Project Spotlight: Goshute Peak

The view from high in the Goshute Mountains

Today’s WV service project spotlight falls in Elko County in the Northeast corner of Nevada. Altering the path of Interstate 80 is the Toano Range and Goshute Mountains, offering the distinctly rugged and remarkable beauty of the Great Basin. Steep canyons boast rich biologically diverse forests of juniper, fir and many varietals of pine.  The region presents terrific recreation opportunities, including backpacking, hiking, and climbing. 

Photo by Jerzy Strzelecki

Our project is in the Goshute Peak Wilderness Study Area (WSA) in the southern half of the range, and along with neighboring Bluebell WSA to the north, present vital habitat and navigational pathways to migrating raptors. The Goshute Mountain Range is part of a critical international skyway for migrating birds traveling with the seasons. We’ve partnered on this project with Hawkwatch International, a nonprofit that runs the important Goshute Mountains Raptor Migration Project each fall, tracking up to 25,000 raptors from 18 species over the course of seven weeks. 

Photo courtesy of Hawkwatch

The Hawkwatch Field Station, which will serve as the WV basecamp, offers striking, broad views in the clear high desert sky. Our service project will provide needed trail maintenance on the Goshute Peak trail, the only path to the station, allowing safe access for our partner’s important scientific work. This service project will help keep researchers and volunteers safe on their hike to and from the field station. This is one of the largest concentrations of raptors on one of the most important migration corridors in the world and maintaining the trail is key to the efficiency and safety of those that study it. Learn more and sign up for the first Wilderness Volunteers Service trip to Goshute Peak WSA. 

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Given the cold winter weather occupying much of the country currently and thinking of migrating birds, we’ll end this post with these fitting, eloquent words from Rachel Carson:

The moon at sunset in Goshute Peak WSA

Those who dwell, as scientists or laymen, among the beauties and mysteries of the earth are never alone or weary of life. […] There is symbolic as well as actual beauty in the migration of the birds, the ebb and flow of the tides, the folded bud ready for the spring. There is something infinitely healing in the repeated refrains of nature - the assurance that dawn comes after night, and spring after the winter." 

Rachel Carson in The Sense of Wonder

Hey...What's Hedwig Doing Here?

A snowy owl in New Jersey

In keeping with the recent raptor theme, here's a neat article on a fascinating development taking place right now in the northern United States. Birders call it the snowy owl irruption.

Translation: a lot of snowy owls.

Unless you've been to the Arctic or have simply been lucky, you likely have only ever seen a snowy owl on the big screen next to Harry Potter. This year, however, folks across the country from Boston to Seattle - even Hawaii- are seeing snowy owls in record numbers. (I recently saw one near a reservoir in northern New Jersey - my second in four years - and needless to say it was truly an incredible sight.) Estimates place the number of snowy owls now wintering in the US at a few thousand - far exceeding the numbers usually found here at this time of year.

Read on to learn what may be behind this influx, where they can be seen, and how many owls it takes to make an "owl jam" in Missouri.

More Reality TV

For those of you who have enjoyed following the Decorah, Iowa eaglets, which were featured on this blog last month and are rapidly growing up, here's another healthy dose of "reality TV" straight from the Big Apple - and with plenty of drama to spare: a pair of red tail hawks (Violet and Bobby) nesting outside the 12th floor of a New York University building have been sitting on three eggs.

Just last week, local wildlife experts announced that the eggs had missed their window to hatch and there would be no baby hawks - known as eyasses - this spring.

Alas, on Friday, just shy of Mother's Day, one of the eggs hatched and a healthy baby hawk was born - much to the experts' surprise. Nature, apparently, does'nt listen to the experts!

The joy has been tempered, however, by news that Violet's right leg is swollen two to three times its normal size. An ill-fitting wildlife band is suspected, and there are growing concerns that she might lose her leg - and her life - if the band is not removed soon. Experts have been discussing possible interventions to capture Violet and remove the band, but are increasingly concerned about the impact that Violet's momentary absence might have on the young eyass and the remaining two eggs. Officials are monitoring the situation carefully and calls for intervention are growing.

Stay tuned to the New York Times Hawk Cam for updates.

Endangered California Condors

We often see California Condors on the North Kaibab service trips, lazily soaring in thermals or perched on snags in the areas above Kanab Creek. They are huge, very distinctive looking birds with large numbers on their wings (this is a picture of number 33).

I recently learned that the singer Johnny Cash caused a forest fire in 1965 that burned 508 acres including 49 of the 53 condors being raised at a sanctuary in the Los Padres National Forest. Cash, who reportedly said, "I don't care about your damn yellow buzzards" at the time, was sued by the federal government and settled, bragging for years that he was the only person sued for starting a forest fire.

According to this report, there are currently 369 California condors remaining in the world, and in northern Arizona, several are pulled out of the wild every year to undergo chelation therapy for lead poisoning due to eating lead shot used by hunters. There is a program to give free safe ammunition to hunters and to teach them to clean up the entrails and shot left when they hunt in the North Kaibab, which has been somewhat successful although at least two condors died due to lead poisoning in 2010, and three are unaccounted for.

Spend a week on the North Rim with Wilderness Volunteers for an opportunity to see this rare, magnificent condor and marvel at the 9 - 10-ft wingspan as they take flight.

Reality TV

A live webcam trained on a nesting pair of Bald Eagles has been very popular lately. The eagles have been sitting on three eggs, two of which hatched over the past two days.
Video streaming by Ustream
The male and female adults take turns on the nest, and bring food frequently. Who needs fake "reality tv" when you can watch nature?