Birders,

Those of you interested in hawk migration will enjoy reading the
following summary by Laird Law of Prince George, BC., forwarded from
the NCENBIRD group. The account is based on observations near Stoner,
located about 35 km south of Prince George in central BC.

Anyone interested in contacting Laird directly for more details can
reach him by E-mail at aa787 at pgfn.bc.ca .

Wayne C. Weber
Kamloops, BC
contopus at home.com



----- Original Message -----
From: Laird Law <aa787 at pgfn.bc.ca>
To: <ncenbird at strider.pgfn.bc.ca>
Sent: Friday, May 18, 2001 3:12 PM
Subject: Stoner hawks


> Prince George Hawk Migration
>
> In April 1999 Sandra and I found a spot near Stoner where a lot of
> eagles and hawks were passing over on their way north. This year I
> decided I would spent some time at Stoner to see if it had been a
> one time movement or if the birds use the area as a migration route.
> The site is located at 2.6 km of the Stoner Forest Service Road, 1
> km south of Stoner and east of Hwy 97, 35 km south of Prince
> George.

> On 8 days in March and 17 days in April, for a total of 25 days. I
> spent 96 hours watching the skys in all kinds of weather, mostly
> cold and windy. I averaged 3.75 hours per day. A total of 492
> indviduals of 11 species were observed. The number of raptors per
> day varied from 1 to 81. April 7 was the best day with 81 raptors
> recorded in 4.5 hours. On the five best days there were 239 raptors
> observed moving north.

> Bald Eagles were the most numerous with a total of 162 (83 adults
> and 79 immatures), then 93 Red-tailed Hawks, 90 Sharp-shinned
> Hawks, 35 Golden Eagles, and 33 Northern Harriers.
> March 26 saw the first Sharp-shinned Hawk, with low numbers most
> days until April 16 with 21, and 16 on April 26. April 1 and 7 saw
the
> best movement of Bald Eagles with 25 and 28, respectively,
> heading north. Fourteen of the twenty five days had Golden Eagles
> recorded, with 6 on April 7. The best days for Red-tailed Hawks
> were April 1 and 7, with 17 and 27 seen. Northern Harriers were
> seen on eleven days with 6 on April 13. The first day for Osprey and
> American Kestrel was April 18. The big surprise was 6 Cooper's
> Hawks, one on March 26, and another 5 between April 18 and 26.
> Not only raptors were passing north at this spot as I also observed
> 1279 birds of 37 non-raptor species. Of interest were 416 Canada
> Geese, 51 Sandhill Cranes, 6 Red-necked Grebes, and one Long-
> billed Curlew. Also one Sharp-tailed Grouse going west to east.
> Thanks to the six members of the Prince George Naturalists Club
> that came down and spent some time at Stoner watching the skys
> with me, helping to add to the raptor total: Helen Antoniazzi, Dan
> Dunlop, Nancy Kruger, Sandra Kinsey, Jack and Carolyn McGhee.
>
> Bald Eagle adult 83 Cooper's Hawk 6
> Bald Eagle imm 79 Northern Goshawk 1
> Golden Eagle adult 17 accipiter sp 3
> Golden Eagle imm 16 Red-tailed Hawk 93
> Golden Eagle unaged 2 Rough-legged Hawk 17
> eagle sp 3 buteo sp 10
> Osprey 11 American Kestrel 3
> Northern Harrier 33 Merlin 11
> Sharp-shinned Hawk 90 raptor sp 14
>
> Laird Law
> PG
>