Although Hawk Mountain is encased in snow and ice, we see signs of spring as our two female broadwings are returning northward for their third spring since they were tagged during summer 2016. We are so excited to see them moving, partly because it means they survived the winter, but also because it means their transmitters are lasting longer than the anticipated 2-year lifespan of the units. We hope to be able to track them through another summer nesting season, if all goes well.
Patty from the Northwest Pennsylvania, shown in red, left her Peruvian home February 26th and is already in southern Colombia, but she wintered farther north than Rosalie. Rosalie is the bird from Hawk Mountain, and she left on February 18th and is now traversing western Brazil. As you can see, both birds are following a similar track to previous migrations (map below).
The Broadwing team is quietly getting ready for another field season. We have ordered two female transmitters to put on birds either in Maine, Ontario, Pennsylvania, or Minnesota and two male transmitters, a new design, that we hope to put on males in Pennsylvania. We will present a talk at the NE Hawkwatch meeting in Massachusetts and hope to raise funds to cover two transmitters for field work effort in each of the different regions.
You can check the progress of our two intrepid travelers as they make this epic journey north once again at www.hawkmountain.org/birdtracker
Hawk Mountain is working to raise funds to cover expanded work in the northeast in 2019. If you have funding ideas, please contact Laurie Goodrich (943-3411 x106), or the Director of Development Mary Linkevich at linkevich@hawkmountain.org/570-449-4679.
