Hello Everyone,
This was our
ninth and last weekend of banding for the
2018 season.
NEXT SEASON WILL BE OUR 50th CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF
TRAPPING HAWKS AT THE MATTSON FARM.
I drove to Hawk Harbor by myself on Saturday morning as
Trudi was visiting relatives in Florida. I got there around 7:30 and Rick was
already there but Todd had stayed home to work on his truck. Nancy and Chuck
pulled in a few minutes later. To our surprise upon arrival we noticed two
portable toilets instead of the one we usually rent for the season. There was a
note inside the second one stating that the driver of the service truck had to
go pick up some rentals in Two Harbors and didn't have enough room on the truck
for all of them, so he left us an extra complimentary one all primed and ready
for use! We loaded up Rick's truck
with the banding gear, headed up to the banding station and had everything set
and ready to start at 9:00.
It was not a good day for banding as there was a slight
drizzle and the winds were light out of the South. Only a few crows, ravens and
Blue Jays were moving around at all. It was also a bit hazy and when I looked
over at the South side of the field, I spotted what I thought was a young
Red-tailed Hawk sitting in a tree. After calling it out and getting everyone
else excited, Rick took a look with his 12 power binoculars and calmly stated
that it, in fact, was a "Clumper's Hawk". A Clumper's Hawk is, in
reality, only a clump of leaves that resembles a hawk perched in a tree. The
banding team immediately questioned the outcome of my recent eye surgery and it
will take me most of the next banding season to live that one down! In the
past, even with good vision, I have on occasion also pointed out
"Sharp-stick Hawks" (a broken branch that looks like a hawk) and
"Bag-tailed Hawks" (a plastic bag hung up in a tree that looks like a
young Red-tailed Hawk). We sat there for another hour or so before we spotted
our first migrating raptor, an adult Bald Eagle that passed us way to the
South, right over my Clumper's Hawk. Around 10:30, five members of the
University of Minnesota Fish & Wildlife Club came out to visit us. We gave
them a tour of the station and settled them all into the main blind, hoping to
see any bird that might be catchable.
We sat there for hours watching the Blue Jays come in, grab
some corn, and fly off to their private stashes. This group was extremely
patient as most of them had been, or will be, working in situations outdoors,
under extremely adverse and boring conditions. I was explaining how on some
days banding was a lot like fishing, nothing biting for hours when suddenly one
will strike. Or, we could sit here all day and not get a thing. Finally, at
1:07, I spotted a hunting shin at the far end of the draw. Rick pulled the lure
line and it locked on. It made a textbook perfect, low approach all the way
from the other end of the field and slammed right into the front net in full
view of everyone! We showed them how we band it and record the data and then we
lined up for a group photo. While we were doing the "Numbers Game" to
decide who would release the shin, our friends Jen and Tim from Duluth came up.
So, we reassembled for an adjusted group photo and then Hope released the shin.
Other than a couple of deer that walked by around 3:30, we
didn't see much else for the rest of the day. A few Bald Eagles and a few
Rough-Legged Hawks went by, but they did not look. We closed down at 4:30 and
went into the Perkins in Duluth for supper.
We got a total of 1 bird
and no bounce-outs on Saturday.
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
Sunday morning the sky
was overcast but the winds were supposed to switch around from the North. We
set up at 8:30 and started looking for hawks. My "Clumpers Hawk" was
still there but we didn't see anything else until about 10:30 when a Northern
Harrier came in to hunt the field. It made a few passes at the fake owl but
didn't come anywhere near us. Some Bald Eagles started moving and a
Rough-legged Hawk or two floated by. None of them were interested in our lure.
At 11:00, a Sharp-shinned Hawk started buzzing the owl. Rick pulled the lure
and it came right in. Yay!!! We didn't get skunked today! We banded it, took
photos and Nancy released it. After that, hardly any birds were moving at all
and the North winds that might have brought more birds never did develop, so we
closed down for the season at 1:00.
We got a total of 1 bird
and no bounce-outs on Sunday.
1 Sharp-shinned Hawk
Total for the weekend was 2 birds and no bounce-outs.
2 Sharp-shinned Hawks
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/)
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01. The first bird of the weekend was a Sharp-shinned
Hawk.
Ninth Weekend 2018
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02. Members of the University of Minnesota Fish and
Wildlife Club
watching Rick and Chuck take the shin out of the net.
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03. University of Minnesota Fish and Wildlife Club with
a Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Left to right: Rick, Nathan, Suzannah, Chuck, Dieter,
Hope and Dana.
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04. Young female Sharp-shinned Hawk.
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05. Regroup shot with shin after Tim and Jen arrived.
Left to right: Hope, Suzannah, Dana, Chuck, Dieter,
Nathan, Tim, Jen and Rick.
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06. Young shin trying to look like a goshawk.
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07. Hope about to release the shin.
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08. Hope executing a very stylish shin release.
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09. Some deer crossing the field.
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10. Sunday morning shin.
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11. Rick and Chuck taking a shin out of the net.
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12. An adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk.
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13. Rick, Nancy and Chuck holding the shin.
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14. Chuck and Nancy releasing the shin.
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15. This shin was our last bird of our 2018 banding
season.
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16. Doing double doody with our Bonus Biffy for the weekend.
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17. A "Clumper's Hawk" sitting in the tree.
In reality, just a clump of leaves that looks like a
hawk.
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18. A closer look at the clump of leaves that looked
like a hawk.
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