Diario del proyecto Inland Pacific Northwest Raptor Migration 2022

Top 5 Species (August)

1. Red-tailed Hawk -- 53 observations (+2 from last month)
2. Turkey Vulture -- 25 observations
3. Osprey -- 25 observations (-2)
4. Swainson's Hawk -- 20 observations (+2)
5. Great Horned Owl -- 13 observations

Top 5 Species (Overeall):

1. Red-tailed Hawk -- 74 observations (+2)
2. Osprey -- 63 observations (-1)
3. Turkey Vulture -- 49 observations (-1)
4. Swainson's Hawk -- 33 observations (+2)
5. Great Horned Owl -- 28 observations

Total Species: 22

Top 5 Observers (Observations):

1. birdwhisperer -- 73 obs
2. @draginous -- 49 obs
3. @cgates326 -- 18 obs
4. @danithedeer -- 16 obs
5. @davedrum -- 14 obs

Top 5 Observers (Species):

1. cgates326 -- 10 species
2. birdwhisperer -- 9 species
3. dragoinous -- 9 species
4. danithedeer -- 6 species
5. @the-catfinch -- 6 species

Species Still Needed: (13) White-tailed Kite, Broad-winged Hawk, Rough-legged Hawk, Barn Owl, Flammulated Owl, Snowy Owl, Northern Hawk-Owl, Spotted Owl, Barred Owl, Short-eared Owl, Boreal Owl, Merlin and Gyrfalcon

New Species in August: Northern Goshawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Western Screech-Owl, Long-eared Owl

Counties Needing Observations: WA (5) -- Douglas, Lincoln, Columbia, Garfield and Asotin -- OR (3) -- Sherman, Gilliam and Umatilla

News and Updates:

During the thirty-one days we call August, 184 observations were added to the project. That's not too great when you compare these stats with last year. It is indeed our best August ever but the observation count ties the 2020 stats, with previous years only a few behind. If we were to continue the 14% observation gain that I mentioned in my previous monthly summary, we should've gotten 201 for August.

2019: 182 obs
2020: 184 obs
2021: 177 obs
2022: 184 obs

So, I propose this for next month. September is the best month for raptors and if we all pitched in and photograph as many raptors as we can, I beat we can break the 300 mark. It's doable, look at what'll be coming there here in the coming weeks: Broad-winged Hawks, Swainson's kettles, Flammulated Owl (at banding stations) and the list goes on. Get on top of a mountain and photograph raptors migrating.

Week 9

Week 9 turns out to be our best week in this project. From a collection of 9 species, 54 observations were submitted. The observation of the week goes to cgates326 for not just seeing one, but two Red-bellied Hawks! If you're unfamiliar with the name, Red-bellied Hawk was the common name for the elegans (sub)species of Red-shouldered Hawk, back in the late 1800's when it used to be considered a species. However, the Red-bellied Hawk is definitely in need of its species' status back. You can see the juveniles (yes, juveniles) here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/133043646

Week 10 produced 48 observations from 12 species, including the one species I wanted most for the project. Not one but two Broad-winged Hawks! Lets keep birding those mountain tops so we can find some more Broad-wings. They'll be here only for the next two weeks.

The observation of the week goes to @dbond for a rather shocked looking Great Horned Owl in Grant County, Washington. Though a common and regularly seen species, an owl is an owl and it's always awesome to get one. You can see the photo here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134096707

You guys may want to check out the umbrella project that summarizes the four years I've been collecting data. I wrote a post that shows the statistics of observations/species per county. If that's something you'd want to look at:

https://www.inaturalist.org/projects/inland-pnw-raptor-surveys

A delayed post, but Week 11 has passed and we're starting in the heat of raptor migration. Though with only 39 submissions in the Friday through Thursday period, it's not exactly the number I was hoping for. Though we successfully added two new species to the list, Merlin and Barn Owl, so we've now seen 25 out of the 35 expected species in the project's perimeters.

The observation of the week goes to @davedrum for a photo of a juvenile Cooper's Hawk in Pend Oreille County, Washington. I'm sure we're all familiar with how hard it is to identify this species due to similarity with the Sharp-shinned Hawk. Though I don't have to the time to do a thorough in-depth discussion into the id, I do think it's crucial to note that Cooper's are more human-tolerate than Sharp-shinned. While the former hunts and nests in residential areas, Sharp-shinned are really secretive and don't like to be bothered by people too much. That also means that when it comes to identifying photos on here, most Accipiters peter out to Cooper's. You can see the photo here:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/134448967

We still have two weeks of September left. Go out and find some migrating hawks. I went up to Elkhorn Mountains twice in an eight-day period and was delighted to see my local mountains has a hawk flyway. It's only a matter of time before I get something good.

The title of this post is rather intuitive of what happened in Week 12. To the best of my knowledge, this week is our best week on record ever, including previous years I've done this project. We accumulated 102 observations! This includes our rarest Buteos; 4 observations for Red-shouldered Hawks and 3 Broad-wings! Way to go guys!

As much as I like the rare, migrating Buteos, I think the best observation is @shearwater13 photo of a male Barn Owl in Adams County, Washington. This is always a fascinating bird to see, and we've seen too little for the project. These owls are common throughout the Columbia Basin. Look for them in Russian Olive groves, barns and fissures on a cliff.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/136124633

One last of September, so let's make the most of it. We probably have one more push for Broad-winged Hawks before they all leave the region, but with their loss, we gain more Red-shouldered Hawks in our area, so keep an eye out for them. We are also approaching owl season, get ready for that.