Amy Wu ‘22
Any student who has taken one of Jim Malone’s classes is probably aware of his love for raptors. While most people don’t give much thought to the birds on campus, Malone loves to study the birds and share his insight with students.
If you pay close attention to the birds on campus like Malone, you can learn a lot about their behavior. For example, most people would be surprised to hear that there was a recent sighting of a raptor swooping down and grabbing a squirrel on campus. However, this occurrence may be more common than they realize — according to Malone, the healthy population of squirrels on campus means that it is not unusual to see a red-tailed hawk capture one. Squirrels are one of the red-tailed hawks’ favorite foods. He added that it would be great if students could notify him if they saw a hawk with a squirrel.
This year, though, Malone noticed something interesting about the hawks. While their migrating season usually lasts from September to November, there was a large influx of red-tails early in the migrating season last fall. He is unsure why they migrated south earlier than they usually do.
Malone is currently monitoring two owl nests near Mercersburg. One of them is a great horned owl nest with two fuzzy chicks. The nest is only four miles north of Mercersburg. The other is a barn owl nest in a nest box that Malone set up 20 years ago in the school farm’s silo. In the nest is a mother owl sitting on eggs she just laid. Students can look forward to photos of the young great horned owls and nested red-tails in the future.
However, Malone doesn’t just study the raptors in Mercersburg; he also keeps students updated. He’s shown videos and pictures of his raptor trapping in class, and he sends his past and current students email updates on the raptors around campus a few times a week. His raptor emails usually contain several photos of the birds on campus and a short description of what they are doing. Sabine Ellison ’21, who took Malone’s Honors Physics class in the fall, says “I like Mr. Malone’s emails because they brighten my day. I admire how Mr. Malone shares his passion for birds with others.” She also says that “it has been very interesting to learn about the birds that are found around campus and nearby.”
But how and why did Malone pick up his passion for studying raptors? He explains, “I was always interested in birds and I studied them in college. A friend introduced me to hawk trapping about 20 years ago and I have been hooked on it ever since. I find raptors to be fascinating.”
If you are interested in receiving Malone’s raptors emails, email him and he will happily add you to the list.