How does one become a raptor monitorer? (1 Viewer)

[Eddie_the_Eagle]

I'm interested to hear from those of you who monitor and/or ring birds of prey as part of your job - how did you learn the skills to start doing this? What qualifications (other than ringing permit) have you needed or found useful?

Thanks in advance,
Eddie

 

[Mono]

What country do you want to work in? Many migration watch points will accept volunteers and give you all the training you need.

 

[Eddie_the_Eagle]

What country do you want to work in? Many migration watch points will accept volunteers and give you all the training you need.

Preferably UK. Do you know if there's a good website to find migration watch points?

 

[Hotspur]

Hi Eddie, depending on where you are based, there may be a raptor study group in your area. I'd suggest contacting them. Generally it is based upon getting a patch, monitoring the breeding success of raptors using the Hardey guide to determine how to approach this (when to go, what to do etc) http://raptormonitoring.org/need-advice-on-monitoring . Liaise with the group to see where data gaps are to determine your patch and try and get an opportunity to shadow other raptor workers. Generally the approach is watching from vantage points in Apr-May to identify occupied territories and then following up your leads to identifying breeding locations in May-June followed by monitoring productivity June-Aug. This is a process I learnt in consultancy and takes several years to become proficient but recently led to a friend and I identifying a rare breeding raptor in a new county. NERF (Northern England Raptor Forum) is one of the bodies involved and they produce an annual report. Obviously for monitoring Schedule 1 species closely (ie nest checking) you will need a licence and this may not be something you can get immediately without experience so if you identify territories of these species, you will need to work at distance or liaise with holders of S1 licences locally to get assistance. You may be able to become an agent on anothers licence if you gain their trust to learn how to monitor close up. Ringing chicks is generally the final stage of monitoring and obviously you would need to be licensed for this.