Atop Hawk Hill with Allen Fish

Interview by Stefan Marti

Allen with son Jack Fish.   Credit: A Fish.

How long have you been working with GGRO and how has the organization grown and developed in this time?

Since 1985.  GGRO was being developed when I was brought aboard.  The GGNRA and Parks Conservancy staff were collaborating to forge a community-involvement citizen biology effort to monitor and track the Headlands hawk migration.  I was the first staff person. We had 110 banders then.  Today we have about 300 volunteers and 3 staff and the Conservancy and GGNRA are our co-parents.  It's a great sample of a hybrid public-private organization.

Looking at your data from the past twenty years, what trends/observations have you noticed.  Are populations changing?

Populations are changing, but twenty years is just a blip on the chart.  Most obvious is the increases in Peregrines since the 1970s.  Also, there seems to be a rise in Merlins, possibly Cooper's Hawks.  We're knee-deep in an analysis of our 20 year population trends, with assistance from the US Forest Service.   There are many statistical stories to examine, such as number of observers, degree of fogginess in a season, all sorts of local climatic variables, observer skill, etc.  Wait until 2036 -- the fifty-year story will be incredible.

When monitoring raptors, how do you keep from recounting the same birds?

You don't.  You don't purport to count individuals.  You count raptors per hour.

How does monitoring the raptor population reflect on the rest of the bird/wildlife population?

Good question.  Hypotheses abound about raptors being sentinels of some local habitat or ecosystem, but little work has been done in this area. Here is one of the first real studies in how conserving raptors protects biodiversity.

FMSA's award-winning program, Beach Watch, sends citizen scientists to survey beaches along California's coast - nearly 20% of the entire coastline.  How do raptors interact with ocean (Farallones National Marine Sanctuary) wildlife?

Turkey Vultures live on washed-up carrion to a great extent.  Osprey and bald eagles may hunt in shallow lagoons, such as Limatour and Bolinas.  Peregrines of course are very maritime; some observers even call them "pelagic".  A GGRO-banded Peregrine was observed tail-chasing a second Peregrine near the Farallones a few years back.  Peter Pyle, a scientist who has spent many years at the Farallon Islands, witnessed both birds as they eventually skidded into the Ocean and did not rise again.  One had been banded just months earlier by GGRO.

When raptors migrate through the Golden Gate, where are they going?

Long distance:  Tierra Del Fuego, Argentine pampas, Chilean coast, Amazon, Baja, mainland Mexico, Central America, Southern California, Shasta, Oregon, Washington state, British Columbia.

Short distance:  Salinas Valley.  Big Sur, South San Joaquin, Sierra foothills, Lake Tahoe, Mendocino and throughout the Bay Area.

When radiotracking raptors, how far and long can you track them? 

We have developed tracking tools and systems that allow us to track a hawk for up to three months after we handle it.  Sometimes we can "hear" a hawk's radio signal at 20 miles.

What have you learned from radiotracking?

More than I can say.  That hawks may travel up to 70 miles a day. Some go North, some go south, some east.  Some seem able to hone in on high prey concentrations without obvious (human-obvious) clues.  Hawks can fly in pea soup fog.  Hawks can fly in the night time.  Cooper's Hawks may wait next to a Martinez chicken coop for weeks trying to figure out how to get in.

What are the greatest threats to raptors?

You and me.  Habitat loss.  Climate change.

 

To learn more about GGRO, go to www.ggro.org or call (415) 331-0730.