By Dan Casey, JBHW Coordinator
Dan Stoken and Josh Covill counted just 25 birds during more than 19 hours over three surveys during the last week of October to close out the 2025 season. With more than two feet of snow having fallen on the ridgetop, these latter surveys from our lower observation point were hoping for a late season pulse of Golden Eagles, which did not materialize. Nonetheless, our season was a stellar success by every metric, with 357 hours of surveys over 51 days yielding our third highest season total count of 3,431 raptors. These included above average total counts (in bold below) for all but three of the 17 species we counted, and record high counts for two species (the Broad-winged Hawk and the Peregrine Falcon). We have now recorded more than 50,000 birds over the course of our surveys. Of note, these numbers consist of greater than 33,000 Accipiters (including more than 24,000 Sharp-shinned Hawks), and greater than 8,000 eagles and 5,000 Buteos. Our 2025 totals were as follows:
Thanks to Dan Stoken and Josh Covill, who served as contracted primary observers for 35 surveys, and to B.J. Worth, Dee Baginski, Denny Olson, Eric Godin, Jake Bramante, Lisa Bate, and Nickie Derue, who joined me in conducting one to six surveys each.
A full report, summarizing this year’s data and 18-year trends, will be produced this winter and made available on the Flathead Audubon website.
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