Raptor View Research Institute’s (RVRI) was incorporated in 2004 as a 501[c](3) non-profit research and educational organization by founder and executive director Robert Domenech. Rob founded RVRI to pursue long-term research on Golden Eagles and other migratory raptor species. Rob is a keen advocate for raptor conservation and tirelessly educates the public on issues ranging from lead poisoning in eagles to promoting awareness of the beneficial roles raptors serve on the landscape.

Rob’s love of raptors, and nature in general, was sparked as a young child in New Jersey, as his mother would often point out birds of prey perched along the roadside, or hunting in area fields and woodlots. His passion for raptor migration was ignited in the mid 1980’s when a grade school friend and fellow nature enthusiast shared with him the spectacle of fall raptor migration he witnessed while hiking a section of the Appalachian Trail along the Kittatinny Ridge; that location was Raccoon Ridge. It was on Raccoon Ridge where Rob would spend as much time as possible hawk watching with expert hawk counters, learning the subtle nuances of identifying hawks in flight, as well as learning about raptor natural histories and migration ecology.

Rob moved to Montana in 1991, and worked as roofer for his uncle, while attending college part-time. One sunny October afternoon, while taking a break along the Clark Fork River west of Missoula, he observed numerous Sharp-shinned and Cooper’s Hawks flying overhead at tree-top level. He soon realized he was witnessing a full-on raptor migration event. Rob was thrilled! In an hours’ time, he had observed several dozen migrating hawks. After that, Rob set out to find out where the regional raptor count site was (surely there was one?) so he could volunteer. To his surprise, there wasn’t any. So, throughout the 1990s he worked tirelessly as an independent researcher searching western Montana to find locations suitable for long-term raptor migration monitoring research. During this time he scouted dozens of potential locations and identified several promising flyways and locations.

This exploratory effort culminated in 1999, when Rob searched from 14 different locations, tacking on more than 7,000 miles on his 1984 Subaru. It was in October and Rob was in Lincoln and was going to count for a few days from Stonewall Mountain. Veteran hawk counter Fred Tilly, with whom Rob had been consulting with, thought he was on a “good line” and volunteered to conduct a simultaneous count from Roger’s Pass – 15 miles east of Stonewall. At the end of the counts, it was determined Roger’s Pass was the better site. In 2000, Rob conducted daily counts from Roger’s Pass and counted nearly 1,000 Golden Eagles and more than 1,500 raptors total.

Since then, Rob and RVRI biologists have become some of the leading authorities on Golden Eagle and raptor migration ecology in the West. Raptor View currently has partnerships throughout the West and continues to follow the original mission “to provide knowledge of raptors (birds of prey) and the ecosystems that support them to the public and scientific community, through research, conservation and education.”