(West Glacier) – Glacier National Park is hosting its annual Mount Brown Hawk Watch program on October 14th form 11am to 3pm. Gina Icenoggle the public information officer for Glacier National Park talks about the event.
“Glacier National Park is hosting our annual Mount Brown Hawk Watch program it will be on October 14th from 11pm to 3pm and anyone who is interested in participating can meet near the Jammer Joe’s restaurant in the parking lot of Lake McDonald Lodge there will be a sign there showing the golden eagle interpretive sign and you can just meet near that sign and learn about counting migrating raptors.”
She continues by talking about what people can do during the event.
“Anyone who wants to volunteer will be able to meet with park biologists and they will learn how to identify and count migrating raptors. Biologists will be available there along with our park volunteers to answer any questions that volunteers would have about the integral role of raptors in our ecosystem, the risks they face, and why we started the Mount Brown Hawk Watch program. We also will have educators from the Montana Wild Wings Recovery Center who will be on site with live raptors from 12am to 2pm to get a close-up look at some of the Raptor species that migrate past Mount Brown here in the park.”
She goes on to talk about the history of the program.
“In the mid-90s biologist documented nearly 2,000 golden eagles that migrated pass Mount Brown annually and recent data from outside of Glacier National Park indicated a significant decline in golden eagle numbers. Because of that concern the park initiated a citizen science raptor migration program in 2011 to investigate possible locations for a hawk watch site. The hawk watch site was established here at Glacier National Park and it’s part of an international effort of people who are serving as observers and counters record date color behavior of raptors as well as weather environmental conditions.”
She finishes by explaining why the program is important.
“This event is important so that we can document and identify golden eagle migration routes that come directly through Glacier National Park as well as some of the other raptors. It helps us take part in an international effort to track populations and see whether or not there are indeed declines in some of the numbers of migrating eagles.”
