Dear Hawk Ridge Friends,
Yesterday, March 17, 2022, a new daily North American migration count record was established with 1,206 Bald Eagles counted!!! This breaks our previous record from March 21, 2019 with 1,076 Bald Eagles counted in one day. Our Spring Migration Counter, Sean McLaughlin, reported it as a remarkable flight with huge kettles of birds coursing through all day! There's still plenty of time to come out and enjoy the spring migration with us daily now through May 31 and you can check out the current raptor total HERE or live count HERE. You can find out more on the spring count and other upcoming events below.
P.S. If you missed our last e-newsletter, you can view that and older versions by clicking HERE.
March Spring Count Update
We are excited to continue the West Skyline Spring Count again this season. We welcome Sean McLaughlin, as our primary counter. He hails from central Pennsylvania and has counted at several hawkwatches (volunteered at Stone Mountain and Bald Eagle hawkwatches) and was the official counter at Tussey Mountain. He has been an avid birder and hawkwatcher since childhood. We will also have Sara DePew from Michigan starting mid April as our Spring Naturalist/Count Interpreter, who will also assist Margie Menzies in spring education programs. We look forward to the expansion of the programs we will be doing this spring. So grab your binoculars and get out to witness the magic of migration! You can read Sean's migration update below, as well as HawkCount HERE for daily counts and follow us HERE for live count. See you out on the watch.
-Frank Nicoletti, Spring Count Director
The first 2.5 weeks of March have seen us through the end of winter and into the first thaw, and along with warmer temperatures have brought eagles! Sunnier days have ushered in plenty of Bald Eagles, including record breaking day on 3/17 (with 1,206), and the current tally as of 3/17 is 1849. Best days for eagle spotting are mostly sunny days, with SW winds, but NE winds can also be productive. Smattered throughout the many Balds have been 84 Golden Eagles (with about half counted on 3/17!). Other raptors have been very low in numbers so far, but should increase soon. Resident birds at the watch have included Peregrine Falcon, Red-tailed Hawk, Trumpeter Swans, Cooper’s Hawk and most winter finches. Hope to see many of you at the watch soon.
-Sean McLaughlin, Spring Counter
Upcoming Events
Pick A Bird Brain Series Returns
March-August 2022
Pick a Bird Brain is back as a new series of virtual presentations with optional field trips! These will be held monthly March-August with a focus on bird families (woodpeckers to warblers and sparrows and more!). Each month, this series will look a little more in depth at particular groupings of birds during the virtual presentation, then follow with an optional birding field trip to see what we can find. You can register for the full series or a la carte for any of the virtual presentations or field trips (note: field trips have max of 15 participants). We hope you will join us! Check out the March schedule details below (as that starts next week!) more info on registration and monthly schedule HERE!
March 22 Virtual Program 7:00 pm – Where birds began
Birds are relatives of the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex! The only remaining dinosaurs are the more than 10,000 species of birds on Earth. What kind of birds have been around the longest, and who are the new kids on the block? We’ll take a look at the very beginning for birds and move forward from there to get this series started.
March 26 Field Trip 9:00-11:00 am -Swimming Birds-Gulls, Ducks, Grebes, etc.
Birding trip around Duluth Harbor and other Lake Superior shoreline stops to look at winter waterbird residents, winter visitors, and new spring arrivals in the swimming birds.
March 1 - May 31, 2022
2022 marks the 5th consecutive, full spring season of bird migration monitoring research at the West Skyline Spring Count in Duluth, MN! This is one of the premier spring bird migration sites in North America with record numbers of Bald and Golden Eagles, as well as other raptor species. The spring migration count average from 2018-2021 is over 25,000 raptors and thousands of other birds. Over 125 different bird species were recorded in 2021! Spring migration highlights include an amazing diversity of 15-20 different raptor species, as outlined:
Peak for each species (high counts listed)
- Eagles: around March 25 (Bald: 100-500/day; Golden: 10/day)
- Rough-legged Hawks: April 10-20 (up to 75/da
y) - Red-tailed Hawks: April 10-20 (1,000-2,000/day)
- Broad-winged Hawks: May 1-10 (3,000-4,000/day)
- Sharp-shinned Hawks: April 10-20 (up to 450/day)
Spring Migration Weekend Workshop
April 22-24th, 2022
Join us for a great weekend to enjoy the spring migration in the field, while learning about the overall science of spring migration, basic ID skills, counting essentials, natural history, interesting current Hawk Ridge Research! We'll learn first hand at the West Skyline Spring Count, one of the top spring raptor migration sites in the US, as well as birding trips to the Duluth Harbor and St. Louis River area for migrants of all types! Participants will have multiple options for how they choose to participate in the workshop. Sessions will be either grouped as the full weekend experience at a discounted price or you can select which activities you would like to attend and choose them a la carte. Register HERE today!
