September 27,
2014
Hi All,
Here is my fifth report
of the 2014 banding season, covering the weekend of September 27, 2014.
Saturday morning, Trudi
and I met Chuck at the Spirit Mountain McDonalds at 8:30 am for breakfast. Nancy
and Rick both had commitments at home this weekend and couldn't be there. Todd was
already at Hawk Harbor when we arrived and he brought his new Red-tailed hawk
along. Chris Funke, an apprentice falconer, was also there to help Todd with
the hawk spotting for the weekend. We packed our gear into the old van and
headed up to the banding station. Skies were clear with light winds from the
east. We were ready to go at 10:30, but things were a little slower this
weekend. We had just started when Chris came up to see our operation at the
main blind. We had our first bird, a shin, come in at 10:55, but it bounced
out! Drat!!! Hawks one, banders zero. We didn't catch our first bird until
11:07, an adult female Sharp-shinned hawk. At
11:30, we had a young female Peregrine falcon come by from the north and fly
over our blind, but it didn't come in. A lot of hawks were moving, but they
were mostly adult shins and kestrels that would stoop in but go high over the
top of our nets.
Right after we got
started, Professor Chad Heins brought
up his group of students from Bethany Lutheran College. Again this year, their
trip was arranged through the Bethany Hawk Watch Group operated by Chad in
Mankato, Minnesota. The Bethany group originally started coming up to see us in
2006 when my niece Sarah was in their Science Club. We were showing the
students how we do the banding on our first shin, when we caught a second one.
Abe got to release the first one and Abby got to release the second one. At
1:05, we spotted a large accipiter "locked on" and in a long shallow
glide from out near the barn. We watched it grow bigger and bigger, until an
adult female Cooper's hawk ploughed right into the net. We banded it and Zeffie
got to let it go.
At 2:07, we
had an adult female Peregrine falcon stoop our fake owl and make a fast pass
over the blind. Everyone got a real close look at it. We caught four more shins
that day before we closed down at 5:00. I did my little migration talk for the students and handed out bookmarks, art prints and raptor
Chad and the
students usually stay at a state campground, but this year because there were
so few of them, we invited them to stay at Hawk Harbor. When we got back down
to the campsite, Todd brought out his red-tail to show to the students. After
that, while they were getting their gear sorted in to the various trailers at
our place, my cousin Tom Schuster and his wife Corinne stopped by with their
extended family. Tom and Corinne, along with their children and grandchildren,
were spending the weekend sight seeing along the North Shore. We gave them a
tour of Hawk Harbor and handed out some bookmarks, art prints and raptor
identification sheets before they headed back to their hotel in Duluth.
Todd and the Bethany
group started the campfire to cook their supper while Chris, Chuck, Trudi and I
drove over to Emily's Lighthouse restaurant for ours. As this was my 65th
birthday, Chris bought supper for all of us. Thank you, Chris! To celebrate my
65th birthday, I ordered, you guessed it, my 66th hot meatloaf sandwich with
fried onions, mushrooms and an extra bowl of gravy. When we got back to Hawk
Harbor, there was a roaring campfire going and Zach, another member of the
Bethany group, had joined us. He brought up a big bag of honey crisp apples for
everyone to enjoy. Thank you, Zach!
We got a total of 7 birds
and 1 bounce-out on Saturday.
6 Sharp-shinned hawks and
1 Cooper's hawk.
Sunday morning, Chuck,
Chris, Trudi and I walked up to the main blind. On the way up, I had to drop my
gear and get a shot of the incredibly beautiful sunrise, coming up through the
fog. We set the nets and had everything ready to go by 7:30. Winds were
freshening out of the southwest and the skies were clear. Chad and Abe came up
right away, followed by Zach. Chris went back down to help Todd when Abby and
Zeffie arrived. We got our first bird of the day, a young female Sharp-shinned
hawk at 7:42 and Todd caught a little immy male shin at 8:10. We banded them
and had Zach and Zeffie let them go. We had two bounce-outs (shins) and caught
another shin at 9:50. Birds were getting up and moving in a steady stream all
day. At 10:10, we had another shin bounce out and at the same time, Todd caught
another shin down at his site. Everyone in the group got to release a bird.
