Hello All,
Here is the report for the fourth weekend of our 49th
year of hawk trapping at the Mattson Farm.
It was an exciting weekend, in spite of the fact that the
weather continues to be an issue! Trudi and I met Rick, Chuck, Nancy, and Todd
at Hawk Harbor at 8 AM Saturday morning. We piled everything into Rick's truck,
drove up to the main blind and were set up and ready to go by 8:45. Skies were
clear with the winds out of the Southwest. Of course, we had just missed the
preferred Northwest winds that had come through on Friday!
Our first bird of the day, a shin hunting the draw, came
in at 9 AM. He was our first male shin of the year. We banded it, took photos,
and released it. Half an hour later, coming in from the South, a Merlin made
two passes at the fake owl before turning toward us and hitting the net. We
banded and released it, our SECOND species of the day! Fifteen minutes later,
we saw a large accipiter coming down from the North, heading towards the owl.
It spotted the lure before reaching the owl, turned, and came right in. It was
an adult male Cooper's Hawk and our THIRD species of the day! This bird was a
beautiful pale color; we banded it, took lots of photos and released it.
A while later, a very light colored young Red-tailed Hawk
dropped straight down from high above the blind and hit the back side of the
front net. Our FOURTH species of the day, the red-tail, was followed by another
young male Sharp-shinned Hawk. Just before noon, we spotted a dark falcon
making a pass at the owl. At first we thought it might be a large Merlin, but
it turned out to be a small, young male Peregrine! Rick pulled the lure line
and it came right in. Our FIFTH species for the day!
While we were banding the Peregrine, we saw three cars
pulling up at the base of the field. It was fifteen members of the Minnesota
Zoo's Environmental Educators group led by Dawn Devens. This group has visited
our banding station for several years now. I went down to meet them and gave
them my orientation talk on the way back up the field. After a quick tour of
the blind and nets, Chuck, Rick and I talked about the three species we still
had in hand; gave them time to take photographs; and then played the
"Guess the Number Game" to find out who would release each bird.
After the release of the three birds, we got the group settled
into the main blind and the overflow blind. There were not many birds migrating
that day, so we explained that even though we didn't see many hawks flying
over, we still needed to stay hidden since a hawk out hunting in the area could
pop up at any time. After patiently watching an empty sky for nearly an hour,
we were rewarded by having a young male Sharp-shinned Hawk come in from a bush
out in the draw, our third shin of the day. We banded it, took photos, did the
"Numbers" game, and released it. About an hour later, we had a young
female shin come in from the woods behind us and hit the back of the back net,
the fourth shin of the day. We banded that one, took photos and released it.
Just before the Zoo group was preparing to leave, we caught one last surprise
bird. A young male Sharp-shinned Hawk, heading South along the tree line, saw
the lure as he passed the blind, made a turn-around in front of the overflow
blind, and observers in both blinds got to see him fly straight into the net.
We banded, photographed, and released our fifth shin of the day!
Before the Zoo group left, I gave them my migration talk,
showed them some of my artwork (explaining that I had started drawing hawks in
third grade and had been crazy about hawks ever since!), and handed out signed
art prints, book marks, and raptor identification sheets.
Soon after the Zoo group left, Gary and his wife Rose,
who had both visited the blind several years before, came up. They brought
along Rose's sister Clare and Clare's husband Ed. Ed is an excellent amateur
photographer originally from South Africa. We gave them a tour of the banding
station and settled in to look for more hawks. Right after we entered the
blind, Rick noticed a large dark falcon flying South over the barn at the other
end of the field. We watched it stoop into the woods over our land, thinking we
had no chance of catching it. It missed whatever it was going for, came back up
over the trees, and caught sight of our lure. It turned towards us and came in
over the field from the South and hit the front net. Our SECOND peregrine of
the day!
As soon as we pulled the falcon out of the net, we saw
that it was probably an Anatum Peregrine from one of the nesting sites along
the North Shore. We immediately phoned Jackie Fallon. Jackie is the Director of
the Midwest Peregrine Society and has been tracking the progeny of the
reintroduced peregrine falcon population in the Midwest. She and her team have
been banding the progeny of this falcon population for over 25 years. They try
to band every young falcon from the known nesting sites, but can't get to
all of them since the population has increased so much. Jackie asked that if we
caught a bird that we suspected to be from this population, we would color band
it for her project. Since she is a zoo keeper at the Duluth Zoo and works close
by, she came out to see the peregrine and help us band it.
