Hi
All,
Well,
this is it, the final tally for the 2019 banding season. This year marked our
50th year trapping hawks in the Mattson hay field along the
beautiful North Shore of Lake Superior near Duluth, Minnesota! We dedicate this year to Mr. Roy
Mattson, who 50 years ago allowed me to use his hay field to trap birds for falconry.
Along the way, I began using the facility only to band migrating raptors for
the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory at the U.S. Geological Survey, Department of
the Interior, and was joined early on by sub-banders Rick Dupont and Chuck
Schotzko with help from Trudi Taylor, Nancy Schotzko and Todd Rosengren.
On
February 13th of this year, Mr. Roy Mattson passed away at the age of 99.
Through the ongoing generosity of his children, Don and Dottie, we have been
able to remain at the banding station. Rest in peace, Mr. Mattson, and know how
many lives you have enriched through your kindness!
This
year we banded a total of 97 birds. (Last year we caught 106.) While we would
have loved to have had greater numbers of birds for this anniversary year, it
was not to be, basically because of adverse weather and wind conditions on the
days (weekends) when we could be up banding. One weekend had to be canceled
entirely due to storms. Additionally, by the time we finally got good Northwest
winds late in the season, primarily only the (very smart!) adult birds were
still passing by, and by then they were focused on getting out of town to
warmer climes rather than stopping by for a piece of jewelry!
Of course, as we do every year, we
get lots of birds visiting the banding station, but we also get a good number
of relatives, friends, falconers, birders and students coming up to share in
the fun. I did a tally again this year of individuals who were up enjoying our
banding activities. I counted each person only once, even if they came up
multiple times. We had 74 individuals and 4 organized groups containing 43 people.
A total of 117 guests were able to have an exceptional hawk viewing experience
at our site this year!
I hope their visit inspires each
of them to a greater appreciation of our feathered friends, the raptors, and to
make donations to:
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org)
The
Raptor Center (www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu)
The National Eagle Center
(www.nationaleaglecenter.org)
Midwest Peregrine Society (https://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/)
Raptor Resource Project (https://www.raptorresource.org/)
Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch (http://ospreywatch.blogspot.com/)
Please support the people who
work to help the raptors in our state.
A very special THANK YOU
goes to the Mattson family for letting us use their hay field for the 50th year
in a row.
Also a big THANK YOU goes
to Bob Crosbie for supplying our lure birds this year.
THANK YOU also goes to Greg Mikkelson for bringing up firewood.
Special THANK YOU goes to
Nancy and Chuck Schotzko for designing and surprising us with our 50th Year
T-shirts.
Last but not least, I really must say a BIG THANK YOU to every one of our banding crew who
came up to do the banding again this year. What a great and dedicated team of
regulars we have. Trudi Taylor, Rick Dupont, Chuck & Nancy Schotzko and
Todd Rosengren: without your dedication and co-operation, we would not be able
to do this thing we love so much, year after year.
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!
We banded a total of 97 raptors for the 2019 season (we had a total of 106 raptors last season).
We had a total of 9 bounce-outs this
year (we had 11 last year).
Thanks for being such great friends
and sharing an interest in our modest program!
We hope to see you all again next fall, and meanwhile keep your
eyes on the skies!
Frank & Trudi Taylor
Here it is, the final breakdown.
Eagles - 0
Immys 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Peregrines - 0
Immys 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Merlins - 12
Immys 10........Males 3.........Females 7
Adults 2..........Males 1..........Females 1
Kestrels - 0
Immys 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Goshawks - 7
Immys 7..........Males 6..........Females 1
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Cooper’s - 1
Immys 1..........Males 1..........Females 0
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Sharp-shins - 69
Immys 58.......Males 35........Females 23
Adults 11........Males 4..........Females 7
Red-tails - 7
Immys 4..........Males 3..........Females 1
Adults 3..........Males 2..........Females 1
Rough-legs - 0
Immys 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Broad-wings - 1
Immys 1..........Males 1..........Females 0
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Harriers
- 0
Immys 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
Adults 0..........Males 0..........Females 0
