It’s the gray bird with the rusty-colored breast and the blood red eyes. She’s the one that greets you each morning when you leave for work with a hearty Kek-kek-kek! She likes that big tree in the park too but spends much of her time hanging out in your back yard. Interestingly, no little songbirds come to your feeder while she is around. She is a Cooper’s Hawk, our most common urban nesting raptor. They seem to be in every neighborhood that has at least one large tree. Each year, they raise 1-4 babies. If you are lucky, you might get to watch them grow up, from little white puff balls to gangly, long-legged youngsters flapping furiously on the side of the nest. Later, you might see them learning to hunt, chasing everything that moves, but rarely catching anything.

Hawks Aloft is conducting a study of the hawks and owls that nest in your neighborhood and also in the Middle Rio Grande bosque. This includes Great Horned Owls, American Kestrels, Swainson’s and Red-tailed Hawks, Screech Owls and Burrowing Owls in addition to Cooper’s Hawks. We are seeking volunteers who are willing to locate and observe nests throughout the breeding season (April – August). These citizen scientists will be responsible for visiting the active nest or nests that are nearby and documenting nesting activity such as when the female is incubating, when young can first be seen, the number of young and the dates that they leave the nest.

We will conduct a free training class for citizen scientists:
Thursday, March 15 6:00 – 8:00 p.m.
New Mexico Department of Game and Fish
3841 Midway Place NE, Albuquerque, NM 87109

We also seek volunteers to work with our education program, assisting with programs to schools in the community and outreach booths geared to the general public. We hold raptor handling training classes at 10:00 a.m. on the third Saturday of each month (March 17, etc.) at our office, located at 6715 Eagle Rock Avenue NE, STE A.

For more information or to register for one or more classes, please call 505-828-9455 and ask for Amelia, Cristy, or Gail.