Jenner Headlands Hawkwatch

10/16/2026

Greetings Fellow Raptor Enthusiasts,

Please join us this Sunday, October 18th for hawk watch at Jenner Headlands Preserve.

Fall migration has picked up and the Wednesday team saw the first Golden Eagle in the past several years. Looks like the weather cool off a little on Sunday to make for a good birding day.

As you may remember, we are limited to 5 vehicles, so our maximum is 12-15 people each day watch. Let us know if you plan to join us at : [email protected].

The usual Jenner Hawk Watch protocol applies:
Meet @ the Jenner Visitor Center (JVC) @ town of Jenner 9:15 am
Then at 9:30 am Sharp, we will head up to the Jenner Headlands. > There is limited space for parking, so Carpooling is a must.
The count up on the hill runs from 10 AM - 2 PM, weather permitting. We'll drive back down to JVC by 2:20 PM.
All attending MUST sign a liability waiver ONCE a season AND a daily sign in sheet each time day you're on the watch (per The Wildlands Conservancy).

What to bring: water, lunch, layered clothing, sunscreen, shade hat, camping chair or blanket to sit on, raptor ID books, binoculars, spotting scope.

Hawkwatch runs from 10am to 2pm, We are behind a locked gate.



We hope to see you soon!

The 2026 Jenner Hawkwatch Team

10/14/2026

Hawkwatch report 14 October 2026:

Wow wow wow!

Edit: First GOLDEN EAGLE since 2019!!

Our first GOLDEN EAGLE in (3?) years! A Beautiful subadult 2 year old Eagle.

Deb Kremins, Vicki Chung, Jerry Meshulam, John Markham, Steve Corey, Monica Schwalbenberg-Pena, new comer Deborah Curle, and veteran team photographer Don Jackson joined me on the hill today.
It was warm and no wind at first which made for slow birding, but the winds shifted and picked up kick starting migration today.

We observed a total of 9 species today:

TUVU: 57
WTKI: 1
NOHA: 10
SSHA: 1
RSHA: 3
RTHA: 20
GOEA: 1
AMKE: 6
MERL: 1
unidentified accip: 2
For a Total of 102 observations.

We also saw 1 beautiful Rock Wren thanks to Monica hearing it's call. 4 Bobcats and Humpback Whales all day nearshore! Thanks Don and Jerry for the beautiful wildlife photos.
Just a tremendous Day up on the Hill!
Cheers, Dave Barry.

10/13/2026

Greetings Fellow Raptor Enthusiasts,

Please join us this Wednesday 14 October 2026 for Hawkwatch.

Fall migration is peaking and birds are migrating through. Merlin have really been migrating this week! We hope you can join us up on the hill!
We are excited to sponsor two weekly teams this year – and some additional surge days when migration peaks.

Wednesdays starting 8/26 with Dave Barry and Sundays starting 8/30 with Bill Perry and Shelly Anderson.

Individual day sign up is encouraged, but not required. Email and text still work for us. And Dave is a big Facebook user and communicates that way as well. As you may remember, we are limited to 5 vehicles, so our maximum is 12-15 people each day watch.

The usual Jenner Hawk Watch protocol applies:
Meet @ the Jenner Visitor Center (JVC) @ town of Jenner 9:15 am
Then at 9:30 am Sharp, we will head up to the Jenner Headlands. > There is limited space for parking, so Carpooling is a must.
The count up on the hill runs from 10 AM - 2 PM, weather permitting. We'll drive back down to JVC by 2:20 PM.
All attending MUST sign a liability waiver ONCE a season AND a daily sign in sheet each time day you're on the watch (per The Wildlands Conservancy).
What to bring: water, lunch, layered clothing, sunscreen, shade hat, camping chair or blanket to sit on, raptor ID books, binoculars, spotting scope.
Hawkwatch runs from 10am to 2pm, We are behind a locked gate.
We hope to see you soon!
The 2026 Jenner Hawkwatch Team

10/12/2026

Hawkwatch Report from Saturday 10 Oct 2026.
Wow, what an Amazing Hawkwatch Day!

John Markham and Andy of The Wildlands Conservancy joined me on the Hill today for a Special Event Hawkwatch. Today we were joined by a group from the Napa/Solano Audubon Society. They brought 15 folks along. In hour 3 of Hawkwatch we were also joined by 44 Students from UC Davis. They were extremely interested in what we were doing and asked very good questions. Mark Stephenson President of Napa/Solano Audubon and myself did our best to answer their questions. I invited them to join our Hawkwatch when they have the chance to do so.
We were treated to a closeup with a large Bobcat right at the start.
Surprisingly the winds stayed consistent and did not blow us off of the hill, but the moderate Northwest winds did bring the birds!

We were able to observe 11 species of Raptor today, many right over our heads.

We observed:

TUVU: 120 86 in hour 2 alone!
OSPR: 2
BAEA: 1 Adult
NOHA: 2
SSHA: 5
COHA: 5
RSHA: 2
RTHA: 21 11 juvenile
AMKE: 3
MERL: 5
PEFA: 3

unidentified accip: 1
For a grand total of 170 Raptors!!

I'd say we did World Migratory Bird Day most epically with a Jenner Headlands Hawkwatch flair!

Cheers, Dave Barry

10/12/2026

The Sunday team 10/11/26 enjoyed a really fun day up on the hill this Sunday. Probably our first real hopping day this season. The weather was clear, cool, and some winds made for great conditions. Our team of eight included: Bill Perry, Adrian Johnson, Ric Vetter, Karen Vogel, Vicki Chung, Joe Lishka, and Joe Park, and me. As an extra bonus, Dave Berry brought his raptor hike group up to meet us as well.



