Fourth Weekend of Banding 2014

September 20, 2014

Hi All,

Here is my fourth report of the 2014 banding season, covering the weekend of September 20, 2014.

Another great weekend! We got a total of seven species this weekend!!

Saturday morning, September 20, Trudi and I met Rick at the Spirit Mountain McDonalds at 8:30 am for breakfast. Nancy and Chuck had Saturday commitments at home and would be up on Sunday. Todd stayed home to work on training his young Red-tailed hawk. We packed the banding gear into the old white van and headed up to the main blind. Skies were mostly clear with medium West-northwest winds. We were set up and ready to go at 10:30. We started catching Sharp-shinned hawks right away! Right after we got started, Dawn Devens, Interpretive Naturalist with the Minnesota Zoo, brought up a group of six environmental educators. She has been trying to get this group up here for the last three years, and today they made it on one of the best days we have ever had.

The shins just kept pouring in! We hardly had time for photos and to take turns releasing the hawks. Some people had to release doubles just to keep things moving! They were treated to many hawks diving right into the nets in front of them and many photo opportunities before they had to leave for Hawk Ridge around 1:00. We had caught fourteen shins with no bounce outs by the time they left.

We caught six more shins and had three bounce outs, when at 2:41 a Northern Goshawk, a big young female and our first gos of the year, came plowing in. What a shock the gos was, after being used to the small size of the shins. More shins kept on diving in. A little later, Carole and Jim Malone stopped up. Jim was a master bander who had trapped along the north shore since the late 60s. We caught 11 more shins, had another bounce out, and then caught a Merlin at 5:25. We got one more shin at 5:33 to end the day.

Rick, Carole, Jim, Trudi and I closed down the blind and headed over to Emily's Lighthouse restaurant where we met Greg Mikkelson and Dave Floria for supper. As my 65th birthday is next Saturday (and Rick didn't know if he would be able to come up that weekend), he bought supper for Trudi and me. That way my 65th hot meatloaf sandwich with fried onions, mushrooms and an extra bowl of gravy would count as my second "Golden Hot Meatloaf". Ahhh . . . LIFE IS GOOD!!!

We got a total of 34 birds and 4 bounce-outs on Saturday.

32 Sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Northern Goshawk and 1 Merlin.

Sunday morning Rick, Trudi and I went back up to the blind and were ready to go at 8:00. Skies were cloudy but clearing, as rainstorms had passed through overnight. Winds were light out of the North. Carole and Jim joined us again for some early morning trapping before they headed up the shore to see Greg's site. We caught six shins right off the bat. Rick was HOT with no bounce-outs! At 9:45 we caught a young male Cooper's hawk. It came in like a shin from straight out in front, but kept getting bigger and bigger till it hit the net. After that, Nancy and Chuck came up and a little while later Larry Magnuson and two of his friends (Joe and Ron) joined us and stayed for the rest of the day. We caught two more shins and at 11:28 we got a young Northern Harrier!!! Rick had to leave for home around 1:00. We caught another shin and at 2:03 we got our first Red-tailed hawk of the year, a very old bird that was hunting the other end of the field, saw our lure, and made a long glide straight in. After some photos, Ron got to let that one go. At 4:05 we caught a nice young female Merlin. We got a second Merlin, this time a young male, at 4:30. At 5:55 we got the last bird of the day, a young Red-tailed hawk that had been sitting in the tree above us. Larry got to let that one go.

We closed down the blind at 6:00. Nancy and Chuck treated Trudi and me to supper at the exclusive Earthwood Bar and Grill near Two Harbors. They are famous for their delicious hamburgers and a 16,000 lb. cement statue of "Pierre, the Voyageur".

We got a total of 15 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

9 Sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Cooper's hawk, 1 Northern Harrier, 2 Merlins and 2 Red-tailed hawks.

