Hi All,
Well, this is it, the last report of our banding
activities for this year, 2016. I will send out one more post with a final
tally and breakdown of what species, age and sex we caught this season.
Saturday morning, October 29th, at 8:00, Rick, Chuck and
I met Randy Burington at Hawk Harbor. Todd did not come up this weekend and
Randy had been up for a couple days trying to catch a Northern Goshawk. Trudi
and Nancy were busy at home, but Nancy did send some double chocolate cookies
for us. Kenny Wagner came up a little later in the day to help Randy.
We piled our gear into the back of Rick's pick-up for the
last time this season and headed up to the blind. We had everything ready to
start banding by 8:30. The skies were partly cloudy with a dead calm. Nothing
was moving except a shrike that was hunting down on the other end of the field.
Around 9:00 we saw what looked like hundreds of crows all strung out across the
sky and heading down the shore line.
At 10:00 Bill Tefft came up. He had booked the day for a
group but decided to treat himself and come up alone. So, the four of us had
the whole blind to ourselves and started scanning for hawks. A few Bald eagles got
up followed by a couple of Rough-legged hawks, but they were way too far South
of us. Just as we were thinking things were a bit dull, a very blond young
Peregrine falcon shot up over the barn and headed straight West down our road
and right past Hawk Harbor. Unfortunately, it kept right on going without even
looking our way. It was great to see, even if it didn't come in.
Around 12:00 a young Rough-legged hawk came slowly drifting
in and sat in the tree right above the blind. We tried every manouver we could
think of to get it excited about our lure, but to no avail. So, we sat there
quietly looking for other hawks and twiching the lure once in a while. About a
half hour after the Rough-legged hawk landed in the tree over us, he dropped
down next to the lure and Rick blasted out of the blind. It was too shocked
seeing Rick rush him to think about his escape route and ran right into the
back of the front net. Whew!!! That took a long time, but it was our first bird
of the weekend and it kept us from being skunked for that day. We banded the
Rough-legged hawk and took a bunch of photos. No need for the number game today
as Bill was our only guest, so he got to release it.
A few more hawks started passing over but most were sky
high. At 1:04 we started pulling for an adult Red-tailed hawk that was out over
the barn and not too high. It locked on and looked like it was interested, but
then started showing signs of drifting off into a thermal. We all had our eyes
glued on the adult when a young Red-tailed hawk dropped in high from the right
of our field of vision. It hit the front net dead center and we had our second
bird of the day. We banded it, took more photos and Bill got to release that
one as well.
Things really slowed down after that and Bill took off
for Hawk Ridge. Just as we were about to close down for the day, a very light
phase young red-tail flew by in front of the blind and pitched up into the
trees North of us. The crows started mobbing him right away and he moved to
some trees on the North side of our field. We tried everyting under the sun to
get him to come in, but nothing worked. Finally he took off and we closed down
at 4:15. When we got back to Hawk Harbor, Kenny told us that he had trapped
that same bird a couple days ago. No wonder he was reluctant to come in.
Rick, Chuck and I headed into Two Harbors for a pizza at
Do North Pizzaria. When we got back, Randy and Kenny had a nice campfire going.
We got 2 birds and no bounce-outs on Saturday.
1 Rough-legged hawk and 1 Red-tailed hawk.
Sunday morning we had partly cloudy skies and no wind. We
noticed that the corn we put out for our pigeons the day before was still there.
We were lamenting the possibility that the little Red squirrel who always comes
by to steal some corn may have been taken out by a migrating hawk. About ten
minutes later, however, there he was back grabbing as much as he could stuff in
his little cheeks.
Around 9:00 Ryan Keenan arrived with seven other members
of the University of Minnesota's Fish & Wildlife Club. This group has been
coming up for three years now. When Ryan called me late in September to see if
we still might have a day open for them to stop by, I told him that this was
the only one left.
We gave the group a tour of the banding station and then
settled in to see if we might spot a bird. Things were dead slow, so we had a
lot of time to explain that, just like when you are out fishing, some days are
not so productive. After seeing only a few birds starting to migrate, we saw a
Rough-legged hawk locked on from way out over the other end of the field.