Hawk Ridge 50th Anniversary Celebration!
Sept. 22-25th, 2022
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Hawk Ridge is turning 50!! Be sure to SAVE THE DATE for our 50th Anniversary Event! Hawk Ridge is celebrating 50 years of raptor research and education! We will kick off the event Thursday evening at the beautiful Greysolon Ballroom for a grand celebration of the past, present, and future of Hawk Ridge on Thurs. 9/22/22! Our annual Hawk Weekend Festival will follow that weekend (Fri. 9/23 - Sun. 9/25) with a great line up of speakers, field trips, and special events. We invite you for this very special celebration and hope to see many of our Hawk Ridge friends from past and present!
Panama: Under the River of Raptors!
October 25th - November 1st, 2022
Hawk Ridge is heading back to Panama again this fall for another amazing birding and nature trip! Margie Menzies, Hawk Ridge Education Director, in cooperation with Holbrook Travel will be accompanying a lucky group to witness this incredible river of raptors in peak season, as well as other birding and nature hotspots.
At Hawk Ridge, we are thrilled with incredible views of thousands to tens of thousands of raptors a day during fall migration season. The hawk count site in Panama counted over 2 million raptors in one day with daily counts ranging in the hundreds of thousands! This is a great opportunity to see where many of our northern migrants are heading during the fall for their wintering grounds.
In addition to seeing raptors, we will experience the best of birding in Panama with visits to a variety of settings including rainforest, cloud forest, tropical dry forest, and Mangrove habitats, among others, each with it’s own unique endemic species, colorful and unique local resident birds, and visiting migratory species. The tour group will be guided each day on this expedition by an expert local guide in each region of the trip. Click HERE for general information and HERE for full itinerary/registration. We hope you can join us! P.S. There is also a pre-extension trip to the Darien Oct. 20-25th - more details on that portion of trip HERE.
Other News Updates
Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve Facilities Improvement Plan
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The Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve Facilities Improvement Planning is continuing to receive positive response. The first public open house was held on March 2nd and followed up with a presentation to the City of Duluth Parks & Recreation Commission last week. We continue to welcome and appreciate feedback coming in from the public through the planning page online HERE. What's clear is that there are many people who enjoy Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve as a beloved outdoor space in Duluth and appreciate the efforts of Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory through research, education, and stewardship. We look forward to implementing this plan to improve facilities at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve for road safety issues, accessibility, increased education program space, and enhanced visitor viewing. Thank you to staff & committees (Hawk Ridge, SAS+ Associates, City of Duluth), people involved in focus groups, and the and public (members, visitors) for your input. We will continue to update you through this exciting project!
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 purchase one of our unique artist-designed Hawk Ridge shirts or tote bags online! Our featured artist is Emma Regnier, who completed both the Bird Banding & Bird Migration Count Research Traineeships at Hawk Ridge in 2020 & 2021. She created 2 new beautiful designs for our limited-edition shirts for 2021, including the popular "Celebrate Diversity" design pictured here!
If you like to shop on Amazon, we'd also super appreciate you adding Hawk Ridge as a charity you support via Amazon Smile. Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory receives a donation of 0.5% of eligible purchases!.
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!
Books with Portion of Proceeds coming to Hawk Ridge!
Art on the Edge of the Boreal Forest: Alternative Futures for the trees, birds and insects
Original art by ten Minnesota artists
Text by Lee Frelich, Ph.D. and Gerald Niemi, Ph.D.
A group of Minnesota botanical artists applied their skills and knowledge to create a visual archival record of Minnesota's threatened boreal forest. Dr. Frelich, director for the Center for Forest Ecology, and Dr. Niemi, Professor Emeritus in the Department of Biology, University of Minnesota Duluth (and former Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory Board Member & Research Chair), as well as Jane Albers, DNR Forest Health Specialist, contributed research on threatened boreal trees, plants, birds, and insects. This collection is important because the ecology of the boreal forest is undergoing slow and silent but significant change due to disturbances caused by fire, invasive insects and stressful climate conditions. Books for sale online from various sellers, including HERE.
Hawks on High - Everyday Miracles in a Hawk Ridge Season
By Phil Fitzpatrick with drawings by Penny Perry
Phil Fitzpatrick captures the magic of migration at Hawk Ridge and interesting bird bits beyond through his beautiful collection of poetry. Poems are brought to life through the artwork of Penny Perry. Books for sale online and at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve during the fall season September 1 - October 31.
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.
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
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