Monday morning Nancy, Chuck, Trudi and I began trapping at 7:30 am. Skies were clear and winds were light out of the West-northwest. At 8:58 two shins came bombing in at the same time. The first one bounced out and the second one shot up over the nets. Later that morning Abbey and Joe Krumrie who have been up several times before (and just got married this summer) brought up three interns (Emily, Holly and Lydia) from the Raptor Education Group Inc. (R.E.G.I.) in Antigo, Wisconsin. We caught three shins and had a young Northern Harrier bounce out. We caught two more shins and at 10:32 we got a young female American Kestrel. After taking a bunch of photos of the kestrel, Holly got to release it. We caught one more shin (the last hawk of the day) before the group headed off to Hawk Ridge. We closed down the blind at 1:30 and stopped over to see Mr. Mattson who owns the land we band on. He and his son Don who was there mowing the lawn were glad to see us. Mr. Mattson was in good spirits considering he is recovering from back surgery about a month ago. After that Trudi and I headed home.

We got a total of 7 birds and 1 bounce-out on Monday.

6 Sharp-shinned hawks and 1 American Kestrel.

Grand Total for the year is 115.

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

01. Thirty two Sharp-shinned hawks came in today.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

02. Dawn Devens, Interpretive Naturalist for the Minnesota Zoo, brought up a group of environmental educators on Saturday.

Left to right: Rick, Viann, Alan, Nikki, Dawn, Chris, Josh, Sister Dorene and Frank.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

03. Comparing an adult shin to an immy, both females.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

04. Sister Dorene about to release a shin.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

05. Sister Dorene letting the shin go.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

06. Alan and Viann letting shins go.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

07. Dawn, the group leader, with two young female shins.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

08. Our first Goshawk of the year.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

09. Trudi and Rick holding a young female Northern Goshawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

10. Banding the Northern Goshawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

11. Rick (on right) and I comparing sizes of goshawk and shin.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

12. Trudi letting the shin go.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

13. "Profile" pose of a young female Northern Goshawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

14. Carole and Jim holding late afternoon Sharp-shinned hawk and Merlin.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

15. Having supper at Emily's Lighthouse restaurant.

Rick, Jim, Dave, Greg, Trudi and Carole.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

16. Carole and Jim holding a couple of early morning shins on Sunday.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

17. "Profile" pose of a young male Cooper's hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

18. Rick holding the Cooper's hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

19. Comparing the young Cooper's hawk to a young Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

20. Larry Magnuson (middle) brought up two friends on Sunday.

Left to right: Frank, Joe, Larry and Ron.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

21. Young Northern Harrier doing the "Coming In" pose.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

22. Chuck holding the harrier.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

23. "Profile" pose of a young Northern Harrier.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

24. Chuck banding the harrier.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

25. Young Northern Harrier.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

26. A very old Red-Tailed hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

27. Joe, Larry and Ron holding our first Red-tailed hawk of the year.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

28. Back side of the old Red-tailed hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

29. Ron about to release the Red-tailed hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

30. Ron releasing the old Red-tailed hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

31. A young female Merlin doing the "Coming In" pose.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

32. Chuck holding the Merlin.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

33. Banding the Merlin.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

34. Young Red-tailed hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

35. Holding up the Red-tail while Nancy and Chuck put up the nets for the night.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

36. A nice young Red-tailed hawk was the last bird of the day on Sunday.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

37. Larry got to release the young Red-tailed hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

38. On Monday morning Abbey & Joe Krumrie brought up three interns from 

the Raptor Education Group Inc. (R.E.G.I.) in Antigo, Wisconsin.

Left to right: Frank, Emily, Lydia, Holly, Abbey and Joe.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

39. Young female American Kestrel.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

40. Chuck showing the kestrel to the group.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

41. Holding up a young female American Kestrel.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

42. Banding the kestrel.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

43. American Kestrel doing the "Are You Looking at Me?" pose.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

44. Holly got to release the kestrel.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

45. Young male Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.

46. Lydia got to release the young Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

47. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

48. Emily about to release the adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

49. Emily releasing the shin.

Fourth Weekend 2014. 

50. Close up of an adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fourth Weekend 2014.