Photo: Jared Hughey, NPS

Who We Are

Updates to the Website

What we have been doing “Stoops” – species action plans

Four completed and in peer review

Metadata database development

Ongoing and expanding!

Expanding ARG membership

Reaching out to everyone researching, studying

and managing Alaska raptors

Steering committee: chair: Carol McIntyre

Secretary: Chris Barger. At large: Travis Booms, M.

Burns, Steve Lewis, John Shook, Denny Zwiefelhofer

Raptor Stoop

A species action plan:

To highlight issues of concern

To present conservation

actions

Goal is to have one for each

raptor within Alaska.

As each is finalized, present

on website; update as

necessary.

Use as a vehicle for updating

the Management Plan for

Alaska Raptors

Call for comments from YOU

coming soon!

Other news!

The Alaska Raptor Group will begin

distributing email newsletters to update

members on news, events and

publications. Look for first ARG

newsletter in January 2018.

Selected Raptor Projects

Denali GOEA, 11 GPS tags on nestlings-migration/risks, pre-breeding population. NPS/USFWS

AK GOEA nest abund/distr. USFWS/ABR/NPS/ADFG.

Nesting Riverine Raptors NPR–A. BLM/ABR

Nesting raptors, Upper Kobuk. WHPacific/ABR

Nesting BAEA, Haines. DOT&PF/ABR

Selected Raptor Projects cont. Seward Pen. Raptor Surveys (500 cliffs). ADFG

Survey of tagged GOEA in western Alaska Range to determine breeding status. ADFG

Monitor previously tagged eagles (~20). ADFG

Seward Pen. GOEA diet, led by UAF undergrad (Jessica Herzog) and PhD student (Joe Eisaguirre). ADFG

Gyrfalcon breeding biology; 2 grad. students doing MS’s on Seward Pen. Peregrine Fund/ADFG

RLHA migration–assisted w/ deploying transmitters Seward Pen. Jeff Kidd/ADFG

Competitive State Wildlife Grant, successful application for a coordinated 3-y study of SEOW across 8 lower-48 states. ADFG

Other news: Falcon specialist

group

The Arctic Falcon

Specialist Group was

recently formed in

response to a request

from the Conservation of

Arctic Flora and Fauna

(CAFF), the biodiversity

group of the Arctic

Council.

Arctic Falcon Specialist Group Gyrfalcon and Peregrine Falcon were

identified as one of the Focal Ecosystem Components for CAFF, and the group is working together to compile information from studies across the circumpolar regions

Chairs: Alastair Franke (U. of Alberta) & Knud Falk (Copenhagen)

AK members: Peter Bente (retired), Travis Booms (ADFG), Carol McIntyre (NPS) and Ted Swem (FWS), Yukon member: Dave Mossop

New techniques book

https://science.peregrinefund.org/applied-raptor-ecology-chapters

Highlights from Raptor Research

Foundation meetings: a sampler Summer ranges, site fidelity, dispersal and migration of

adult and juvenile Rough-legged Hawks from the Seward Pen.: Jeff Kidd, Travis Booms, Chris Barger, Joe Eisaguirre, and Neil Paprocki.

Range and route fidelity of Rough-legged Hawks in North America: Jeff Kidd, Jeff Smith, Travis Booms, Alastair Franke, and Scott Thomas.

The Rough-legged Hawk in North America, a brief summary of ecology and potential future management concerns: Ted Swem.

Dietary plasticity in a specialist predator, the Gyrfalcon: implications for species survival under climate change: Bryce Robinson, Travis Booms, and David Anderson.

Raptor Research Foundation cont. Mechanistic movement model reveals multi-scale

behavioral patterns in a soaring bird during migration: Joe Eisaguirre, Marie Auger-Méthé, Chris Barger, Steve Lewis, Carol McIntyre, Travis Booms and Greg Breed.

Golden eagle migratory behavior in response to Arctic warming. Scott LaPointe, Gil Boher, Sarah Davidson, Elizier Guraire, Peter Mahoney and Natalie Boelman (ABoVE project).

One size does not fit all: what movements of pre-breeding individuals tells us about conserving Golden Eagles in Alaska: Carol McIntyre and Steve Lewis.

Trophic niche partitioning between male and female Golden Eagles in western Alaska: Jessica Herzog, Joe Eisaguirre, Brian Linkhart, and Travis Booms.

