Super flyway

Mount Aeneas ridge a worthy spot for raptor watching

On a ridge near Mount Aeneas, overlooking the Flathead Valley, Dan Casey has found the perfect perch for watching a super flyway for migrating raptors.

Casey, regarded as a leading birding authority and the regional field representative for the American Bird Conservancy, suspected last year that the ridge might be a good spot for a "hawk watch."

"My wife, Susannah, and I have been hiking up here most falls and every time we did we would see some hawks," he said by cell phone from the ridge. "I just kind of wondered if it might be worthwhile to see if it would be a good monitoring site."

So the Caseys put some time into it last fall, and on one day, they observed 168 hawks passing by in less than five hours.

"That's what made it gel for me, to think that this would be a worthwhile site," said Casey, who went on to organize a formal monitoring effort that has been underway every day since Sept. 12.

The "Jewel Basin Hawk Watch" has relied heavily on volunteers, most of them associated with Flathead Audubon, and the Caseys have put in considerable time on the ridge.

"We've seen over 1,100 birds this year, and more than half of them have been three species," he said. Those species are in a family of small hawks known as accipitors - the Cooper's Hawk, the sharp-shinned Hawk and the northern goshawk.

Casey, who is the long-time organizer of the annual Bigfork Christmas Bird Count, said the monitoring site high up on the Swan Mountain Range is turning out to be a premier site for accipitors.

"So far, it looks like this will have higher numbers of accipitors and a greater variety of raptors" than other well-established hawk watch sites in Montana as well as other western states, Casey said.

The monitoring effort has identified 17 species of raptors, including 50 golden eagles, 14 peregrine falcons, merlins, kestrels and lots of red-tailed hawks.

"The rarest bird that we've had so far is the broadwinged hawk, which is much more common in the Eastern United States," Casey said.

"What I've been pleased with is we've had a good, consistent variety, which makes it interesting," he said. "You don't know what the next bird might be."

The monitoring site has perfect attributes for observing raptors that prefer migrating long distances at high altitudes, with the help of uplift from valley winds that rise along mountain fronts.

For starters, there is the convenience of getting to an elevation of 5,400 feet from the Camp Misery parking lot, a main access into the Jewel Basin Hiking Area.

"It just happens to be a good spot for the birds that are really focusing on the ridgeline. It's a great spot to verify their identification," Casey said, noting that birds can be seen at a good distance coming from the north and many pass as close as 50 yards from the site. "Some of them have been really close fly-bys, so that's been pretty exciting."

Incoming cold fronts with winds in the valley can produce "bursts of birds" passing close to the monitoring site, Casey said.

"We had one hour with 57 birds, which is quite remarkable," he said. "That's basically a bird per minute."

Many of the smaller hawks are flying huge distances on migrations that will end in Mexico or Central America. Other species, such as eagles, are on shorter migrations that will end in the Southwestern U.S.

The monitoring program was made possible by a $1,500 grant from Plum Creek Timber Co. The money will go toward paying a part-time field technician to monitor on days when there are no volunteers, to produce a report when this monitoring season is finished, and to leverage funding for next year's monitoring program.

Maintaining a consistent daily monitoring effort through the end of October is crucial, Casey said.

"I'm thinking we might see 2,000 or maybe 2,500 birds up here for the season," he said.

Reporter Jim Mann may be reached at 758-4407 or by e-mail at jmann@dailyinterlake.com