Hello Everyone,
This is my fifth report of the 2019 banding
season, covering the weekend of September
28th, 2019.
THIS SEASON MARKS OUR 50th CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF
TRAPPING HAWKS AT THE MATTSON FARM ! ! !
Saturday, September 28th
Saturday
morning, Trudi and I arrived at Hawk Harbor to meet Rick, Nancy and Chuck at
8:00. Todd was on a fishing trip this weekend. The skies were sunny with a
light wind out of the North. We were set up and ready to go by 9:00. Our first
bird of the day came in about eight minutes later, no surprise, a young
Sharp-shinned hawk that shot in along the tree line from the North. Our next
bird was an adult Red-tailed hawk that came in from a long way out over the
horizon. Birds were starting to get up all around us. We saw lots of Bald Eagles,
Turkey Vultures and Broad-winged hawks starting to migrate.
A
little later, Stan Tekiela, the world famous wildlife photographer and author,
pulled up at the edge of the field with his group of twelve people from the
Staring Lake Nature Center. We were glad to see them on a day that was looking
promising. Last year we had to call them while they were en route to say that
the weather on the North Shore was horrible and that we would be cancelling our
banding operations for that day.
About
fifteen minutes after we caught the red-tail, a young male Northern Goshawk
spotted our lure and made a blistering stoop in from high out over our fake
owl. Then, while everyone was looking at another hawk off to the North, a young
Red-tailed hawk came piling in from the South!
We
caught our second Sharp-shinned hawk of the day while the group was still there
and, as with all the other birds, we took a bunch of photos, played the number
game, and the person who guessed the closest number got to release a hawk. When
we did the number game for the young red-tail, two people were within two
digits of the correct number. Patrick, one of the close guessers, graciously
deferred to Justin, who was also only two digits off. Good Karma always comes
through, and as luck would have it, Patrick had the next winning number for the
release of the shin.
Before
Stan's group left for lunch and a stop at Hawk Ridge, I gave them my migration
talk, showed them some of my artwork, and handed out identification sheets and
American Kestrel commemorative art prints. We were very glad that this day
turned out so much better for this group than their last year's visit!
By
1:00, most of the hawks in our area had grabbed a thermal and soared up out of
sight. We were sitting there looking at an empty sky when Julie, who had worked
with me at The Raptor Center 20 years ago, brought up her friend Jane. We sat
there for about two hours with nothing happening and Jane was beginning to
wonder why all these people would sit in a box on the side of a field for so
long, when BOOM!!!, a Merlin came zipping in from the South and started
stooping at the fake owl. It made about six passes at the owl before catching
sight of the lure. Then it dropped down to just off the ground and powered
straight in to the front net. We banded it, took some photos, and Jane got to
release it. I gave them each a commemorative American Kestrel art print and
they headed back to Jane's house.
Nothing
else came in, so we closed down at 4:30 and all went in to have supper at the
Earthwood Inn just outside of Two Harbors, MN.
We
got a total of 6 birds and no bounce-outs on Saturday.
2 Sharp-shinned hawks, 2 Red-tailed hawks, 1 Northern
Goshawk and 1 Merlin.
Sunday,
September 29th
Sunday
morning the weather was looking pretty bleak for banding. Heavily overcast
skies with strong East winds and scattered showers were predicted for the early
part of the day. After the usual Hawk Harbor morning gathering, with hot
chocolate and waxy donuts, Trudi, Nancy, Chuck, Rick and I headed to the blind.
We got started around 9:00, but all the birds that got up seemed to pass us to
the North or to the South. Any that came straight over were moving really fast
with the wind and didn't seem interested in our lure at all.
While
we were sitting there thinking about closing down early and heading home,
Mavis, another person who I had worked with when I was at The Raptor Center
years ago called to confirm that we were still set up in spite of the bad
weather. Mavis had worked for Northwest Airlines and booked the shipping for
The Raptor Center's education birds when we were doing programs all over the
U.S.. She has been coming up to visit us for over twenty years. Along with
Mavis were her nephew Larry and his friend Ron. I told Mavis we would be there
until noon or until the weather drove us out. They got there a few minutes
later and settled in.
A
little while later, Nancy, another person I worked with at The Raptor Center,
came up with her son Eric who was sporting a new pair of 10 x 50 Swarovski
binoculars! They also settled in and Eric got a good workout with his new binos,
since none of the birds were coming anywhere near us.
We
sat there for hours in the cold, looking directly into a strong East wind
coming off the lake. At 11:35, the only bird to come in that day, a
Sharp-shinned hawk, made a nice long stoop from out over the owl. We watched it
come in, thinking it was a sure bet to get caught, when it bounced out!!!
Aaarrrgh!!! Enough is enough, so we closed down at noon. All our visitors that
day were very good sports about our miserable luck and left smiling. I tried to
help make the day not a total loss by handing out some more commemorative
American Kestrel art prints. It was a good thing they had all been up there
with us on better days in previous years and had been able to release many
birds.
We
got a total of 0 birds and 1 bounce-out on Sunday.
We had one hawk come in and bounce out, so I don't
consider this a "Skunked Day".
(In the interest of full disclosure, some other members
of the team thought I was pushing the limits of that definition "a
bit" to enhance this report.)
We
got a total of 6 birds and 1 bounce-out for the weekend.
2 Sharp-shinned hawks, 2 Red-tailed hawks, 1 Northern
Goshawk and 1 Merlin.
As this weekend reminded us, we can't control the weather,
so if you are booked in for a future visit, please check the day before to see
that we did not (in the immortal words of Monty Python) "RUN AWAY" to
a warmer, drier place.
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/)
Trudi &
Frank Taylor
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01. First bird of our fifth weekend, a young shin.
Fifth Weekend 2019
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02. Chuck banding the shin.
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03. An adult Red-tailed hawk.
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04. Red-tailed hawk zooming into the nets.
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05. Rick and Chuck taking the red-tail out of the nets.
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06.The adult Red-tailed hawk.
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07. A young male Northern Goshawk.
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08. Chuck banding the goshawk.
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09. A young Northern Goshawk.
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10. A young Red-tailed hawk coming in.
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11. Rick taking the young red-tail out of the nets.
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12. Stan holding the young red-tail.
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13. Stan's group holding the hawks.
Left to right; Cal, Nancy, Karen, Davin, Patrick, Alisa,
Rick, Steve, Mike,
Chuck, Jan, Kristen, Justin, Stan, Mary, Jim and Trudi.
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14. A Sharp-shinned hawk about to be released.
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15. Jim releasing the shin.
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16. The adult Red-tailed hawk about to be released.
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17. Karen releasing the red-tail.
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18. A young Northern Goshawk about to be released.
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19. Mike releasing the goshawk.
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20. The young Red-tailed hawk about to be released.
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21. Justin releasing the young red-tail.
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22. A young shin in the trees behind the blind.
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23. Rick and Chuck taking the shin out of the net.
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24. Another young Sharp-shinned hawk about to be released.
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25. Patrick releasing the shin.
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26. A Merlin coming in.
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27. Rick, Julie, Chuck, Jane and Nancy holding the Merlin.
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28. Julie and Jane with the Merlin.
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29. The Merlin about to be released.
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30. Julie's photo of me taking a photo of Jane releasing the
Merlin.
Photo by Julie Lundgren
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31. Jane releasing the Merlin.
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32. Chuck, Nancy, Eric, Mavis, Larry, Nancy, Ron, Trudi
and Rick holding commemorative kestrel prints.
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