ORI's Raptor Survey Highlighted by MTPR: Montana's Public Radio, Since Then, We Have Broken Our Record of Most Raptors Counted in One Day
March 2025
On Feb. 13th, 2025 we counted 999 raptors, despite below zero temps and patchy fog! The previous record in one day was 909 in January, the month before. The lowest count was 352 in January, 2023. That is over 6 raptors per mile on average. This was our 26th survey and we have now surveyed every month 5 times (plus one extra month), completing 5 years of the Mission Valley Raptor Survey with a new running total of 15,531 raptors counted over the 5 years.
Montana Public Radio came out with us on the January outing and recorded this piece that aired on MTPR on March 3rd, 2025 at 8:45 in the morning.
LISTEN BELOW:
Above: graph shows how many raptors were counted per season.
Below: graph showing the top species counts over the last 5 years: RT (Red-tailed Hawk), RL (Rough-legged Hawk), NH (Northern Harrier), and BE (Bald Eagle).
