Birding for a Cause
In 2024, the Harris Center’s “Kestrels” won top honors in Mass Audubon’s Superbowl of Birding, a friendly annual birding competition to see who can find the greatest number of bird species (and score the highest number of points) on a single day in coastal New Hampshire and Massachusetts. The team’s larger goal was to raise funds for American Kestrel conservation. Because of your generous donations, we were able to build, install, and monitor 21 new kestrel nest boxes throughout the Monadnock Region. In late summer, 17 kestrel fledglings — banded as nestlings — left the protection of those nest boxes and burst forth into the wide world.
The Harris Center team won the Director’s Cup in the 2025 Superbowl of Birding. (courtesy photo)
On January 25, 2025, the Harris Center’s Team, “The Broad-wings,” competed in Mass Audubon’s Superbowl of Birding. The group won the Director’s Cup for most species recorded in a 12-hour period during the 22nd anniversary of this competitive birding event.
The team, comprising Eric Masterson, Cliff Seifer, Chris McPherson, Greg Tillman, and Stuart Varney, managed to see or hear 78 species from dawn to dusk — a pretty remarkable total for late January. Highlights included a rare wintering Baltimore Oriole (courtesy of Bob and Karen Dudra in Exeter) and an American Bittern at perhaps the only open water fishing hole in Hampton.
The team was competing to raise money to tag additional Broad-winged Hawks with satellite transmitters this summer, which will cost $5,000. This crucial project is giving researchers important insights into migratory behavior and conservation needs. Please consider making a gift to the Harris Center to support this important cause!
In 2024 the Harris Center documented six Broad-winged Hawk nests. (photo © Chuck Carlson)
Protecting Hawks Through Cutting-Edge Research
Broad-winged Hawks are remarkable long-distance migrants, traveling thousands of miles each year between their nesting grounds in North America and wintering sites in Central and South America. But these hawks face growing threats, from habitat loss to rodenticides, and populations are declining in parts of the eastern U.S.
Since 2021, a partnership between the Harris Center and Hawk Mountain Sanctuary in Pennsylvania has enabled researchers to track Broad-winged Hawks using satellite telemetry and to uncover key insights about their migratory routes, habitat needs, and life cycles. In 2025, we hope to expand this research by placing transmitters on 2-3 adult male Broad-winged Hawks in New Hampshire and color-banding additional birds. The study will help us understand their migration patterns, stopover habitats, and conservation needs.
We need your help to raise at least $5,000 for this critical project. Your donations will fund GPS transmitters, as well as fieldwork. Together, we can ensure a brighter future for Broad-winged Hawks!
If you have any questions, please contact our Bird Conservation Director Phil Brown at (603) 525-3394 or by email.