Everyone's eyes were on it when it made a long slanting glide into our set and
hit the front net! That was our 170th and last hawk of the season. We showed
the group how we band it and then took a bunch of photos. Sure beats having to
do a "Wish Bird" symbol with our visitors! Everyone in the group
decided that because it was Mac's (MacKenzie Mullin) birthday, she should be
the one to release it.
After the release, I did my little migration talk for the
group and gave them all bookmarks, identification sheets and an art print. They
took off for Seven Bridges Road with a stop at Hawk Ridge, while we closed down
the station at 12:30. When I got back down to Hawk Harbor, my nephew Andrew was
there with his girlfriend Abby and their friend Scott. Randy was still there as
well, and was planning to continue trying for a goshawk until dark.
We got only 1 bird and 0 bounce-outs on Sunday.
1 Rough-legged hawk.
Final Count and Grand Total for the year is 170.
In an effort to keep this email file
small and save some time resizing photos,
I am including
my "North Shore Banding - Frank Taylor" link so you can look at the
photos from this last weekend.
Click on the
link below and then scroll down to the bottom of the text to see all the
photos. You can also review any of my weekly reports from the last four years
by clicking on the 2012/13/14/15 links at the right side of that page.
Please
help hawks by supporting:
Hawk
Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org)
Keep
your eyes on the skies.
Frank & Trudi Taylor
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01. Saturday morning ore boat out on the lake.
Ninth Weekend 2016
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02. First bird of the weekend, a Rough-legged hawk.
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03. Rick and Chuck taking the Rough-legged hawk out of
the net.
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04. A Rough-legged hawk.
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05. Chuck holding the Rough-legged hawk.
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06. Chuck banding the Rough-legged hawk.
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07. A Rough-legged hawk.
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08. Feathered tarsi and foot of the Rough-legged hawk.
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09. Bill, Chuck and Rick holding the Rough-legged hawk.
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10. A Rough-legged hawk.
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11. Bill about to release the Rough-legged hawk.
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12. Bill releasing the Rough-legged hawk.
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13. A young Red-tailed hawk coming in.
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14. A young Red-tailed hawk.
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15. Rick and Chuck taking the Red-tailed hawk out of the
net.
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16. A young Red-tailed hawk.
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17. Chuck showing us the back of the red-tail.
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18. A young Red-tailed hawk.
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19. Bill about to release the young Red-tailed hawk.
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20. Bill releasing the young Red-tailed hawk.
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21. Sunday sunrise over the Mattson farm.
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22. Our little buddy, the Red squirrel, saying
"Thanks for the corn!"
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23. Frank with members of the University of Minnesota
Fish and Wildlife Club.
Left to right: Frank, Ryan, Mac, Devon, Kirsten,
Dominic, Alex, Ashley and Baylee.
Photo by Rick Dupont
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24. A Rough-legged hawk.
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25. Club members watching Rick and Chuck remove the hawk
from the net.
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26. Club members watching Chuck and Rick remove the hawk from the net.
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27. A Rough-legged hawk.
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28. Rick and Chuck holding the Rough-legged hawk.
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29. A Rough-legged hawk.
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30. Rick, Ryan, Mac, Devon, Kirsten, Chuck, Dominic,
Alex, Ashley and Baylee holding the Rough-legged hawk.
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31. Mac, Devon, Ryan, Kirsten, Rick, Chuck, Alex, Ashley,
Dominic and Baylee holding the Rough-legged hawk.
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32. A Rough-legged hawk.
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33. A Rough-legged hawk.
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34. Mac was chosen to release the Rough-legged hawk for
her birthday.
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35. Alex, Ryan, Ashley, Kirsten, Dominic, Baylee, and
Devon with Mac about to release the Rough-legged hawk.
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36. Alex, Ryan, Ashley, Kirsten, Dominic, Baylee, and
Devon helping Mac release the Rough-legged hawk.
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37. Frank doing his little migration talk.
Photo by Rick Dupont
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38. Frank talking about our local raptor species.
Photo by Rick Dupont
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39. Frank handing out bird identification sheets and
book marks.
Photo by Rick Dupont
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40. Frank handing out art prints.
Photo by Rick Dupont
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41. Randy, Scott, Andrew and Abby at Hawk Harbor just
before we closed down for the season.
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