Needless to say, after banding the falcon, we took a load
of photos and Clare got to release it. At 5 PM our guests left, we closed down
the blind, and Jackie joined us for dinner at the Culvers in Two Harbors to
celebrate a TWO PEREGRINE, FIVE SPECIES day!
We got a total of 10
birds and no bounce-out on Saturday.
5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Merlin, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1
Red-tailed Hawk, 2 Peregrine Falcons
Sunday morning was a
total disaster! We woke up to rain and howling Easterly winds. Stan Tekiela was
scheduled to bring up a busload of people from the Staring Lake Nature Center.
Stan has been bringing his group up for over ten years. It was with deep regret
that we had to call him and cancel out due to bad weather. With rain and high
winds predicted for all of Sunday, we drove up to the main blind, in the rain,
and packed all the gear away for the weekend.
Total for the weekend was 10 birds and 0 bounce-outs.
5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Merlin, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1
Red-tailed Hawk, 2 Peregrine Falcons
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)
The Midwest Peregrine Society (http://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/)
Keep
your eyes on the skies!
Trudi &
Frank Taylor
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01. The first bird of the weekend was a young Sharp-shinned
Hawk.
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02. The second bird of the day was a Merlin.
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03. Adult male Cooper's Hawk.
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04. Rick and Chuck taking the Cooper's Hawk out of the
nets.
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05. Nancy, Chuck, Rick and Trudi showing us the Cooper's
Hawk.
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06. A light colored young Red-tailed Hawk.
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07. Chuck showing us the back of the red-tail.
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08. Nancy, Chuck, Rick and Trudi showing us the young
Red-tailed Hawk.
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09. A young male Peregrine Falcon.
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10. Rick and Chuck taking the Peregrine out of the nets.
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11. Young male Peregrine Falcon.
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12. Chuck, Trudi, Frank and Rick with a Peregrine Falcon.
Photo by Leah Darst - Minnesota Zoo staff
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13. The Minnesota Zoo Environmental Educator's group
holding
a Red-tail Hawk, a Peregrine Falcon and a Sharp-shinned
Hawk.
Left to right: Dawn, Sue, Carolyn, Kathie, Natalie,
Rick, Jennifer, Jon, Chuck,
Ana, Edie, Carol, Nancy, Nadine, Gregg, Trent,
Stephanie, Trudi and Leah.
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14. A young Peregrine Falcon.
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15. Zoo group watching Chuck and Frank band the
Peregrine Falcon.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
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16. Banded Peregrine Falcon.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
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17. Rick, Frank and Chuck showing birds to the zoo group.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
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18. Sue about to release the Red-tailed Hawk.
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19. Sue releasing the red-tail.
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20. Nadine about to release the Sharp-shinned Hawk.
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21. Nadine releasing the shin.
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22. Ana about to release the Peregrine Falcon.
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23. Ana releasing the Peregrine.
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24. Carolyn about to release another Sharp-shinned Hawk.
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25. Carolyn releasing the shin.
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26. Carol about to release another shin.
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27. Carol releasing the shin.
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28. Jennifer and Jon holding a shin.
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29. Jon and Jennifer releasing the shin.
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30. Frank showing samples of his artwork to the zoo
group.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
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31. Frank handing out signed art prints, bookmarks and
identification sheets.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
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32. Our second young male Peregrine Falcon of the day.
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33. Frank holding the Peregrine.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
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34. Nancy, Clare, Ed, Rick, Chuck, Trudi, Rose and Gary
holding the Peregrine.
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35. A young male Peregrine Falcon.
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36. Frank, Jackie and Chuck holding the Peregrine.
Photo by Trudi Taylor
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37. A young male Peregrine Falcon.
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38. Clare about to release the Peregrine.
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39. Clare releasing the Peregrine.
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40. Strong easterly winds with rain shut us down on
Sunday.
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