Boothe Park Hawk Watch 2015 Season
We are now well into the fall hawk watch season as sites across the country are staffed by citizen scientists engaged in counting raptors heading south for the winter. Various hawk, falcon, vulture, eagle, and kite species plus birds like the Osprey, Northern Harrier and even some owls can be tallied on conducive flight days at migratory hotspots often situated along ridges or at the edge of a body of water. Counting these birds helps keep track of raptor populations on an international scale, gauging the health of these important predator species that have often been threatened by human...
Read MoreNew CLICK Program in Panama
With this storm settling down, Twan and I are preparing for our return to Panama tomorrow (hopefully). We are assisting with a new program this year called CLICK, and its goal is to assist rural villages in Panama to protect the biodiversity around them. High school students from the Marvelwood School in Kent, Connecticut will work with children from the rural village of La Zahina in eastern Panama along with Lauren Bowers (daughter of Marvelwood Alum Chuck Bowers) to document the wildlife in their “backyards” and around the Cocobolo Nature Reserve in order to better understand and help...
Read MoreRTPI Staff Teaches Litchfield High School Students in the Costa Rican Rainforest
Between February 24 and March 7 RTPI Affiliate Sean Graesser and Director Twan Leenders traveled to the Costa Rican rainforest again to teach Connecticut high school students about the importance of rainforest conservation as part of the Forman School Rainforest Project. This unique hands-on biology course based out of the Forman School in Litchfield, but also catering to high school seniors and juniors of local public high schools, is currently in its 22nd year. Every year a group of 12-14 students travels to the remote (and difficult to reach) rainforest preserve Rara Avis, where they work...
Read More
