Daily Archives: October 24, 2023

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Winter Raptor Survey Project route vacancies

Hi Everyone,

Back at the beginning of this month I posted a list of available routes to survey in our Winter Raptor Survey Project sponsored by the East Cascades Audubon Society based in Bend, OR.  Last winter we wound up surveying 551 routes covering more than 32,000 miles of transects throughout all of OR, ID, WA, the northern portions of CA and UT, and western MT.  A total of 450+ volunteers survey these routes once a month during December thru February with additional optional survey months available for November and March.

We are about to enter our 20th survey season and I still have several routes in your state available that need a volunteer to do surveys and I would be grateful if some of you would like to take on a route or two  this winter 🙂  I have done these route advertisements on IBLE in past years and have been successful in securing help, hopefully some of you will keep that success going:)

Here is the list of routes with their corresponding lengths:

Winchester                             73 miles
Nezperce                               71
Moscow South                       56
Troy – Deary                          78
Coeur d’Alene                       75
Churchill – Oakley                  68
Jerome North                         63
Richfield                                 44
Heyburn                                 41
Acequia                                 39
Rupert North                         69
Rupert East – Minidoka         55
Burley East – Lake Walcott   67
Burley SW                            51
Burley SE                             34
Albion                                   36
Raft River – Idahome            65

There are only a few requirements to participate:

1.  I ask that volunteers commit to doing one survey per month for the three primary months of December thru February, surveys can also be done in November and March but these are optional months.  More than one survey can also be done for any given month as an additional option

2.  Volunteers should be comfortable with IDing the common species of raptors in your chosen area and be willing to increase your knowledge of these regal birds

3.  You should have at least a pair of binoculars to help you spot and ID birds, a spotting scope would be nice to have but not a requirement

4.  Survey dates are determined by each volunteer based on their monthly life schedules and hopefully to skirt inclement weather when birds can be sheltered and out of view

If this sounds like something you would like to do, please email me as soon as you can with your choice of route(s), to be fair I will fill the routes on a first come first served basis.  I will then provide you with the necessary material to get you properly prepared for what you will be doing:)

I would really like to make this 20th season something special and filling these routes will be a big part of that effort, looking forward to hearing from you soon, thank you 🙂

Jeff Fleischer
Project Developer / Coordinator
Winter Raptor Survey Project
East Cascades Audubon Society – Bend, OR