Pacific Raptor Report FALL MIGRATION 2015 GOLDEN GATE RAPTOR OBSERVATORY Thirty-Seven PACIFIC RAPTOR REPORT the NEWSLETTER of the GOLDEN GATE RAPTOR OBSERVATORY
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Pacific Raptor Report FALL MIGRATION 2015 GOLDEN GATE RAPTOR OBSERVATORY Thirty-Seven PACIFIC RAPTOR REPORT THE NEWSLETTER OF THE GOLDEN GATE RAPTOR OBSERVATORY We banded 650 Cooper’s Hawks—like this adult —in fall 2015. For 2015 and for all 33 years of banding, Cooper’s Hawks are our most trapped species— more than 14,000 since 1983. [Photo by George Eade] C ONTENTS DIRECTOR’S NOTE/GOLDEN GATE AND THE NEXT SURGE OF CITIZEN SCIENCE/Allen Fish . 1 GGRO ANNOUNCEMENTS/Allen Fish . 2 RESEARCH NOTE/WHERE HAVE GOLDEN GATE RAPTORS NESTED?/Chris Briggs . .4 IDENTIFICATION FOCUS/THREE TAILS FOR THE JUVENILE BROADWING/Allen Fish . 9 HAWKWATCH 2015/WHY WE WATCH/Holly Thomas . 12 BUG COUNT 2015/ODES AND LEPIDOPTS, YEAR 2/Natasha Lekach . 14 HAWKS ON THE MOVE/BRINGING CITY KIDS TO HAWK HILL/Natasha Lekach and Elan Carnahan . 15 IN CONVERSATION/THIRTY YEARS OF ‘FOLLOWING THE CHILD’ TO HAWK HILL /Laura Booth . 16 RADIOTELEMETRY 2015/UP AND AWAY/Mike Hall . 17 BANDING 2015/JUST LIKE FLY FISHING?/Jeff Robinson . 21 BAND RECOVERIES 2015/LONGEVITY OF REDTAILS, AND OF THE PEOPLE WHO BAND THEM/Nancy Sue Brink . 23 PEREGRINATIONS/A WINTER RAPTOR RETREAT TO RUSH RANCH/ Natasha Lekach, Steph Szarmach, and Laura Booth . .30 DONORS . 32 VOLUNTEERS . 33 COVER IMAGE: THIS JUVENILE WHITE-TAILED KITE WILL LOSE ITS RUST-BROWN COLLAR SOMETIME NEXT SPRING. [PHOTO BY DAVE HARPER] THE GOLDEN GATE RAPTOR OBSERVATORY IS A PROGRAM OF THE GOLDEN GATE NATIONAL PARKS CONSERVANCY IN COOPERATION WITH THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE 2 NUMBER 37 PACIFIC RAPTOR REPORT THE NEWSLETTER OF THE GOLDEN GATE RAPTOR OBSERVATORY DIRECTOR’S NOTE Allen Fish Golden Gate and the Next Surge of Citizen Science HERE IS A GREAT CONFLUENCE happening in the to the planet, is in fact environmental world . It is the melding of a spiritual journey . Tthe time and talents of non-professional In many national people with the needs of long-term, scientific parks like the Golden data collection . It is happening in part because Gate National Rec- of access to the internet . But it is also rooted in reation Area, the Na- the opportunity to participate in scientific in- tional Park Service vestigation of the planet . (NPS) staff hold up Some call it citizen science, insofar as we are a standard for non- all citizens of a mysterious planet with much to professionals (vol- investigate . Others call it community science or unteers-in-parks) to public participation in science . It is easy to see participate in signifi- that it has been around for as long as there have cant scientific work been humans . We are, according to UC Berkeley in the park: wildlife psychologist Alison Gopnik, testing the world tracking, studying and processing our results like scientists—from geological processes, the time we are in the crib . Only in the last few intertidal monitoring, hundred years did science become professional- restoring native plant ized, decreed and degreed, and even then, some communities, and re- of the world’s great scientists have been ama- moving invasive spe- teurs . cies—to name a few . Why is this recognition of volunteers in sci- It is one thing for ence happening now? What brought about this park founders to have coalescing, this new wave of weekend research waved a flag to show by non-doctored, non-lab-coated people? I that Bay Area people deserve to have close ac- Will Rose measures the curved length of a Redtail’s think it comes from many directions . Some of cess to an urban national park . It is a far deeper wing with a wing ruler. the most critical: 1) Never have so many people act to say that people deserve to have mean- [Photo by Jen Gale] had so much access to great libraries of infor- ingful, long-term, valued work in their national mation through the internet; 2) Many people park . It is deep in its bravery and its expense . have the ability to record reliable data; for ex- Volunteers are expensive . But it is the natural ample, to photograph animals, plants, stars, and tendency for all humans to deepen their con- events with digital cameras and upload their nection to the landscape in which they live, and records to databases with thousands of other Golden Gate will always need to respond to such like-minded nerds; 3) Science journalism—the push and pull with the Bay Area community . translator of jargon, mathematical models, and How do we create opportunities for increased statistical equations from Ph D. to layperson— community science and fully embraced volun- has never been better; and finally, 4) There is teer work, without losing sight of the manage- profound meaning in this work—personal and ment