Darien: Under the Cuipo Tree!

by Gail Garber,

Executive Director

Ten strong, all of us New Mexico True! We set off for the adventure of a lifetime, at the end of the road and beyond! Our quest was a search for the elusive Harpy Eagle, the national bird of Panama, a powerful bird of prey and one of the largest in the world. Its rear talons are 3-4 inches long, comparable to those of a grizzly bear and its legs as thick as a human’s wrist. With a wingspan of up to 78 inches, it is found only in the rainforests of southern Central America and South America. They are tolerant of habitat disturbance and can persist with a mosaic of pasture and forest fragments. Unfortunately, the greatest threat to Harpy Eagles is direct persecution. Although they can breed close to human settlements, if left undisturbed, they often are shot, either to satisfy curiosity or because of the perceived threat of a large raptor to livestock. It is classified by BirdLife International as “near threatened”. It already is very rare or extirpated from the southern, and, especially, from the northern limits of its range.

Gifted with a long tail, and broad, rounded wings, like many forest raptors including North America’s accipiters, the Harpy Eagle’s wings are well suited to the forest canopy, enabling it to maneuver through dense vegetation with ease, where it hunts for medium-sized arboreal mammals such as sloths and monkeys. Their preferred nesting substrate is the cuipo tree that can reach heights of 40-60 meters (235’) found only in lowland rain forests. Like the Harpy Eagle, the cuipo is listed as “near threatened” due to habitat degradation, and forest clearing where it is overly harvested and illegally logged for lumber, canoes, and the production of rope. One of the largest remaining populations of the cuipo occurs in the Darien province. 

Following hours of relentless rain (it is the rain forest after all!), we set off for the end of the Pan-American Highway where it terminates at the village of Yaviza and boarded the small boat that would take us up the Rio Chucunague. We landed at the home of a native family who worked the expansive ranch and guarded the Harpy Eagle nest that they had found earlier, reporting their find to The Canopy Family as well as researchers at the Peregrine Fund. One of the conservation measures undertaken for this species is to fund locals to protect the species especially near the vulnerable nest sites. 

From there, we walked, slogging through the slippery, boot-sucking mud that challenged our abilities to remain upright. We were offered horses to ride on the journey, but only two of our group accepted that offer, meeting us atop an isolated hilltop overlooking the vast tract of rainforest ahead. Then, we all slogged through the mud, up and down hillsides, beneath the dense canopy. Heat and humidity added to the challenge, and by the time we reached the vicinity of THE cuipo tree, sweat poured down our backs. The view was abysmal! Branches and leaves obscured most of the view toward the nest as we crowded together on the trail, looking and searching for the elusive bird. And then, she materialized, or rather, the lower half of her body including the massive legs and feet did, while her head was obscured among the copious greenery! The nest that held her progeny, the diminutive Harpy Eagle nestling, was nothing short of massive, and the chick was invisible among the branches. 

Our most excellent guides, Eliecer Rodriquez and Oscar Fria, left us to scout for another location where she might be more visible, not an insignificant task given the density of the rainforest! We moved to a new location and there she was, in all her glory, head plumes blowing in the breeze and seemingly oblivious to our presence. The only possible photography was via digiscoping, using cell phone cameras through a spotting scope, thus the poor quality of the image that accompanies this article. We were careful to keep our voices to whispers and to not overstay, thus potentially disturbing the female on the nest. One quick photo of the group, and we began the long slog back to the homestead of the local family, this time with the brutal heat of the full sun bearing down upon us.  As we departed, two vultures flew too low for the eagle’s comfort; thus we thrilled to the reverberating scream of the Harpy Eagle, sending chills down our collective spines. We earned this sighting through sweat and hard work, a memory to last a lifetime. 

Of course, there were many other adventures and stories on our trip, but I will save those for the next issue of the HAI Flyer!

