The Winter Raptor Survey Project (WRSP) is sponsored by the East Cascades Bird Alliance based in Bend, Oregon. The project was originally designed to survey only areas throughout Oregon to determine density and distribution of the various wintering raptor species and monitor changes from year to year. A desire to understand how Oregon birds fit in with the rest of the Pacific NW has led to a formidable expansion of the project. The WRSP is an incredible display of citizen science in serious action! The first year the project had 79 routes. By the end of this past winter (2025-6), our 22nd, that number had grown to 654 routes covering over 35,000 miles of transects and surveyed by just over 500 project volunteers throughout all of OR, ID and WA, the northern tier of CA and UT, the western half of MT, and the southern portions of British Columbia.

This presentation will offer the viewers a chance to see how this project was developed and how it has expanded over the years. It is full of wonderful photographs of all 31 species that have been found during more than 25,000 project surveys. Most of the photos were taken by project participants, which makes this project a very personal experience for everyone involved. In addition to the photos, there will be accompanying charts and maps that help display the data that has been collected over the years.

Jeff Fleischer attended Oregon State University to pursue a Wildlife Management degree. He worked during the summers as a Student Trainee for the US Fish and Wildlife Service on three different western refuges. Upon graduation, he worked at Malheur NWR and Klamath Basin NWR where he developed a keen interest in birds of prey. He then moved to Albany, Oregon, where he spent time birding and ultimately developing a feel for how important Linn County was for wintering birds of prey. Linn County is known as the grass seed capital of the world and as such supports a tremendous rodent population. Many winter days spent in the field yielded sightings of hundreds of birds of prey attracted to this food base. The wildlife survey work that he accomplished while working on the refuges created a desire to more formally census these wintering birds. This led to the creation of the current Winter Raptor Survey Project.