Radiotelemetry 2007: A brief update on GGRO's ongoing, multi-year Radiotracking study

VAN GOGH, juvenile female Red-tailed Hawk click here for photos of Van Gogh's release! Monday, November 12: A juvenile female Red-tailed Hawk became the new Radio-tracking bird today.  She was named “Van Gogh” and released from Hawk Hill at 14:13.  She spent the rest of the day in the Headlands, with the last signal coming at 19:00 from the Rifle Range area. Tuesday, November 13:  After spending the morning in the Headlands, Van Gogh began heading down the East Bay.  The last bearings were obtained at 16:00, pointing toward Union City.  Wednesday, November 14: Van Gogh spent the day moving south, and has ended up in King City!! The bird is moving south! Wednesday, November 14:  Van Gogh did GO!  The first bearings of the morning, taken from Mt. Hamilton, pointed toward the southeast, so the other two teams headed south as well.  Mt. Hamilton had good signals in the morning, but they lost contact around noon.  Luckily, one of the teams had gotten far enough south to pick up the signal, which pointed toward Soledad!  All three teams converged in the area (northeast of Los Padres National Forest) in the afternoon, and the last bearings of the day placed the bird between Greenfield and King City. Thursday, November 15:  The teams had good signals until 13:30, with the last cross-bearing pointing east of King City, just south of Panoche Valley.  The teams believe that Van Gogh probably went east over the ridges, and they weren’t able to pick up another signal before evening fell.  Friday, November 16:  Midday report: the teams are all stationed at high points around Panoche Valley and Salinas Valley, with a plan to start combing the roads at 14:00 if they haven’t picked up a signal by then. UPDATE: One team had signals from Idria peak until 12:30, with northeast bearings. Saturday, November 17:  End of the season: unfortunately, no signals on Van Gogh were obtained today.

UTAH, juvenile male Red-tailed Hawk Friday, November 2:  A juvenile male Red-tailed Hawk was banded at Hill 88 blind, and then affixed with a small radio-tracking device.  He was christened “Utah” and released at 1:38 PM.  The three teams then tracked him down to the Daly City/Colma area, where he stopped for the night. Saturday, November 3:  Utah continued south along the coast, ending up near San Gregorio beach along Route 1.  The teams were able to stay with him all day, but no visual contact was obtained. Sunday, November 4:  The last cross-bearing placed Utah somewhere near Los Gatos at 2:45 PM.  The teams lost track of him at that point, most likely because he found a low roost spot hidden among the hills.  Monday, November 5:  Utah was found!  The team on Mt. Hamilton had signals all day, and the team down on Fremont Peak was able to get a signal pointing up toward Mt. Hamilton toward the end of the day.  His exact location isn’t known, but he’s within range. Tuesday, November 6: Cross-bearings for Utah pointed to the Hollister area.  Roost site was found north of Hollister, up Route 25, near Gilroy.    Wednesday, November 7: In the morning, Utah stayed in Hollister, and one visual sighting was obtained.  Later in the day, the bird started moving towards Morgan Hill. Thursday, November 8:  Utah was still in Morgan Hill, and the teams were receiving mostly vertical readings (indicating that he was perched). Friday, November 9:  Utah meandered up the 101 corridor from Morgan Hill to south San Jose.  The last signal of the day came from the Santa Theresa light rail station in south San Jose. Saturday, November 10:  Seeming to like the riparian habitat, Utah spent the whole day in the Coyote Creek area in south San Jose.  Two visual sightings were obtained, including one incredible instance in which he landed less than 50 yards from the chase team.  Sunday, November 11:  Utah continued to hang out in the Coyote-Hellyer County Park area in south San Jose.  He stayed perched for most of the day, and the chase team had visuals continuously from 0830 until 1659! Monday, November 12:  Due to the fact that Utah seems to be stationary, the teams have decided to begin tracking a new bird today. They are currently waiting for a Red-tail capture. Wednesday, November 14:   From Highway 35, near Page Mill Road, the team picked up signals for Utah!  The bearings pointed toward San Jose, just a little bit north of where he had been on Sunday.

The GGRO is a program of the Golden Gate National Parks Conservancy in cooperation with the National Park Service.