Entire program available at: http://www.raptorresearchfoundation.org/files/2017/10/conference_program_2017.pdf

AK Raptor Pubs 2017 Brown, J.L., B. Bedrosian, D.A. Bell, M.A. Braham, J. Cooper, R.H. Crandall, J. DiDonato, R. Domenech, A.E Duerr, T. E.

Katzner, M. J. Lanzone, D.W. LaPlante, C.L. McIntyre, T.A. Miller, R.K. Murphy, A. Shreading, S.J. Slater, J.P. Smith, B.W.

Smith, J.W. Watson and B.Woodbridge. 2017. Patterns of spatial distribution of golden eagles across North America: how do

they fit into existing landscape-scale mapping patterns? Journal of Raptor Research 51: 197-215.

Johnson, J.A., T.L. Booms, L.H. DeCicco, and D.C. Douglas. 2017. Seasonal movements of the short-eared owl (Asio

flammeus) in western North America as revealed by satellite telemetry. Journal of Raptor Research 51:115-128.

Paprocki, N. 2017. Spring 2017 Raptor Migration Report, Gunsight Mountain HawkWatch-Alaska. Unpublished report.

HawkWatch International, Inc. 2240 E. 900 S., Salt Lake City, UT, 84106

Robinson, B.W., N. Paprocki, D.L. Andersen, and M.J. Bechard. 2017. First record of nestling relocation by adult Gyrfalcons

(Falco rusticolus) following nest collapse. Wilson Journal of Ornithology 129: 216-221.

Sonsthagen, S.A., J.C. Williams, G.S. Drew, C.M. White, G.K. Sage, and S.L. Talbot. 2017. Legacy or colonization?

Posteruption establishment of peregrine falcons (Falco peregrinus) on a volcanically active subarctic island. Ecology and

Evolution 7: 107-114.http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/ece3.2631/full

Van Den Bussche, R.A., M.E. Judkins, M.J. Montague, and W.C. Warren. 2017. A resource of genome-wide single nucleotide

polymorphisms (Snps) for the conservation and management of golden eagles. Journal of Raptor Research 51: 368-377.

Wheat, R.E., S.B. Lewis, Y. Wang, T. Levi, and C.C. Wilmers. 2017. To migrate, stay put, or wander. Varied movement

strategies in bald eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus). Movement Ecology 5:9;

https://movementecologyjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s40462-017-0102-4.

Wilson, T.L., L.M. Phillips, and B.A. Mangipane. 2017. Improving bald eagle nest monitoring with a second spring survey.

Journal of Wildlife Management 81: 545-551.

Username: chris

Password: raptors

Normal Data submission

Can be a delay on

recently submitted

metadata

Download entire dataset –

will soon add filters to

allow download…

2017 Information received

RLHA.

MAKE.

GOEA.

MULTIPLE

GYRF

BAEA

GOEA = 4

AMKE = 2

MULTIPLE = 2

GYRF = 2

RLHA = 1

BAEA = 1

2017 Hawk Watch Weekend, hosted by Anchorage

Audubon and Mat-Su Birders, was a huge success

with 230 visitors!

Report is available here:

https://hawkwatch.org/images/stories/Conservation_S

cience/Publications_and_Reports/Technical_Reports

_-_Current_Projects/2017_Gunsight_Mountain.pdf

Highlights from Gunsight Mountain

Hawkwatch, Spring 2017

Count conducted by 2 observers from 7 March to 15 May (67 or 70 days, 516 hours).

Detected 2,468 migrating raptors of 13 species.

The 2017 flight:54% Buteos 29% Eagles, 8% Accipiters, 7% Harriers, 0.02% Falcons, 0.01% Ospreys, and 0.0% unidentified raptors.

The Red-tailed Hawk was the most commonly observed species (45% of the total), Golden Eagle (29%), Rough-legged Hawk (9%), Northern

Harrier (7%), and Sharp-shinned Hawk (5%).

Numbers detected were

lower than numbers in spring

2016 when 3,087 migrating

raptors were detected.

Highlights from Gunsight Mountain

Hawkwatch, Spring 2017

369 people visited the Gunsight

Hawkwatch in 2017.

Visitors also contributed as official

volunteers and their volunteer effort was

valued at close to $60,000!

Most visitors were Alaskans.

Counters did some on-site interpretation

and Neil did two formal presentations.

Exploratory counts: Kluane!

Neil Paprocki and

Rob Spaul

conducted counts.

Over 1,200

migrating golden

eagles detected in

2 wk

ARG Membership is ALWAYS open

New members:

Carol_McIntyre@nps.gov

alaska.usgs.gov/science/biology/bpif