Panama Adventurers: Darlene Benedict, Charles Cummings, Meg and Bruce Peterson, Chellye Porter, Mary Raje, Patti Rosin, Kathleen Ramsay, Sami Sanborn, and yours truly! It was a grand adventure indeed!

Who Won the Quilt?

We drew the winning ticket at our festive, fun and well-attended holiday party on Saturday, Dec. 7. But, so far we have been unable to reach the winner. We'll keep trying but if 30 days pass with no response, we will draw another. Thank you for your patience!

Evelyn McGarry

Volunteer of the Year 2019

We thank all of you who contribute so much to Hawks Aloft. This year, special thanks goes to Evelyn McGarry who tirelessly donates her time and expertise to our nonprofit. Evelyn is our official East Mountain Representative, working with residents in the more rural communities east of the Sandia and Manzano Mountains spreading the word of Hawks Aloft. Evelyn is our 'go-to' person for all raptor rescues in that expansive area where often the injured and orphaned birds not only larger, but often more severely injured due to highway speeds on rural roads. Sometimes, she even drives the rescued bird directly to Espanola or Santa Fe for care at either Cottonwood Rehab or NM Wildlife Center. She conducts school programs one day a week at Bellehaven Elementary alongside Maggie Stein. And, on each Monday, Evelyn spends her afternoon taking care of our educational ambassadors, cleaning and repairing their flight cages.

Thank you, Evelyn, for all that you do!

A Happy Return

by Amelia Thompson, Educator

Hello Hawks Aloft members, staff, and volunteers! It’s been a long time since I have written something for the newsletter, but I am thrilled to be here again as a part time educator. Long-time members may remember me as the educator for Hawks Aloft from 2010-2012 (under my maiden name, Porter. I have since gotten married!). I left to pursue working with reptiles, and then went to graduate school for biology where I decided teaching was my real passion. The timing was right for me to come back and help out with education programs as needed while I pursue my teaching license.

For the past few months I have been working with Maggie S. on some of her Living with the Landscape programs. This was really fun and reminded me just how much I missed doing educational programs. The first week of November we started working at a new school in Las Vegas, NM, the Rio Gallinas School for Ecology and the Arts. I will be doing multiple programs there going forward. Our first visit was a huge success. We were able to visit with all the classes, from Kindergarten through 8th grade. The school is very outdoors-based, and the older grades have done a lot of birding, so they were really interested in getting more in depth information on bird biology and ecology than most kids on the first visit. They were really putting my graduate degree to the test!

           

One of the best parts of returning to Hawks Aloft is getting to know all the new education birds and working with birds that I haven’t seen in years. I’ve been bird sitting for Gail since 2010 so I am familiar with all the birds that she houses, but I had not taken them to education programs. It’s been fun learning all the different temperaments of each bird and how they behave at programs. For instance, Beauty the Turkey Vulture loves to preen her feathers during classroom visits, and Idaho the Swainson’s Hawk is a very chatty bird, making lots of little chirping noises when she is handled. I’m really looking forward to meeting and working with all the new education birds that have found homes at Hawks Aloft in the last few years!

Images by Amelia Thompson

Rest in Peace, Malary

Malary, our female Prairie Falcon, sadly passed away this weekend of unknown causes, but had suffered a variety of health problems over the past three years.

Malary, a juvenile Prairie Falcon, was rescued after colliding with a fence and was unable to be released back in to the wild because her eyesight was compromised and she would never be able to see well enough to hunt. Her right eye had a ruptured lens and her left eye had a cataract. Over time, her eyesight deteriorated further and, at one point, both eyes had cataracts and she was nearly blind. The good eye specialists at Eye Care for Animals, successfully removed the cataracts, donating much of the cost of the procedure, while many of you donated funds to cover the remaining costs. Later, her vision began to regress, but she was still able to see well enough to find her food and navigate comfortably around her mews.