Some highlights included our first Broadwinged Hawks and Peregrin Falcons of the season for the Sunday crew, as well as an uptick in Merlins and Red Shouldered hawks. In all we counted 167 Raptors. Ric and Adrian were both taking pictures so there should be some great ones later today.

The count looked like this:



100 TUVU

2 WIKI

5 NOHA 3 juvi

1 SSHA juvi

1 COHA juvi

5 RSHA (all juvi)

2 BWHA (juvi)

31 RTHA (13 juvi)

12 AMKE 4 male

6 MERL

2 PEFA (1 juvi)



Such a lovely day in the Jenner paradise. Hope to see you up there soon,

Shelly Anderson

10/09/2026

Greeting fellow Hawkwatchers,

Join us on Sunday, October 11 on Hawk Hill in the Jenner Headlands. We are excited to sponsor two teams this year. Dave Barry on Wednesdays and Bill Perry and Shelly Anderson on Sundays.

Fall migration is in full swing. You never know what you might see next. Yesterday, a Mississippi Kite was spotted at GGRO! Ferruginous Hawks have started their migration. We might also see Broad-winged Hawks or Rough-legged Hawks!

Last year on October 12, we saw 10 species of raptors including 2 Merlins, an adult Ferruginous Hawk and numerous juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawks and Cooper's Hawks.

Individual day sign up is encouraged, but not required. Email and text still work for us. And Dave is a big Facebook user and communicates that way as well. As you may remember, we are limited to 5 vehicles, so our maximum is 12-15 people each day watch.

The usual Jenner Hawk Watch protocol applies:
Meet @ the Jenner Visitor Center (JVC) @ town of Jenner 9:15 am
Then at 9:30 am Sharp, we will head up to the Jenner Headlands. > There is limited space for parking, so Carpooling is a must.
The count up on the hill runs from 10 AM - 2 PM, weather permitting. We'll drive back down to JVC by 2:20 PM. All attending MUST sign a liability waiver ONCE a season AND a daily sign in sheet each time day you're on the watch (per The Wildlands Conservancy).
What to bring: water, lunch, layered clothing, sunscreen, shade hat, camping chair or blanket to sit on, raptor ID books, binoculars, spotting scope. Hawkwatch runs from 10am to 2pm, We are behind a locked gate.

We hope to see you soon!

The 2026 Jenner Hawkwatch Team

10/08/2026

Attention Hawkwatchers:
Keep your eyes open for large mammals too. There seems to be a new visitor.

10/08/2026

10/08/2026

Greetings Hawkwatch Enthusiasts,

Here is the Hawkwatch Report for Wednesday, October 7, 2026

It was another beautiful albeit hot day on the Hill. The summit was clear and we had good visibility although the fog stayed just below us for the entirety of the day making IDs difficult and resulting in more than usual undocumented and even unidentified raptors. The theme for the day was PASSERINE migration. There was a LOT of passerine vocalization and many species passing through.

I was fortunate to be joined on the Hill by co-Dayleader extraordinaire, Monica Schwalbenberg-Pena and the extremely patient and exacting Vicki Chung, who kept stats for us. Don Kirker and John Markham rounded out the crew and kept us honest in our IDs -- especially with the many far-away birds we saw today. Also on the hill was first time hawk watcher, Shea Harper who turned out to be a great spotter and fun to have around : )

It was in the high 70s most of the day with a very light breeze (if any) that picked up a little in the last hour.

Here are the totals:

TUVU - 39
NOHA - 7
SSHA - 14
COHA - 6
RSHA - 1
RTHA - 20
AMKE - 5
MERL - 1

plus 5 unidentified accipiters and 1 unidentified raptor that we saw for a second that then disappeared in the fog.
For a total of 99 Birds of Prey

happy birding and hope to see you on the Hill soon!
deb kremins

10/05/2026

Greetings Fellow Raptor Enthusiasts,

Please join Monica and Deborah as they co-lead this Wednesday 07 October 2026 for Hawkwatch.

Fall migration is peaking and birds are migrating through. We hope you can join us up on the hill!
We are excited to sponsor two weekly teams this year – and some additional surge days when migration peaks.
Ferruginous Hawks have begun their migration!
Wednesdays starting 8/26 with Dave Barry and Sundays starting 8/30 with Bill Perry and Shelly Anderson.

Individual day sign up is encouraged, but not required. Email and text still work for us. And Dave is a big Facebook user and communicates that way as well. As you may remember, we are limited to 5 vehicles, so our maximum is 12-15 people each day watch.

The usual Jenner Hawk Watch protocol applies:
Meet @ the Jenner Visitor Center (JVC) @ town of Jenner 9:15 am
Then at 9:30 am Sharp, we will head up to the Jenner Headlands. > There is limited space for parking, so Carpooling is a must.
The count up on the hill runs from 10 AM - 2 PM, weather permitting. We'll drive back down to JVC by 2:20 PM.
All attending MUST sign a liability waiver ONCE a season AND a daily sign in sheet each time day you're on the watch (per The Wildlands Conservancy).
What to bring: water, lunch, layered clothing, sunscreen, shade hat, camping chair or blanket to sit on, raptor ID books, binoculars, spotting scope.
Hawkwatch runs from 10am to 2pm, We are behind a locked gate.
We hope to see you soon!
The 2026 Jenner Hawkwatch Team