This video shows HawkWatch International’s lead raptor bander, Amanda Hancock, releasing a first year Sharp-shinned hawk up at Chelan Ridge. Captured birds are measured, banded and released.
This was during an NCW Audubon field trip on September 25, 2022, when we visited this particular HawkWatch site. Our group saw several raptors from the observation deck that day and 5 different species, one of which was a very dark-morphed Merlin that flew directly above us before soaring down the ridge to the South.
Crew leader Gary Palmer noted that this has been a good year for sighting raptors up at the Ridge as the total counts are running slightly higher than usual. Counts per season typically range between 2,000-3,000 migrants and up to 17 species.
HawkWatch International, in partnership with the USFS Okanogan-Wenatchee National Forest, began annual standardized counts at the site in 1998 to monitor and learn more about raptors migrating through the east Cascades of Washington within the Pacific Coast Flyway.
The Chelan Ridge HawkWatch station will stay open barring bad weather until October 27th and they welcome visitors. At: Hawkwatch International – Home you can get directions to the site and learn much more about the organization.