2012 Annual Report - New Hampshire Audubon

The 2012 Season2012 marked the eighth consecutive fall of full-time operation of the Pack Monadnock RaptorMigration Observatory, a season chock-full of old pleasures and fresh surprises, terrific efforts by ateam of experienced volunteers, and the arrival of many new, enthralled faces to the hawk-watchplatform. Most of all it was full of migrating birdsof prey: 12,038 of them, to be precise, all passingthrough southern New Hampshire betweenSeptember 1 st and October 31 st , the official countperiod, with another 286 migrants tallied in lateAugust and early November. The overall total isthe second-highest in the eight years of datacollection, and totals for every individual specieswere above average. What’s more, seven of thefourteen species of raptor regularly occurring atPack were seen in record numbers in 2012,including the Osprey, Bald Eagle, and PeregrineFalcon. And as if that were not enough, two newspecies of raptor, Swainson’s Hawk and Rough-Legged Hawk, were recorded at the site for the firsttime. In all, 97 species of bird put in an appearancearound the observation platform this year, fromCape May Warblers in early September toBohemian Waxwings and Pine Grosbeaks in mid-November, not to mention the snakes, butterflies,insects, mammals (including a short-tailed weasel),Photo by Jo-Ann Matthewsmushrooms, ferns, and ever-shifting cloud formationsthat would transform the most single-minded hawk-watcher into a full-fledged naturalist. One canhardly imagine, on first arriving at this little granite outcrop at 2300 feet above sea-level, surroundedby thick red-spruce woods and open to the north wind, that the Pack Monadnock Observatory shouldso teem with life, but time and again the place reveals itself to be one of the crown jewels of southernNew Hampshire.History and MissionThe Observatory was founded in 2005 by Iain MacLeod and has since been operated by NewHampshire Audubon with a two primary purposes: to gather quantifiable information on raptormigration through the region, and also to serve as an educational classroom, both for students and thegeneral public, informing visitors about raptor biology, habitat, and the relationship between humansand birds of prey. Both goals are consistent with New Hampshire Audubon’s stated mission, “toprotect New Hampshire’s natural environment for wildlife and for people.”2