Thursday, November 14, 2013

2013 Banding Totals

Hi All,

Well, this is it, my final tally for the 2013 banding season. This year we banded a total of 127 birds. Last year we only got 87, so we are on an upswing! We still didn't get a lot of birds compared to some years, but we had a great time. This was my first season using my new Swarovski binoculars and I am so grateful to everyone who contributed towards them. I was able to see with unmatched clarity all those hawks that went by and that we did not catch!

We get lots of birds visiting each year, but we also get a good number of relatives, friends, falconers, birders and students coming up to share in the fun. I did a tally again this year of individuals who were up enjoying our banding activities. I counted each person only once, even if they came up multiple times. We had 70 individuals and 6 organized groups containing 52 people. A total of 122 guests were able to have an exceptional hawk viewing experience up at our site this year!

I hope their visit inspires each of them to a greater appreciation for our feathered friends, the raptors, and to make donations to 
The Raptor Center (www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu ), 
The National Eagle Center (www.nationaleaglecenter.org) and 
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org ). 
Please support the people who work to help the raptors in our state. 
Also, if you happen to be traveling along the North Shore, stop in at Emily’s Lighthouse Restaurant in Knife River and have a really delicious smothered meatloaf sandwich. Tell them Frank “The Hawk-banding Meatloaf Guy” sent you!

A very special THANK YOU goes to Mr. Mattson for letting us use his hay field for the forty-fourth year in a row.
Also a big THANK YOU goes to Bob Crosbie for supplying our lure birds this year.

I really must say a BIG THANK YOU to every one of our banding crew who came up to do the banding again this year. What a great and dedicated team of regulars we have. Trudi Taylor, Rick DuPont, Chuck & Nancy Schotzko and Todd Rosengren: without your dedication and co-operation, we would not be able to do this thing we love so much, year after year.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!

Here it is, the final breakdown.

                              Eagles - 0
                              Immys 0  Males 0  Females 0
                              Adults 0   Males 0  Females 0

                              Peregrines - 1
                              Immys 1  Males 0  Females 1
                              Adults 0   Males 0  Females 0

                              Merlins - 10
                              Immys 9  Males 8  Females 1
                              Adults 1   Males 1  Females 0

                              Kestrels - 0
                              Immys 0  Males 0  Females 0
                              Adults 0   Males 0  Females 0

                              Goshawks - 9
                              Immys 8  Males 7  Females 1
                              Adults 1   Males 0  Females 1

                              Cooper’s - 1
                              Immys 0  Males 0  Females 0
                              Adults 1   Males 1  Females 0

                              Sharp-shins - 80
                              Immys 57  Males 19  Females 38
                              Adults 23   Males 3  Females 20

                              Red-tails - 21
                              Immys 10  Males 10  Females 0
                              Adults 11   Males 8  Females 3

                              Rough-legs - 3
                              Immys 2  Males 1  Females 1
                              Adults 1   Males 0  Females 1

                              Broad-wings - 1
                              Immys 1  Males 1  Females 0
                              Adults 0   Males 0  Females 0

                              Harriers - 1
                              Immys 0  Males 0  Females 0
                              Adults 1  Males 0  Females 1

2013 Total Raptors 127

We caught only one banded bird this year, an immature female Goshawk.

We had a total of 15 bounce-outs. (8 less than last year)

Thanks for being such great friends and sharing an interest in our modest program!

Next year will be our 45th consecutive year of hawk-catching in Mr. Mattson’s field. I hope to see you then.

See you next fall, and meanwhile keep your eyes on the skies!

Frank & Trudi Taylor

Wednesday, November 6, 2013

Tenth Weekend of Banding 2013


Hi All,

Here is my tenth and final report of the banding season for the weekend of November 2, 2013.

On Saturday morning, November 2nd, Trudi and I met Rick, Nancy and Chuck at the Burger King on London Road. We had some breakfast and then drove to the campsite. Todd was already set up when we got there as he had come up on Friday and had caught three rough-legs. We had all the bands with us so none of them got banded. The field was still pretty wet so we loaded our gear into Rick's truck and drove to the main blind. A big rough-leg bombed the fake owl as we unloaded Rick's truck. The sky was cloudy and the wind was out of the Northwest at 5 to 10 mph. We were ready to start at 9:00.

Nancy spotted a harrier dropping into the field just after 9:15, but not much else was moving. Randy Burington stopped in to spend the day and my brother Mike also came up with his son Andrew.  Andrew was there to work with us on a conservation project for his college class.