Around 10:30, we were
honored to have Roy Zimmerman, who is President of the Minnesota Ornithologists
Union, join us for the day. We caught four more shins before the Bethany Group
had to leave. One of the shins came in while Trudi and I were out in front of
the blind talking to our "up north neighbor" Don Zerbies, who came up
on his four wheeler to bring us some tomatoes from his garden. He couldn't
believe it as the shin flew right past the three of us, out in the open, and
went right into the net. The students went back down to Hawk Harbor to pack up
their gear while Roy stayed on at the blind and got to release the shins.
Just after the students
left for Hawk Ridge, we had a young female Peregrine falcon make a quick pass
over the blind, but it didn't get caught. After that, an adult Red-tailed hawk
made a heart-stopping stoop at the nets, but pulled up at the last second, no doubt
a preview of things to come in October. We also saw a lot of Northern Harriers
drop out of thermals to hunt the field and then catch another one to ride up on
and continue their migration. We caught three more shins. The last one was a
very old shin that was already banded!!! At 1:50, another Peregrine falcon came
by. This one was an adult female. She made three passes at the net and didn't
get caught, but we got a really close look at her. The final bird to come in
that day was a shin at 2:15. It stooped in over the front net, hit the back
net, bounced out of that side and then hit the other arm of the back net and
bounced out of that one too! Oh well! Everything seemed to dry up after that so
we closed down at 3:00 and headed home.
We got a total of 11
birds and 4 bounce-outs on Sunday.
11 Sharp-shinned hawks.
Grand Total for the year
is 133.
Age and sex of all birds
that bounce-out are obviously a "best guesstimate" by the closest
witness and should not be considered hard data.
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
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01. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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02. Chris holding an adult shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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03. Bethany College group holding a Sharp-shinned hawk.
Left to right: Prof. Chad Heins, Zeffie, Abby, Frank and
Abe.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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04. Chad holding an adult and a young Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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05. Comparing the adult and immy.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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06. Frank showing Abby, Zeffie and Abe how we band the
hawks.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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07. Abe got to do the first release.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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08. Abe about to release the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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09. Abe releasing the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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10. Abby getting ready to release a shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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11. Abby releasing the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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12. Cooper's hawk doing the "Coming In" pose.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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13. Banding the adult female Cooper's hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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14. Cooper's hawk with "Attitude".
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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15. Group photo with the Cooper's hawk.
Left to right: Abby, Abe, Trudi, Chuck, Zeffie and Chad.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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16. Zeffie about to release the Cooper's hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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17. Zeffie releasing the Cooper's hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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18. Adult female Cooper's hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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19. Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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20. Chad holding a shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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21. Chad listening to what the shin is telling him to go
do.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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22. Chad releasing the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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23. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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24. Todd showing the Bethany group his Red-tailed hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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25. Todd showing his hawk to my cousin Tom's (in orange
t-shirt) family.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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26. Handing out bookmarks, art prints and raptor identification
sheets to cousin Tom's family.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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27. Total group shot down at Hawk Harbor.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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28. Chuck, Chris, Trudi and me (The Birthday Boy) having
supper at Emily's Lighthouse restaurant.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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29. Foggy sunrise as we were hiking back up to the main
blind on Sunday morning.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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30. Young male Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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31. Zack (who came up late Saturday night) holding a
young Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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32. Zach releasing the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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33. Zeffie about to release another shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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34. Adult shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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35. Abe about to release a shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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36. Abe releasing the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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37. Zach getting ready to release another shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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38. Zach releasing a shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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39. Chad about to release a shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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40. Chad releasing the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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41.
Roy Zimmerman, President of
the Minnesota Ornithologists Union, joined the Bethany group on Sunday.
Left to right: Zeffie, Abby, Zach, me, Chad, Chuck, Roy
and Abe.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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42. Young male Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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43. Trudi, Roy, holding a shin, and me.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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44. Trudi, Roy and me.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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45. Roy holding a young Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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46. Roy releasing the young Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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47. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk doing the
"Coming-In" pose.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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48. Roy Zimmerman, President of the Minnesota
Ornithologists Union, about to release the adult Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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49. Roy releasing the shin.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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50. Close up of a very old Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fifth Weekend 2014.
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