banding, and applied ecological research programs. Welcome Emily and we hope you have a chance to meet her this fall! Emily shares this opening note below:
"I'm excited to be joining the HRBO staff as the Research Director after spending the past five seasons volunteering with various research projects at Hawk Ridge including completing my M.S. research at the banding station. As always, I'm looking forward to meeting all the staff and volunteers for the season, seeing the incredible flights of birds, and interacting with visitors from around the world. This season we are continuing research at the banding station to investigate questions of migratory connectivity using transmitters and isotope analysis, exposure rates of raptors to Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza in collaboration with The Raptor Center, presence of oral lesions in Sharp-shinned Hawk infected with the nematode Eucoleus dispar, and more. Please find me on the ridge and let's talk about research!"
UPCOMING EVENTS
Hawk Weekend Festival 2024
Come and celebrate the amazing fall bird migration with us! Hawk Weekend is the annual festival held by Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory in Duluth, MN. Bird migration research and education programs have been shared with visitors throughout the world each fall at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve for over 50 years! Join us for a fun weekend with a variety of birding field trips, nature hikes, programs, and activities for all ages! Click HERE for schedule! 
We are happy to announce Mercy Melo from the Pennsylvania Game Commission will be joining us as our keynote speaker. She will present Collaborations in Conservation as part of our festival celebration kick-off event on Friday, September 20th 6-9pm at the Great Lakes Aquarium (online registration required). Migratory raptors don't obey state and international borders, and neither should our studies of them! Research projects that span large geographic areas are key to truly understanding raptor populations and how we can protect them best. In this talk, Mercy will discuss how teamwork makes the dream work in conservation studies using examples from her research investigating the continental population decline of American Kestrels.
Many of our field trips, evening owl programs, workshops have limited space, so be sure to register HERE today! Last day to register is Sunday, September 15th.
50th Anniversary Conference in Duluth, MN
November 7-10, 2024
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Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory is happy to announce that the Hawk Migration Association of North America (HMANA) is holding their 50th anniversary conference here in Duluth, MN in Nov. 2024! Hawk Ridge is helping host this special celebration of HMANA and their important impact and efforts in raptor conservation. The conference will be held at the Holiday Inn & Suites Duluth-Downtown with field trips to Hawk Ridge and other birding hotspots in the area.
We are calling on all hawk watchers, raptor enthusiasts, raptor biologists, and HMANA friends across the Americas to join us in person or virtually for this momentous conference and anniversary celebration! We have an exciting lineup of speakers, symposiums, and poster session – all focused on honoring the history of hawkwatching in the Americas, current raptor research efforts, new looks at raptor education and discussions on the future of hawkwatching, hawk migration study, and how best to address the challenges we face. We also have a great lineup of field trips, programs, and fall hawkwatching at Hawk Ridge! Click HERE for schedule/ trip/program info. Registration is open now! REGISTER TODAY HERE!
The Keynote speaker for the conference will be Ernesto Ruelas Inzunza. Ernesto is the founder of the Veracruz River of Raptors and helped lead HMANA’s efforts to start the important Raptor Population Index partnership. Currently, he is a Professor-Research Scientist at the Institute of Biotechnology and Applied Ecology of the Universidad Veracruzana in Mexico and editor-in-chief of the Wilson Journal of Ornithology. Ernesto’s talk is titled: Raptor migration in the Neotropics: three decades of discovery where he will detail discoveries in raptor migration in neotropics in recent years and what discoveries or work is on the horizon.
The Plenary speaker will be Clay Sutton. Clay has a long, rich history in the hawkwatching community, especially for the book Hawks in Flight with co-authors Pete Dunne and David Sibley. Here’s a sneak peak of what’s in store for Clay’s presentation entitled: “Northwest Winds: Shifting Winds—Winds of Change.” Clay will reflect upon his own 50 years of watching hawks, primarily at Cape May, New Jersey, but also at many of the key raptor watches throughout North America and beyond. We have all seen changes in the composition of raptor flights, and changes in the very expectations of what we may see. We have experienced significant shifts in the migration phenology and winter ranges of hawks. But what hasn’t changed is the energy, dedication, and enthusiasm of those who annually staff their posts, climbing to mountain outcrops, urban overlooks, sandy beaches, and lighthouses at land’s end to monitor and celebrate the annual passage of birds of prey.” Clay will conclude that the 21st century may have brought great changes, but that shifting winds will never diminish the need, or our passion, for what we do.”
We hope to see you at this memorable event! Registration is open now! REGISTER TODAY HERE!
Everyone Can Bird: Accessible Birding Series
Upcoming: October 12th, 2024 @ Hawk Ridge!
Plan Your Fall Visit to Hawk Ridge
September 1st - October 31st, 2024
Daily 9am-4pm
2024 marks the 53rd consecutive fall season of bird migration research and education at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve in Duluth, MN - one of the premier fall bird migration sites in North America! We look forward to connecting with visitors of all ages from around the world! Here are some helpful links with information on visiting this fall:
PLAN YOUR VISIT
DIRECTIONS
LODGING
Whoo doesn’t like owls? From large to small, seasonal travelers, and hardy residents, Minnesota hosts a fascinating diversity of owls, with some crazy habits, and some hauntingly beautiful sounds in the night. Join us this fall to learn about the Hawk Ridge owl banding research through one of our public evening owl programs or schedule a small group owl program. Click HERE for more info.
