The 2009 field seasons kicked off on the 15th with the beginning of the hawk count and owl banding. Arriving on the UP in mid March was a bit of a jolt for all three of us. Nova spent the fall and winter working with the endangered Ocelots in Laguna Atascosa National Wildlife Refuge in TX. I was able to join her in January and February volunteering with the Ocelots and waterfowl surveys. The season's hawk counter John van Dort spent the winter in Central America working with the endangered Golden-cheeked Warbler. Our tans are fading quickly.
As John is currently the only daytime field staff the sightings blog might not be seeing much activity for a few weeks. However, he is doing a great job with the new WPBO hawk count blog, including non-raptor sightings. The link is still not up on our homepage, but it is currently in the link section on all our blogs. Things are beginning to happen so check out the hawk and owl blogs to see what's going on up here. For instance, right now at 3AM it's snowing so we need to go close the owl nets, ugh.