Despite her disability, Malary was full of personality, a wild woman who would have made a wonderful protective bird Mamma had she not have become disabled. And, BOY, did she love her food. Her love of food was a great motivator when she was in training to be an education bird.

Malary and her big beautiful personality will be greatly missed.

Lizzie Roberts, Malary's long-time caretaker, wrote the text above. Malary was housed with Liz since the day she arrived. We thank Liz for her most excellent care and compassion she has provided for the educational birds these past 15 years (or more!) Image by Larry Rimer.

Celebration of Learning

Rio Gallinas School for Ecology & Arts

by Maggie Stein, Education and Outreach Coordinator

The sleepy town of Las Vegas, New Mexico is home to Rio Gallinas School for Ecology and the Arts. This small charter school of kindergarten through eighth grade students strives to create a culture of academic excellence through the use of expeditionary learning. Teachers use this hands-on approach, paired with small class sizes to allow their students to participate in real-world community service projects. This fosters a priority of community and philanthropy within the student-body.

This year, Rio Gallinas has partnered with Hawks Aloft to host education programs for their students to prepare them for the Celebration of Learning: an evening which students present topics they have learned about, along with the service projects they completed during the semester. Hawks Aloft meets with each grade group during our visits, but we have focused extra carefully on our time with the third grade students. These kids are so pumped up to learn all about raptors, and plan to present the new things they have learned from Hawks Aloft at the Celebration of Learning this December. Maggie Dodd is their fabulous teacher who is equally excited as her students to be working so closely with us. 

As mentioned, the students choose a service project to present at the Celebration of Learning, and the third grade class chose to adopt one of our Education Raptors as their semester project. They chose our littlest and one of our newest Education Ambassadors: Cricket the flammulated owl! Not only did they raise money to pay for the adoption fee for Cricket, they are also collecting pennies daily to continue to provide funds for her food and care. (I mean, how stinkin’ cute is that!) Amelia and I will attend the Celebration of Learning this year along with Cricket so the students can introduce her to their families and friends. We are so excited and thankful to be working with these students!

 

A Smaller Winter Field Season Begins

by Trevor Fetz, Lead Avian Biologist

The beginning of December also brings the beginning of the winter field season for the Middle Rio Grande Songbird Study (MRGSS). This will be the 17th winter of the study, but our survey effort will be substantially lower than previous years. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) has been the primary MRGSS funder since its inception in late 2003. But, it sounds like essentially all of the USACE money allocated for research in 2020 has been re-directed by the current administration. Despite the best efforts of Lynette Giesen, project manager at USACE, she was unable to secure any funding. As such, Hawks Aloft will be funding the MRGSS in-house. I will be conducting a large slate of surveys, Gail will conduct most of her normal surveys, and I am grateful for some help from both David Buckley and Mike Hill. But, the very limited funds Hawks Aloft has available to dedicate to the MRGSS does not allow us to hire a full-time field technician, which is one of the things we would need in order to survey all of our transects. I'm hoping we can cover about half of our survey routes this winter. Nevertheless, I'm looking forward to getting into the field and seeing what the bird number are like this winter.

T-shirt Fire Sale!

 

OK! So there wasn't a fire, thankfully! We have inventory that we need to sell and you can get a great deal on some of our past-year T-shirts – all on sale for $15 each…that’s half off!

 

We have cream-colored shirts in long and short sleeve.

Long-sleeve:

Women's (runs small) M,L, and XL. 

Men’s: 2XL and 3XL only. 

Short-Sleeve:

Women’s: L and XL

Men’s: 2X

 

25th Anniversary shirts (Teal)

Short Sleeve:

Women’s XL, 2XL, and 3XL

 

25 ^th Anniversary shirts (Sky Blue)

Short Sleeve:

Men's: M, L, XL, 2XL

Get them while you can!

 

A flat $8 shipping fee will be required, BUT, we will throw in a free Hawks Aloft Coffee mug! You can't beat that!

