Glacier National Park Hawk Watch Program Summary Report 2019

Bate, Lisa; Belt, Jami

Glacier National Park (GNP) boasts one of the most important Golden Eagle (GOEA) migration routes in North America. Biologists recorded nearly 2000 GOEA migrating past Mount Brown (MB) annually from 1994 through 1996. Recent trend data from HawkWatch International (HWI) sites outside of GNP, however, indicate significant declines in their numbers, attributed to environmental contaminants, habitat loss, prey declines, and climate change. We are in a position here in GNP, to collect critical data on migrating GOEA numbers to aid in the population assessment and conservation of GOEAs. While GOEAs are our focal species, we collect data on all migrants following HWI protocols to aid in the conservation of all raptors and to provide a transformational wildlife experience to visitors, volunteers, and staff. In 2018, we initiated the MB Hawk Watch program, with a goal to assess whether numbers of GOEAs migrating through GNP had stayed the same as numbers counted in the mid-1990s. We surveyed migrating raptors from two locations. One location was near the Lake McDonald (LMD) Lodge in front of Jammer Joe’s parking lot where biologists had surveyed GOEAs in the mid-1990s. The second, and main location, was on the MB Trail about 800 feet below the MB Lookout.