Final Summary

We are now starting a new year and with that ends the 2020 Inland Pacific Northwest Raptor Migration. These last six months were amazing in more ways than one. We may have not gotten the numbers we did last year but there was definitely some eye popping sightings. I thank all who participated, I really do appreciate the hard work and I hope you'll be able to participate in the 2021 IPNRM six months from now. Without further adieu, here's the data from this year's project.

Top 5 Species (December):

  1. Red-tailed Hawk -- 55 obs
  2. Bald Eagle -- 14 obs (+1)
  3. Cooper's Hawk -- 8 obs (new to Top 5)
  4. Rough-legged Hawk -- 8 obs (-2)
  5. Northern Harrier -- 7 obs

Top 5 Species (Overall):

  1. Red-tailed Hawk -- 288 obs
  2. Swainson's Hawk -- 62 obs (+4 from last year)
  3. Osprey -- 60 obs (+8 from last year)
  4. Bald Eagle -- 58 obs (+1 from last month; +3 from last year)
  5. American Kestrel -- 55 obs (-1 from last month; -3 from last year)
  6. Cooper's Hawk -- 47 obs (-1 from last year)
  7. Great Horned Owl -- 41 obs (-3 from last year)
  8. Northern Harrier -- 38 obs (+1 from last month)
  9. Turkey Vulture -- 35 obs (-1 from last month; +1 from last year)
  10. Rough-legged Hawk -- 29 obs (-7 from last year)
  11. Golden Eagle -- 17 obs (+1 from last year)
  12. Merlin -- 16 obs (+3 from last year)
  13. Sharp-shinned Hawk -- 16 obs (-4 from last year)
  14. Barred Owl -- 12 obs (+8 from last year)
  15. Prairie Falcon -- 11 obs (+1 from last month; -1 from last year)
  16. Ferruginous Hawk -- 11 obs (-1 from last month; -3 from last year)
  17. Peregrine Falcon -- 9 obs (-1 from last year)
  18. Northern Pygmy-Owl -- 7 obs (-1 from last year)
  19. Northern Saw-whet Owl -- 6 obs (+8 from last month; -1 from last year)
  20. Northern Goshawk -- 4 obs (-1 from last month)
  21. Western Screech-Owl -- 4 obs (-1 from last month)
  22. Barn Owl -- 4 obs (+3 from last month; +8 from last year)
  23. Red-shouldered -- 3 obs (-2 from last month; -4 from last year)
  24. Burrowing Owl -- 3 obs (-2 from last month; +3 from last year)
  25. Long-eared Owl -- 3 obs (-2 from last month; -1 from last year)
  26. Short-eared Owl -- 3 obs (-2 from last month; +2 from last year)
  27. Great Gray Owl -- 2 obs (-1 from last month; -1 from last year)
  28. Flammulated Owl -- 2 obs (First Time in Project)
  29. Broad-winged Hawk -- 1 obs (First Time in Project)

Total Species Overall: 29

Species Missed and Comments:
Quick rundown again for refreshing purposes, there are 35 "expected" raptor species across the project's perimeters. These list was developed by eBird filters, regardless if the species was rare or even never sighted in that county. Here's the ones we missed:

White-tailed Kite: Just like I said last year, this is going to be the hardest species to find. There are only 3 eastern Oregon sightings (none in WA) and none of them are 21st century sightings.

Snowy Owl: We missed this one again, though from my experience, Snowy Owls tend to be a January-February species rather than December.

Northern Hawk-Owl: This is one of the three species that were seen last year but not this year. This is a tough species to get and for me, this is the only owl species I have not seen yet, counting singing Flammulated.

Spotted Owl: Without a doubt this is the hardest species to find because they can be found within the project's perimeters but just to find appropriate habitat on this side of the Cascades is hard.

Boreal Owl: Species two from last year we didn't get. I kept making promises I would chase one down in Oregon but plans kept getting cancelled to the point that appropriate habitat became inaccessible for a vehicle.

Gyrfalcon: I have never seen a Gyrfalcon since I left Montana, so I'm not entirely surprised there wasn't one spotted. Though it seems some had luck last year.

Subspecies:
Subspecies are important for conservational and distribution reasons. There are a few subspecies within raptors and I did my best to identify them. Just because I didn't identify your observation to subspecies doesn't mean I wasn't thinking it. For article length reasons, I will forego species that will absolutely have no chance of being in the project's perimeters (such as Lapland Great Gray Owl). Here we go!

Northern Sharp-shinned Hawk (Accipiter striatus velox) -- 16
Queen Charlotte Sharp-shinned Hawk (A. s. perobscurus) -- 0

Western Red-tailed Hawk (Buteo jamaicensis calurus) -- 136
Harlan's Hawk (B. j. harlani) -- 5
Western/Northern Red-tailed Hawk (B. j. calurus **or* abieticola)* -- 2 (See Final Comments)
Eastern Red-tailed Hawk (B. j. borealis) -- 0
Northern Red-tailed Hawk (B. j. abieticola) -- 0

California Red-shouldered Hawk (Buteo lineatus elegans) -- 3
Eastern Red-shouldered Hawk (B. l. lineatus) -- 0

Taiga Merlin (Falco columbarius columbarius) -- 15
Prairie Merlin (F. c. richardsoni) -- 0
Black Merlin (F. c. sickleyii) -- 0

*Interior Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus lagophus) -- 33
*Pale Great Horned Owl (B. v. subarcticus) -- 0

Pacific Northern Pygmy-Owl (Glaucidium gnoma californicum) -- 0
Rocky Mountains Pygmy-Owl (G. g. pinicola) -- 0
Northern Pygmy-Owl (G. g. californicum **or* pincola)* -- 7 (See Final Comments)

Top 5 Observers (Observations): birdwhisperer (me) 243 obs, @masonmaron 86 obs, @cgates326 77 obs, @the-catfinch 52 obs and @uta_stansburiana 15 obs

Top 5 Observers (Species): cgates326 19 species, birdwhisperer 18 species, masonmaron 13 species, uta_stansburiana 11 species and @brodiecasstalbott 11 species

Counties Missed: Three counties did not get an observation for the project. Ferry and Klickitat, Washington and Wheeler, Oregon.

Final Comments: We do a quick recognition of those who've contributed to the project. To start off, the Observation of the Week goes to cgates326 for a "dark" intermediate morph Western Red-tailed Hawk. This individual is definitely on the heavier marked side of the spectrum, just bringing in more evidence just how variable plumages can be.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67274557

Observation of the Month goes to @csm2020 for a photo of a Barred Owl. This is a though species to find in the Rocky/Blue Mts chain so it's always a special treat to find one. If you want to see one for yourself, look around wooded areas close to water. Especially if that location has tons of frogs.

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/67154545

I would like to thank again everyone who participated. It was fun to do this project again for a second year and see what kind of interesting data we get out of it. In the meantime before the 2021 project begins, there are other projects you can participate in. Project WAfLS (Western Asio flammeus Landscape Survey) will take place this spring to monitor nesting Short-eared Owl across several western US states. I did a grid last spring and was one of the few people in Oregon to not only find owls but copulating Short-eared. Once again, thank you, you guys are great! Good luck in 2021!

https://avianknowledgenorthwest.net/citizen-science/short-eared-owls/53-wafl-project-overview

Sean Cozart -- birdwhisperer

Publicado el viernes, 01 de enero de 2021 a las 08:01 PM por birdwhisperer birdwhisperer

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