More .......

Bijam@aol.com wrote:

> Seen this?
>
> http://www.ideasbypaul.ca/research_5d.pdf
>
> Thermals.....

All of that sounds good, but does it take into consideration that thermal activity cannot be accurately forecast and that the hawkwatcher is limited to a two mile radius purview? Naturally, there are more hawks found where thermals are strongest but does that mean that the hawks found represent the maximum that could be found? What are the counts three or four miles away and what is the thermal strength there?
And how much money does each hawkwatching site have to donate in order to acquire the precious instruments that would help forecast this thermal activity?

We hawkwatchers are sort of fixed into our site parameters and we have to know which meteorological conditions coupled with the topography of the site will produce the maximum number of hawks. And, we do not need to know this ahead of time but after the flight has passed. For, we volunteer, amateur, hawkwatchers are not really studying the true numbers of migrating hawks but rather the study of the behavior of hawks in migration.

The BLIP maps would be good for the study of the behavior of hawks in migration but they would not be good for predicting a good site for the study of the behavior of hawks in migration for various reasons. Nor
would they be good for predicting when to go to study the behavior of hawks in migration.

DJ