 

If you would like to order any of these, give us a call at 505-828-9455 (or stop by the office between 9 am - 1 pm weekdays. Save on shipping). 

You can also send us an email at [email protected] .

 

Happy Shopping!

Introducing Our Newest Adventure!

BRAZIL: Wildlife of the Pantanal

& Amazon Rainforest

With Hawks Aloft & Holbrook Travel

November 5 – 14, 2020

Located in west-central Brazil, the Pantanal is the world’s largest freshwater wetland and one of the most biodiverse, productive habitats in the Western Hemisphere. It harbors a world-record 82 species or large birds including Hyacinth Macaw, Jabiru, Toco Toucan, Greater Rhea, Scarlet Macaw as well as coatimundi, tapirs, and giant river otters.

Perhaps, however; no other animal is as beautiful and dramatic as the jaguar. Embark on this exceptional adventure providing opportunities for close range observation of abundant wildlife and the majestic jaguar. 

We will spend our final days of the trip in the heart of the Brazilian Amazon, immersed in the dense tropical forest that is home to the highest concentration of birds species, with over 1,500 described species of rainforest birds. It is home to the Harpy Eagle, Bare-faced Currasow, King Vulture, Hoatzin, Plum-throated Cotinga, Spectacled Owl and much more.  The Amazon is also home to about 430 species of mammal, with more still to be discovered. Among the monkey species that could be seen are: Howler, Spider, Capuchin, Tamarin, Squirrel, Woolly, Uakari, Titi, Marmosets, and Night Monkeys, also called owl monkeys. Of course, aquatic life abounds in this habitat as well as the Pantanal.

Trip Highlights

Click Here for complete details, itinerary, and payment

Only 6 spots remain!

Support Hawks Aloft by Shopping at Smith's!

Many of you have long been Hawks Aloft supporters, and a good number of you have also been longtime Smith’s shoppers. For those not in the know, the grocery chain has a program that provides a small kick-back quarterly to nonprofits when their supporters link their shopper’s cards to the organization.

The company recently changed their policies regarding the program—so even if you’ve signed up in the past, you may need to do it again! The good news is that it is easy to do.

1)      Go to Smith's Foods

2)      Either create an account or sign-in to an existing one

3)      Once logged in, click on “Account Summary” on the left sidebar

4)      From there, scroll down to “Inspiring Donations Program” and click “Enroll”

5)      A searchable list will come up, you can either search for “Hawks Aloft” or enter our ID number for the program, GL430

6)      Shop using your card and now that every time you do so, you help out Hawks Aloft!

We appreciate your ongoing support in this, and so many other capacities!

*Check out intakes and thank-you's after the Photographer's Gallery*

Photographers Monthly Gallery

Featuring

Steve Siegel

Steve Siegel is a long-time birder, videographer and artist. He has shot video of birds for 30 years in every corner of North America and in the tropics. Although any bird is fair game, he especially seeks out nesting and courtship behaviors, singing birds and birds in flight, for which video is particularly well-suited. His material has appeared in productions by National Geographic, Birding Adventures TV, 20 ^th Century Fox and NBC's Today Show, as well as in programs of numerous conservation and education organizations.

Over the past several years he has used his vast store of video material to create paintings. The paintings are done digitally by hand, transferred to canvas and finished as needed in acrylic. Although video is a perfect medium to tell stories, a painting can collect the details, set the mood and let the viewer enter and reflect on the scene better than any type of image.

Steve and his wife, Wendy, are recent transplants to New Mexico from the traffic, humidity, and hurricanes of Florida. When not chasing or painting birds, he is a practicing physician.

Websites:  www.ravenonthemountain.com

                  https://vimeo.com/birdaday

                  https://vimeo.com/channels/304545

                  https://vimeo.com/channels/63878

Images:

We know you will enjoy Steve's paintings, especially selected for this issue. He donated "Among the Arches" to Hawks Aloft to be used as a fundraiser. It is currently displayed in the front of our office.