What are the goals of the Golden Gate Raptor Observatory?
The GGRO studies raptor migration in our “Hawkwatch” to develop data so that we can influence land-use decisions, because the biggest threat to raptors is human encroachment. We promote public awareness of raptors because we’re dedicated to conserving them in healthy populations. Your 250 volunteers — who are they? Our volunteers are businesspeople, housewives, plumbers, writers, financial and computer types. Some are bird-watchers, but many are just interested in raptors. When you get close to these birds, you just get hooked. Describe the data-collecting process. We set up four blinds in the headlands hills, far from the trails and hikers. We capture the raptors here, we quickly band them to keep track of where they’re going and then we release them so that they can continue on their journey. The capture is extremely thrilling — it is like fly-fishing. We use pigeons and starlings as lures to get the hawks to fly into our nets. Many of us are uncomfortable with the use of live lure