At 9:30 a young Rough-legged hawk made a long, shallow stoop into Todd's rig and we didn't see it come back out. A few minutes later, Todd brought it up for us to band. We took a bunch of photos and then Nancy released the rough-leg. That was the only bird we caught that day. We saw lots of rough-legs, a few eagles, and a couple of red-tails moving South. Kenny Wagner also came by to sit in with Todd. I spent the rest of the day explaining how our trapping station operates and the dynamics of "North Shore" migration to Andrew for his class project. At 4:30 we closed down.

We got a total of 1 bird and 0 bounce-outs on Saturday.
1 Rough-legged hawk.

After we closed down the blind, Trudi, Rick, Chuck, Nancy, Todd, Kenny and I headed over to meet Greg Mikkelson and Bob Crosbie at Emily's Light House Restaurant for supper. Bob was up trapping with Greg on his hill for the weekend. I ordered my 61st hot meatloaf sandwich with fried onions, mushrooms and an extra bowl of gravy. So did two other people, just to see what was so good. Greg bought Trudi and my supper to thank us for camping at our place. He also has supplied us with cut-up oak pallets for our campfires all season. Thank you, Greg! After dinner, we all went back over to our campsite for our traditional campfire and to recount the season's highlights and lowlights.

On Sunday morning, we woke up to a frost covered field. Even though it was so cold, a lot of little cream-colored moths were slowly rising up out of the frosty grass. We set up the blind and settled in to scan for some hawks at 8:30. The skies cleared up for a while and there was no wind. However, the only thing moving about was a Downy woodpecker determined to get a load of bugs. He kept hammering away at the top of our lure tree. We saw only one eagle, one rough-leg and one goshawk by 10:35. At 10:35 we caught the goshawk. Everyone was out watching the woodpecker when Rick yelled, "Duck into the blind"! The gos was passing low to the North of us and almost passed us when Rick spotted it. As soon as it saw the lure, it ploughed right in. We saw a lot of gulls passing by and a few groups of rough-legs. Three of them made passes at our lure but none were caught. One rough-leg was only 6 inches from the net when it put on the air brakes and shot straight up into the air. At 12:30 we closed down for the season.

We got a total of 1 bird and 0 bounce-outs on Sunday.
1 Northern goshawk.

Total for the weekend was 2 birds and 0 bounce-outs.
1 Rough-legged hawk and 1 Northern goshawk.

Grand Total for the year is 127.

I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the members of our banding team for their great work, to Mr. Roy Mattson for the use of his field, and to Bob Crosbie for our lure birds. They all made this memorable season possible. Thank you, as well, to everyone who visited the blind this season and to all our friends who came up to camp out with us, sharing our campfires and dinners at the Light House Restaurant. Trudi and I would like to invite you all to come up and do it again next year!

A special Thank You to my sweetheart Trudi for editing all these reports and correcting all my misspellings and bad grammar.

Please help hawks by supporting;
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org)
The Raptor Center (www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu)
The National Eagle Center (www.nationaleaglecenter.org)

Keep your eyes on the skies.

Frank & Trudi Taylor



01. First bird of the day, a Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


02. Rough-leg doing the "Coming In" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


03. Todd caught the rough-leg and brought it up for us to band.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


04. Looking at the feather pattern.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


05. Chuck banding the rough-leg.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


06. Chuck, Randy and my nephew Andrew.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


07. Explaining our operation to Andrew for his class project.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


08. Andrew scoping for hawks.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


09. Rough-leg looking at Andrew.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


10. Rough-legged hawk doing the "Are You Lookin at Me" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


11. Frank and Trudi with the rough-leg.
Tenth Weekend 2013.



12. Young Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


13. Todd, Nancy, Rick, Chuck and Trudi with the Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


14. Nancy and Chuck posing with the Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


15. Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


16. Chuck and Nancy getting ready to release the rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


17. Chuck helping Nancy release the Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


18. Kenny, Bob, Greg, Trudi, Nancy, Chuck and Rick at the Light House Restaurant.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


19. Todd, Greg, Bob, Kenny, Trudi, Rick, Chuck and Nancy at the campfire.
Notice the eyes reflecting from the woods!
Tenth Weekend 2013.


20. Frosty Sunday morning over Lake Superior.    
Tenth Weekend 2013.


21. Downy woodpecker hammering away above the blind.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


22. Young male Northern goshawk doing the "Coming In" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


23. Rick and Chuck taking the gos out of the net.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


24. Young male Northern goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


25. Chuck banding the goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


26. Goshawk in the "Thinking Man" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


27. Rick, Nancy, Chuck and Trudi posing with the goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


28. Young male Northern goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


29. Rick getting ready to release the goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


30. Rick releasing our last bird of the year, a Northern goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.


31. Bringing in the fake owl and pole, last thing to do when closing down the station for the year.
Tenth Weekend 2013. 


32. Trudi and I want to say "Thank You" to everyone for making this such a fun season.
Tenth Weekend 2013.