Here is the March 3, 2017 Tweeters post by Bud Anderson that an alert Tweet saved (and I must have passed over). Thanks to Patricia for sending it to me, Bud for posting it on March 3 and Gary Searing for sharing the information and initiating this program. I am reposting this for more of you to see and hopefully be able to use if you spot this bird or any other banded or tagged raptors.

Barb Deihl
Matthews Beach Neighborhood - NE Seattle
barbdeihl at comcast.net

************************

Subject: White 5H Wing-tagged Rough-leg at the West 90 on the Samish Flats
Date: Fri Mar 3 2017 1:05 am
From: falconresearch AT gmail.com
Several people have been seeing this bird lately.


I thought I would forward an e-mail from my colleague, Gary Searing, at the

Vancouver BC airport (YVR) that includes some facts about this bird as well

as some information on his program.


"Thank you for reporting your sighting of 5H. These sightings are very

important to the success of my tagging program.


I tagged her as a juvenile bird at the Vancouver International Airport

(YVR) on 11 February 2017 and released it the next day in Chilliwack, BC as

part of a program to prevent raptors from being struck by aircraft. Yours

is the third sighting of this bird since it was translocated to Chilliwack.

The two previous sightings have been in the same area within the last

couple of days. Let me provide you with some information on the program so

you understand a bit more why we are doing this:


YVR began a program of trapping and removing Red-tailed Hawks and

Rough-legged Hawks in October 2010 in order to prevent them from being

struck by aircraft primarily to improve air safety, but also as a raptor

conservation tool. Each year the airport has a large number of transient

raptors that winter at YVR as well as resident adults and local-raised

young birds. Based on information from SeaTac International Airport in

Washington, we expect that adult residents are least likely to be involved

in collisions with aircraft, but a significant number of young birds and

transient birds are struck each year. Therefore, we are attempting to

remove those birds from the airport environs by capturing them and

releasing them just beyond Chilliwack where there is ample habitat and a

reasonable likelihood that they will not return to YVR. I view this not

only as an air safety program, but also as a raptor conservation program

because, if successful, we may prevent the deaths of a dozen or more birds

each year. We expanded the program in 2013 to all raptors (including owls).

To date we have captured and relocated over 600 birds. Most of them were

relocated to Chilliwack. To date there has been more than 5500 resightings

of my tagged and banded birds. While most of those sightings are of birds

that have returned to YVR, there have been over 300 sightings of 100

different birds away from Sea-Iona Islands by over 150 observers who are

not part of the YVR wildlife management team.



33 American Kestrels

2 Bald Eagles (nestlings)

1 Barred Owl

283 Barn Owls (only a dozen or so have returned to YVR)

86 Cooper's Hawks

29 Great Horned Owls

4 Merlins

7 Northern Harriers (none have returned to YVR)

1

5 Peregrine Falcons

25 Rough-legged Hawks (5 have returned to YVR)

206 Red-tailed Hawks

16 Short Eared Owls (1 returned to YVR)

2 Snowy Owls (1 returned to YVR)

3 Sharp-shinned Hawks

2 Gyrfalcons



Raptors are one of the major strike risks at YVR and we believe that we are

mitigating that risk significantly through the capture and relocation of

raptors.



It is through the sightings of many interested persons such as yourself

that we are able to collect the essential information on bird movements and

distribution and learn how well the measures we are using to manage

wildlife at the airport and elsewhere are working. We are in the process of

developing a new website. The first steps have been taken to allow you to

report your sightings online. Next steps will be to allow you to plot the

location of the bird sighted on a map and finally you will receive instant

feedback on the history of the bird you reported. I hope we can get the

last two aspects of the website working by summer. I will let you know when

it is up and working.



Thank you for your cooperation and your interest. Feel free to contact me

for more information or with any sighting information.



Regards



Gary"

-----------------------------

*Gary F. Searing, M.Sc. Wildlife Hazard BiologistAirport Wildlife

Management InternationalExecutive DirectorBird Strike Committee Canada*



9655 Ardmore Drive

North Saanich, British Columbia

Canada V8L 5H5

Cell: 250.857.5133

Skype: gfsearing

http://www.airportwildlife.ca

http://www.canadianbirdstrike....




Bud Anderson

Falcon Research Group

Box 248

Bow, WA 98232

(360) 757-1911

falconresearch at gmail.com
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