goals that protect the park and its flora global . It touches the infinite . and fauna? How do we keep the local communi- As we get older, many of us yearn to know ties so connected to the goals for the NPS that that we have contributed to this planet; per our neighbors become our best supporters, our Mary Oliver’s phrase, what will you do with your most responsible constituency, even our most one and precious life? Contribution to science, invested colleagues? How do we create systems 1 PACIFIC RAPTOR REPORT for capturing the scientific services and results provided to us by skilled community scientists, GGRO ANNOUNCEMENTS Allen Fish from birders to botanists, geologists to sociolo- gists? How do we better organize ourselves to anticipate and manage interest in community- THE RAPTOR RESEARCH FOUNDATION CONFERENCE driven science in the parklands? Thirty-three years ago last November, I was tossed in the A local urban national park is a particularly back of a van with duffels and a handful of other UC Davis perfect vehicle for engaging citizen scientists . undergrads. Terry Schulz and John Aikin, co-instigators, The motivation to volunteer one’s time—the fire delivered us to Salt Lake City for the 1982 Raptor Research that lights the interest—is often not global, nor Foundation (RRF) conference. even regional; it is local . People volunteer be- I’d never been to a scientific conference but the next cause they form a connection with something in few days were nothing less than exciting, as I heard talks their backyard, even their watershed . from leaders in raptor biology: This is the scale of the Golden Gate National Clayton White, Tom Cade, Joe Parks . It is the neighborhood . Ours is the perfect Hickey, Noel and Helen Snyder, landscape for seeing broad-scale community sci- Steve Herman, Fran Hamerstrom. ence as a critical strategy toward future park Like the bibliography from a great management . And this is the perfect time . raptor book. I do not say that last part lightly . If there is not It’d always been in my head to a critical scientific mission to be served, there gather a RRF conference in the San should not be a community science approach . Francisco Bay Area, but I waited There must be a long list of considerations be- too long, and prices skyrocketed in fore starting a community science project: what the past decade. But what about Sacramento? is the value of the data, urgency of the data, con- Last November’s RRF meeting in Sacramento was a nection to other projects, suitability to volunteer tremendous success with some 450 raptor biologists, skills and style, funding and fundability, avail- naturalists, and aficionados gathered to hear about the ability of volunteers, staff capacity to monitor biology of Golden Eagles, raptors and climate change, the and train and evaluate volunteers and their data . impacts of wind turbines on birds of prey, the ecology of The list goes on and on . island raptors, and dozens of other topics—rat poison im- The staff of many of our parklands and public pacts, the use of drones to study nests, and the use of sat- lands must decide soon how they might receive, ellites and cell phones to study migrations. or not receive, more community volunteers Success of the five-day program rested squarely on working at a much greater level of involvement the shoulders of more than three dozen GGRO volunteers than we have seen in past decades . and staff that moved mountains, particularly the ex- I believe we are about to see an explosion of in- ecutive team of Laura Young, Kris Vanesky, Chris Briggs, terest in the national parks, a tidal force of com- Christine Cariño, and Candace Renger. We were bolstered munity volunteerism that will greatly challenge by the Parks Conservancy staff who taught us tons about our budgets . Perhaps we can create systems now accounting and by the RRF board and leaders who orga- that might allow us to be organized and ready . nized the scientific programs. The great thing here is that these community Thanks to all who stepped forward to help, and to our scientists are the same people who will most fer- great donors, particularly the volunteers and donors of vently visit, and vote for the preservation of na- GGRO, and the Greg Hind Endowment. You made this tional parks . Their passion for service, and our event possible, and I got to fulfill a dream. Together we ability to incorporate that passion, will keep the celebrated a half-century of research on, and conserva- national parks relevant into the future . tion of, wild birds of prey. For information on joining the Raptor Research Though recently obsessed with dragonflies, GGRO Director Allen Fish starts his 32nd migration season in Foundation yourself, check out the RRF website at the Marin Headlands in 2016 . raptorresearchfoundation.org. It costs about 80 cents a week.