BANGOR DAILY NEWS • October 25, 2022
The Cape May Raptor Banding Project is a volunteer nonprofit that has banded raptors for more than 50 years. The Cape May, New Jersey, peninsula is a pinch point for hawks and other birds during fall migration, making it a great place to count, band and collect data on many types of birds. The group has banded more than 150,000 raptors and is the largest raptor banding project in North America. The project monitors trends of migrating raptors and provides insight into raptor movement and causes of death. Last year, they captured a Cooper’s hawk that had been banded in 2020 in Portland. The hawk had been hanging out at the Portland International Jetport, so in an effort to prevent collisions with planes, the bird was trapped, banded and relocated to Whitefield — 46 miles away — and released. A year later, it was recaptured in New Jersey.