Hi Everyone,

A couple weeks ago, I posted the availability of several raptor survey routes for our Winter Raptor Survey Project sponsored by the East Cascades Audubon Society chapter in Bend, OR. I was able to fill those routes and would like to offer a couple more to anyone interested in joining this very large citizen science project. We currently have 518 active routes covering more than 30,000 miles of transects surveyed each month by more than 425 primary volunteers throughout WA, OR, ID, and parts of CA, UT, and MT.

Specifically, I am looking for volunteers to take on the San Juan Island and Lopez Island routes that I have put together. Ideally, it would be great to have residents of these two islands to offer their help so as not to have to rely on winter ferry travel from the mainland. With that said, anyone interested is welcome to offer their help :). The San Juan route is about 85 miles long which would take the better part of a day to complete. The Lopez Island route is around 55 miles long which could be covered in half a day.

We ask our volunteers to commit to doing one survey each month during December through February, with November and March also available as additional survey options. Participants should be comfortable with raptor ID and have at least binoculars to be able to search for and ID birds (spotting scopes would be a plus but not mandatory). Surveys can be scheduled so as not to conflict with your normal monthly life schedules, this flexibility can also navigate around any inclement weather that will force birds to seek shelter and thus be difficult to find.

If this sounds like an experience/activity that you would like to be involved with, please contact me as soon as possible to get your route choice. I will provide additional details to get you prepped for the survey work you will be doing. This season's survey effort is now underway so if you wish to do your first survey this month, time will be of the essence to get signed up. Thank you,

Jeff Fleischer
Project Coordinator
Winter Raptor Survey Project
East Cascades Audubon Society - Bend, OR (project sponsor)

Email: raptorrunner97321 at yahoo.com