The Lancaster County Bird Club (LCBC) will meet on Thursday, April 11, at 7 p.m. at Middle Creek Wildlife Management Area Visitor's Center, 100 Museum Road, Stevens. Laurie Goodrich from Hawk Mountain Sanctuary will present "Chasing Broad-winged Hawks from Canada to Colombia: Ecology of a Long-Distance Migrant."

Goodrich will share new discoveries about broad-winged hawks, a secretive forest raptor. In 2014, migration monitoring data showed some populations of broad-winged hawks are declining in eastern North America. Hawk Mountain launched a new study to understand the full-life cycle ecology and migration of this species. Scientists have tracked broad-wings in Pennsylvania, Connecticut, New Hampshire, and Canada to better understand migration patterns, threats and survival; scientists also studied the birds' nesting ecology in three states.

Goodrich serves as the Sarkis Acopian Director of Conservation Science at Hawk Mountain Sanctuary. She has worked in nearly every aspect of conservation at Hawk Mountain, from overseeing its long-term migration counts to directing its education program and developing the first education plan to conducting scientific research and publishing more than 50 peer-reviewed papers. Locally, she launched collaborative research projects focused on Pennsylvania farmland raptors and broad-winged hawks, and globally, she co-founded the million-raptor conservation site at the River of Raptors in Veracruz, Mexico. Working with colleagues at the Hawk Migration Association of North America, HawkWatch International, and Bird Studies Canada, she helped develop the award-winning Raptor Population Index Project and contributed heavily to the State of North America's Birds of Prey, a comprehensive analysis of raptor populations across the continent. Combined, she has coordinated the work of dozens of volunteers, trainees, and graduate students, and interacted with countless citizen scientists.

The program is free and open to the public. To learn more, call 717-856-3851 or 717-725-2717.

For more information about the LCBC, visit http://www.lancasterbirdclub.org, http://www.facebook.com/lancasterbirdclub or http://www.instagram.com/lancasterbirdclub.