North Shore Banding - Frank Taylor: September 2023

Sunday, September 24, 2023

Fourth Weekend of Banding 2023

Hello Everyone,

Here is my fourth report of the 2023 banding season, covering the weekend of September 21st, 2023.

Thursday, September 21st

Trudi and I saw that the weather for the weekend at Hawk Harbor was calling for three days of rain starting Friday night. We also thought that it would be nice to have a little time together up at Hawk Harbor. So, we drove up on Thursday morning thinking we might get a few birds before the weather broke. We left home around 10:00, and got to Hawk Harbor by 1:30. After moving the sleeping gear into our trailer, we drove up to the blind so we could set up the banding station.

As soon as we started cleaning out the blind, the friendly deer from last weekend came out to loot the seed I had put out for the Blue Jays. Another doe and a fawn were about to walk through the net area to join them when I waved at them and they took off.

We were about to put up the last of our nets, when we noticed a car pull up down on the road. A couple and their dog got out and started walking up to the blind. It was Lynn and Steve Lindow. Steve had brought his Eden Prairie high school biology class up to the banding station over twenty five years ago and came out from Duluth to see if he still remembered where our banding blind was. His wife Lynn had worked with Trudi when she was still a professor at Augsburg College. Lynn was attending a conference in Duluth so they thought they would take a break to look for our spot. They were surprised to see us there on a Thursday. We had a good visit and they headed back to the conference.

We finished setting up and were ready to start at around 3:30. We didn't have long to wait. About twenty minutes later, a shin popped out of the bushes in the draw and came right in. We had our first bird of the early weekend, an adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk! About a half an hour later, we spotted another shin that was off to the north of us trying to catch a thermal. It saw our lure and made a long slanting glide towards us. At the last second it saw the front net, went over the top of it and then into the back net! It was a young female shin. We caught one more bird that day, another young female shin. She was way out past the farm on the opposite side of our hayfield and quite a ways up in a thermal. She saw our lure, locked on, and made a super long stoop right into the front net! We caught that one after 5:00, so we decided to close up and head in to the Culvers in Two Harbors for supper. It was so nice to be able to spend a day with my sweetheart Trudi, fishing from the sky!

Later, my brother Tony called and said he was parked out at the lighthouse lot in Two Harbors watching a ship being loaded at the ore docks. In order to meet him we went through Culvers drive thru instead of going inside, thinking that would be faster. Turns out that a group of vintage car enthusiasts meet every Thursday night at Culvers and had just finished placing their orders. It took over 45 minutes to get our order. By the time we met up with Tony, it was dark!

We got a total of 3 birds and no bounce-outs on Thursday.

3 Sharp-shinned Hawks.

Friday, September 22nd

Rick arrived on Friday morning around 7:30. He put his gear in the Dodge-my-Haul and then we loaded up the banding gear into the back of his truck. We drove out to the blind and had it all set up by 8:30. It was a very overcast day with heavy fog out over the lake.

A few shins were trying to find a thermal in the fog and passed over without giving us so much as a look. Finally, just after 9:00, a little male shin shot up across the field from the south and hit the net! Skunked Day averted! About an hour later, we caught another young male shin. This one made a nice long stoop from out over Hawk Harbor.

The weather started closing in and the fog was getting thicker by the minute. It had been two hours since our last bird. At 1:20 we spotted a large Buteo circling up over the farm house on the other end of the field. We had not seen many Red-tailed Hawks this year and were very excited to see this one. Rick worked his magic with the lure and the red-tail locked on! It made a classic long slanting stoop and plowed into the front net! We banded it, took photos, and Rick let it go. Nice!!!

While sitting there between birds, we noticed a big spider crawling along in front of the blind. I took a photo of it after I put it up in a bush so we wouldn't accidentally step on it. A little while later, a male kestrel dropped into the field from the draw in front of us. I got a photo of it just as it snarfed a big juicy cricket! (No relation to Jiminy, or Buddy Holly's band.)

