Hi All,
On Saturday morning, the 24th of September, Trudi, Rick,
Chuck and I met Todd at Hawk Harbor around 8:00 am. Nancy would be coming up to
join us on Sunday. We transferred all our banding gear to Rick's pick-up and
drove up to the main blind. Everything was ready to go by 8:50.
Skies were overcast with intermittent drizzle and the winds
were light, out of the East. Not exactly ideal conditions for banding!
Joe Hance and his dad, Larry, had come up to stay at Hawk
Harbor and spend the day with Greg Mikkelson at his trapping spot just up the
road. Greg had not arrived yet, so they came up to sit in with us for a while.
We caught our first bird of the day, a young female
Sharp-shinned hawk at 9:50. It came in from the North and shot straight into
the net. This was the first time Larry had seen a hawk trapped for banding and
he was amazed at the shin's determination to get to the lure.
About the same time that we caught the shin, Bill Tefft
drove up with a group from The Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. Joe and Larry headed back to Hawk Harbor to meet Greg while
the Ely group came up to the blind and listened to my little migration talk and
then took a tour of the banding station. Then we played a "pick the
number" game to determine who in the group would get to release the shin.
James was the lucky winner. Due to work commitments in the past, this was his
first visit to our station. His wife Virginia and his two children Gabriel and
Gracie had been up before and all had released birds. We all took photos of the
shin and watched James and his family release it.
Even though there was a light drizzle, at 11:03 another shin
came shooting in from out over Hawk Harbor. Most of the group got a good look
at it, as it piled into the front net.
Everyone watched as Rick and Chuck took it out of the net. Chuck showed
them how we measure the bird and take down appropriate banding data. We did
another numbers game and Doug was the lucky winner of the release. Cameras were
clicking away as the shin was tossed back into the sky. By noon the weather was
not improving, so Bill and the Ely group decided to take off for Hawk Ridge.
After the group left, an adult Sharp-shinned hawk came in at
around 12:30. It was flying in slow from the South and just barely caught
itself in the left side of the front net. Rick charged out and pulled the rest
of the net down over it and we had our fourth bird of the day. We took some
photos and Trudi let it go. At 1:45 we watched a dark young female Peregrine
come flying toward us low and slow from the barn. It didn't even give us a look
but kept on flying right over Hawk Harbor and on to the West. Another shin,
this time a young female, locked on to us from the end of the draw and came
right in. As things were so slow, we decided we would "hypnotize" this
shin and see how long it would lay there before rolling over and taking off. We
gently laid it on its back in the grass and popped a hand up in front of it
while sliding the other hand slowly out from under it. Rick ran the timer and
clocked a minute and 27 seconds before it decided "I'm outta here"
and took off.
Our last bird of the day was a surprise attack at 3:50. We
were trying to get the attention of an adult Red-tailed hawk soaring out in
front, when, without us seeing it come in high from the South, a young
Red-tailed hawk dropped straight down into the nets. We banded it, took a load
of photos, and I got to release it since it was close to my birthday. We closed
down for the day at 5:00.
When we got back down to Hawk Harbor, the other falconers
had returned and wanted to go back to Do North Pizzaria in Two Harbors. Todd
stayed back to cook his own supper and start a camp fire while Trudi, Rick,
Chuck, Curt, Greg, Joe, Larry and I drove into town. After filling up on
delicious pizza, we all headed back to Hawk Harbor and swapped a few trapping
stories around the camp fire before nodding off to sleep.
We got a total of 5 birds and 0 bounce-outs on Saturday.
1 Red-tailed hawk and 4 Sharp-shinned hawks.
We woke up Sunday
morning to a light rain, NOT a good sign, and it was predicted to get worse
around 9:00.
Everything was still set
up at the blind, so we went up and started looking out through the rain for any
bird that might be moving. A lone soaked Blue jay made a couple trips to the
blind to scavenge some corn we had put out. Around 9:00 my friend Mavis
Magnason came up with her niece, but the weather was so bad they decided to
tour the Glensheen mansion in Duluth instead. A few other people were scheduled
to come up as well, but wisely decided to cancel out for the day. Rick hung
around until noon before he took off for home. Trudi and I stayed until Nancy
came up around 1:00. She and Chuck were planning on staying up for the week to
see if they might increase our numbers. Chuck called later that day to say that
he and Nancy had caught nothing and it was our first "Skunked Day" of
the year. On the way out Trudi and I stopped at Don Mattson's house to say
"Thank You" to him and his Dad for the 47 years of letting us trap on
their land.
We got a total of 0
birds and 0 bounce outs on Sunday.
"Skunked Day", our first of the year!
Total for the weekend was 5 birds and 0 bounce-outs.
1 Red-tailed hawk and 4 Sharp-shinned hawks.
Grand Total for the year is 88.
Remember also, to go to You Tube and search Frank
Taylor Films or click on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4sdI11-TvxPaQ5nO3PsKKA
and then scroll to View All.
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 young female Sharp-shinned
hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
02. Rick, Larry, Chuck, Joe and Trudi with the first
bird of the day.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
03. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
04. Cameron, Bill, Jennifer, Kendall, Frank, Doug,
Virginia, James, Gabriel, Gracie and Jeanne holding the shin.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
05. Gracie, Gabriel, James and Virginia about to release
the shin.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
06. Gracie, Gabriel, Virginia and James releasing the
shin.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
07. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
08. Ely group watching Chuck and Rick take the shin out
of the net.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
09. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk in the rain.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
10. Members of the Ely group watching Chuck band the
shin.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
11. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
12. Doug about to release the shin.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
13. Doug releasing the shin.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
14. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
15. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
16. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
17. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016 |
 |
|
18. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
19. Frank and Trudi about to release the shin.
Photo by Rick Dupont
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
20. Trudi releasing the Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
21. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk in drizzle.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
22. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
23. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
24. A "Hypnotized" Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
25. A young Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
26. Rick and Chuck taking the young red-tail out of the
net.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
27. A young Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
28. A young Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
29. Chuck showing us the back of the Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
30. A young Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
31. A young Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
32. Chuck banding the Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
33. Young Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
34. Young Red-tailed hawk.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
35. Frank and Trudi about to release the Red-tailed
hawk.
Photo by Rick Dupont
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
36. Trudi and Frank releasing the Red-tailed hawk.
Photo by Rick Dupont
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
37. Hawk trappers at Hawk Harbor.
Front row: Todd, Chuck, Rick and Frank.
Back row: Greg, Joe, Larry and Curt.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
38. Sunday morning in the blind, looking for birds in
the rain.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
39. Rainy day view from the blind.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
40. Dripping wet nets.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
41. Soaking wet Blue jay scavenging corn.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
 |
|
42. Bright colored leaves on a rainy day.
Fourth Weekend 2016
|
