We are about to begin migration monitoring! Our hawkwatch volunteers will be on Hawk Hill daily from August 15th through December 5, 2011 (heavy fog cancels). Unfortunately, it is too late to join us as a volunteer for the 2011 season. If you would like to be alerted next spring when we begin recruiting new hawkwatcher and banding volunteers, please send an email to ggro@parksconservancy.org. And come visit Hawk Hill in the meantime!
Volunteers must be able to commit to one regular day every two weeks
between mid-August through early December; all training is provided.
Volunteer activities take place in the Marin Headlands. Hawkwatch volunteers should be 18 years of age (or have a parent/guardian with them); all training is provided.
For more information, call GGRO at (415) 331-0730 between 9 am and 5
pm Mon-Fri
Hawkwatchers scan the sky and count migrating hawks from Hawk Hill as they pass through the Headlands. Trainings occur at the end of June, and in July; the count starts mid-August and goes through the beginning of December. Hawkwatchers meet in the Headlands at about 8:45 and count from 9:30 to 3:30 on Hawk Hill, then come back to the office to do some paperwork before leaving at 4 or 4:30. (Weather permitting; on heavy fog days Hawkwatchers usually wait around a bit to see if it will clear, or sometimes they end up quitting early after being able to start on time.)
Banders sit in small banding blinds in the hills of the Headlands, trap and band raptors and take measurements on them. Trainings and workdays are more rigorous for banders, so there is a bit of a larger commitment. The trainings occur on weeknights and weekends in July and into the beginning of August. Bander field days generally start at 7:45a.m. and last sometimes until the evening, depending on weather and bird activity. Their season is the same as the Hawkwatch — mid-August through the beginning of December.
Radiotelemetrists place a radio tag on a hawk and follow its movements for as long as possible. The season is short, just two weeks in the middle of the migration, but it is intense work, lasting all day every day. There is also a bit of work and training involved to prepare for the season. We ask our telemetrists to have at least one year’s experience volunteering as a GGRO bander or hawkwatcher before they become telemetrists.