October 2017 Newsletter is Online
Go to www.northcascadesaudubon.org to download the PDF. (Click "Newsletter" in the menu.)
October Events and Field Trips Are Online
Visit our website to see what's coming up this month. Save the dates for special seasonal events such as:
- Winter Birds of Whatcom County: October 7, October 21, and November 4 at several local libraries (see this newsletter issue for location and more information)- Annual Holiday Potluck, December 11- Annual Christmas Bird Count, December 17- New Family Holiday Bird Count, December 30
General Membership Meeting with Ed Deal
This month's exciting membership meeting!
Seattle's Adaptable Urban Cooper's Hawks. 25 years ago, Cooper’s hawks began colonizing urban and suburban landscapes throughout the United States, developing a tolerance for living in proximity to humans. Ed Deal, from the Seattle Cooper’s Hawk Project (SCHP), will provide insights into these common but elusive raptors through photos and videos taken during the breeding season. The SCHP study, one of several in large U.S. cities (e.g., Tucson, Milwaukee and Albuquerque), is monitoring the Seattle population’s nesting density and annual productivity. In addition, a banding program looks at fledgling dispersal, longevity, and adult breeding and winter site fidelity. The results show annual increases in productivity, little evidence of migration, strong site fidelity, and (mostly) short dispersal distances by offspring.You would think someone born in Cooper Hospital and raised in Audubon, New Jersey would be a child prodigy birder. But Ed’s mid-life conversion resulted from taking Bud Anderson’s Hawk identification class in 1991. He went on to volunteer on fall migration hawk banding projects in Nevada, the Florida Keys, Cape May, Diamond Head, and Chelan and Entiat Ridges in Washington. He also volunteered with the Falcon Research Group’s 17-year study of nesting peregrine falcons in the San Juan Islands and just completed his 24th year monitoring nesting peregrines in the Seattle area. For the last six years he has worked with a group of volunteers studying the expanding urban population of Cooper’s hawks in Seattle. He holds a Federal Master Raptor Banding Permit, is a graduate of the Seattle Audubon Master Birder Program, and is a recovering lister.