Saturday evening public programs:
October 5th & Oct. 19th at 8pm
Tickets limited (click HERE to register); $10 member/student or $15 nonmember
Small group owl programs (up to 8): offered Sept. 24-Oct. 31 (Tues. or Thurs-Sat. evenings) with date/time to be arranged by sending an email to owls@hawkridge.org. $40 member/student or $50 nonmember. Click HERE for more info.
International Birding Tour
Colombia: February 1 - 9th, 2025 (register by Oct. 29th!)
Birding the Atlantic Coast and Santa Marta Mountains
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Discover the birds of Colombia with Hawk Ridge in 2025! Colombia has the richest diversity of any country in the world with over 1,900 species of birds! This tour focuses on the country’s bird-rich remote northern highlights, including the Caribbean region and the Santa Marta Mountains, home to some of the highest numbers of endemic species in Colombia.
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Lead by expert local guides, we’ll explore high elevation mountains, dry forest and coastal habitats in search of a wide spectrum of flycatchers, hummingbirds, tanagers, toucans and more. Throughout the journey, we will meet members of the local communities and learn about conservation efforts to use birding as a sustainable development resource.
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Highlights:
• Bird the coastal wetland and mangrove habitats of Salamanca National Park and Los Flamencos Sanctuary along Colombia’s Caribbean coast.
• Explore the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, the highest coastal mountain range in the world and home to more than a quarter of the country’s endemic species.
• Enjoy several days of birding in the ProAves Foundation's El Dorado Nature Reserve, which sits in a transitional zone between lower mountain forests and higher cloud forests, creating a confluence of species from both areas.
• Meet the indigenous Wayúu people in Riohacha and learn about their culture, represented in their weaving, ceramics, vegetation, and gastronomy.
Click on this link for an Overview, Itinerary, Pricing, Travel Information, How to Enroll and Resources. *Please note space is limited and deadline to register in full is October 29, 2024. This trip requires a minimum of 10 participants. Make a trip deposit to reserve a spot on the trip, but wait to make airline reservations and pay the full trip amount until you receive notice that the trip has reached its minimum enrollment. For more information or questions, please contact Debbie Jordan at debbie@holbrooktravel.com or 866-748-6146 or Hawk Ridge Education Director, Margie Menzies at mmenzies@hawkridge.org.
Other News
The Breeding Birds of Minnesota Book
The long awaited book The Breeding Birds of Minnesota: History, Ecology, and Conservation by Lee A. Pfannmuller, Gerald J. Niemi, and Janet C. Green is now available and you can purchase it at Hawk Ridge this fall! It was launched this spring at a two wonderful events at the Bell Museum and at the University of MN Duluth and you can read a description of the book HERE.
Jerry Niemi and Jan Green have been instrumental to Hawk Ridge since the early beginnings. Jan was one of the original founders of Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve and assisted with the raptor count research at Hawk Ridge. Both served on the Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory Board of Directors and they both continue to serve on our Research Committee today. Congrats on this important book for bird conservation! Hawk Ridge appreciates all you've contributed for the birds, the nature reserve, and bird observatory!
The Northern Naturalist
Former Hawk Ridge naturalist & trip leader, Dave Benson, has launched a new natural history newsletter: The Northern Naturalist. Each biweekly newsletter has an in-depth article about a species in our area, a How-to article, a book review, and more. Issue #3 includes an article about How to Experience the Fall Hawk Migration and Issue #5 features the Broad-winged Hawk.
Dave was the Hawk Ridge naturalist from 1998-2000 and has worked as a naturalist at Gooseberry Falls State Park, Jay Cooke State Park, Pattison State Park, and as a guide for Minnesota Birding Weekends. He is the award-winning author of several books, including Owls of the North: a Naturalist’s Handbook. northernnaturalist.substack.com
Thank You for Your Support!
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory thanks all of our supporters. We appreciate you! As a nonprofit organization, we are primarily funded by individual gifts to put our bird migration research and education programs in action. Below are some of the ways you can help us keep sharing the magic of the bird migration!
Support Hawk Ridge by Shopping!
Be sure to check out our merchandise trailer at Hawk Ridge daily Sept. 1 - Oct. 31 9am-4pm (weather pending). We have 2 new Hawk Ridge shirts this fall with featured artists! Marie Chappell, Hawk Ridge Bird Migration Counter, created a beautiful Blue Jay design to highlight our record numbers of Blue Jays counted at the Ridge. What's your guess for this season?
Megan Hanson, former 2023 trainee, created two awesome raptor designs with both featuring an arch of raptors we commonly see each fall with one showcasing a birder and the other a Sharp-shinned Hawk, our most common banded raptor. Thank you to Marie & Megan! Big Frog (direct ship or pick up at Duluth store)
The Mug Experience (direct ship)
Become A Member Today!
If you're already a member of Hawk Ridge, we sincerely appreciate your support! THANK YOU! If you're not a member and have enjoyed your experience with Hawk Ridge, we invite you to renew or join as a Hawk Ridge member today! Our memberships and donations help drive our bird conservation research and education programs. You can check out our exciting membership benefits and join or renew online HERE!
Simply Donate
You can always simply donate online by clicking HERE or by mailing a check made out to Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, P.O. Box 3006, Duluth, MN 55803.
Thank you again for your wonderful gift of support! Hope to connect with you this fall at Hawk Ridge or feel free to reach out by email or phone!
Sincerely,
Janelle Long
Executive Director
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory
P.O. Box 3006
Duluth, MN 55803-3006
Call: 218-428-6209
Contact: mail@hawkridge.org
Visit: www.hawkridge.org
501(c)3 Non-Profit Organization
Federal Tax ID 76-0746366
