Tom Bartlett's post about his sightings on Friday are an indication of what a skilled observer can see from the site even on a day when the hawks aren't showing off. For those who aren't familiar with the area (you really need to get up here and check it out!) the tower is located on the Magee Marsh Wildlife Area, just east of the Sportsman's Migratory Bird Center, on the road into Crane Creek State Park, east of Toledo on St. Rt. 2. Tom was lending his talents to a study being conducted by the Black Swamp Bird Observatory (BSBO). This long term study, done with the cooperation of the Ohio Division of Wildlife's staff at Magee, is in its 15th year and is the only spring raptor migration study conducted in the western basin of Lake Erie. This data fills an important gap in our knowledge of raptor movement in the Midwest during spring migration. The water bodies and associated habitats provide both thermals and prey to assist raptors as they migrate. The raptor migration project is unlike most migration sites in that there is no single cliff face, ridge, or funneling point concentrating one flight path. The project utilizes sites from Sandusky, OH to Cullen Park, north of Toledo along the lake. Twenty-one locations are designated as count sites with the tower at Magee Marsh Wildlife Area serving as the control site. The hawk tower is manned by personnel and volunteers seven days per week, with the additional sites manned when volunteers are available. These additional sites are located to account for falcons, which may fly the beaches and various inland sites away from the tower, to assess flight line movement with shifting thermals as the day heats up. Standardized time of count is 9:00 AM to 3:00 PM. The study seeks to increase our understanding of the movements of these amazing winged travelers and document their migration timing and marsh usage as they pass through our area. Totals ranging from 7,000-14,000 raptors have been counted passing through the region during spring migration. Data from this project has been used for the Lake Erie Management Plan and for adding additional points to the value of land acquisition grants in the marsh region. For more information on this, and other BSBO research projects, please visit _www.bsbobird.org_ (http://www.bsbobird.org) Happy Birding (as if there's any other kind...) Kim Kaufman Education Director Black Swamp Bird Observatory ************************************** See what's free at http://www.aol.com. ______________________________________________________________________ Ohio-birds mailing list, a service of the Ohio Ornithological Society. Our thanks to Miami University for hosting this mailing list. Additional discussions can be found in our forums, at www.ohiobirds.org/forum/. You can join or leave the list, or change your options, at: http://listserv.muohio.edu/scripts/wa.exe?LIST=OHIO-BIRDS Send questions or comments about the list to: [log in to unmask]