Half an hour later, a little male kestrel did a tiny imitation of the red-tail and took the same path right into our front net! We banded it, took photos, and Trudi let it go. 15 minutes later, we saw a big female Merlin out stooping the fake owl. Rick pulled the lure as it pitched up from one of its stoops and it immediately forgot about the owl. She was a good size female Merlin and really poured on the speed until she hit the front net. After we banded her and let her go, she sat in a tree on the north side of the field watching us until we shut down about 45 minutes later.

Weather reports were indicating heavy rain for the next three days along the North Shore. We could see on our radar apps that the rain was getting very close, so we closed down at 3:00. Just as the rain started, we went in for supper at Do North Pizzeria in Two Harbors. We stayed over at Hawk Harbor since we didn't want to drive home in the rain and darkness. It rained continuously all night. We were so glad that we had closed down for the weekend the night before and did not have to take down the nets in the rain. Saturday morning, the three of us went in for breakfast at Judy's Cafe in Two Harbors and then left for home.

We got a total of 5 birds and no bounce-outs on Friday.

2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, 1 Merlin, and 1 Red-tailed Hawk.

8 total birds for the weekend.

49 total birds for the season.

Please help hawks by supporting:

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org)

Midwest Peregrine Society (https://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/)

National Eagle Center (www.nationaleaglecenter.org)

Raptor Resource Project (https://www.raptorresource.org/)

The Raptor Center (www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu)

Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch (http://ospreywatch.blogspot.com/)

Keep your eyes on the skies!

Trudi & Frank Taylor

01. The friendly deer came back.

02. She still looks pretty skinny.

03. Frank, Trudi, Lynn, and Steve.

04. My favorite hawk trapper Trudi, looking for birds!

05. The first bird on Thursday was an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk.

06. Trudi with the shin.

07. Trudi releasing the shin.

08. A young female shin.

09. Frank holding the shin.

10. The first bird of the day on Friday was a shin.

11. Rick checking out the shin.

12. Rick and Trudi holding the shin.

13. Rick releasing the shin.

14. Another young shin.

15. Frank and Trudi holding the shin.

16. A young red-tail coming in.

17. A young Red-tailed Hawk.

18. Frank holding the red-tail.

19. Frank, Rick, and Trudi holding the red-tail.

20. A young Red-tailed Hawk.

21. Rick releasing the red-tail.

22. Along came a spider.

23. A kestrel eating a cricket.

24. A male American Kestrel coming in.

25. A male kestrel.

26. A most colorful little falcon!

27. Trudi releasing the kestrel.

28. Last bird before the rains started was a Merlin.

29. A female Merlin.

30. The Merlin sat in the tree near us while we closed down.

Tuesday, September 19, 2023

Third Weekend of Banding 2023

Hello Everyone,

Here is my third report of the 2023 banding season, covering the weekend of September 16th, 2023.

Saturday, September 16th

Everyone else on the banding team had projects to do at home, so I drove up alone on Saturday morning to see if I could add a few more birds to our banding data sheets. Bruce Gilbertson, from Duluth, had kindly offered to come out and help me set up. After moving my camping gear in at Hawk Harbor, Bruce met me up at the blind and we started setting up the banding station. It was a slightly overcast day with variable winds. As we were setting up, Curt Ruthenbeck came up with Kent Widmeier. Kent is the son of Bob Widmeier who was a famous Minnesota falconer and artist. Bob had a farm near my banding station where he trapped Peregrines and Goshawks and sent them off to other famous falconers all over the world in the late '40s and early '50s. Bob was my early inspiration for art and hawk trapping on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

We got started at 9:40, with Curt taking a turn at pulling the lure line. Within ten minutes, we had a small male kestrel barrel into the nets from the south and we had our first bird of the weekend! We banded it, took some photos, and we were honored to have Kent release it so near the place where his Dad had trapped hawks so many years ago.

A half an hour later, we caught a young female Sharp-shinned Hawk. It was passing to the north when it spotted the lure and then made a classic long stoop into the front net! It had a full crop, but couldn't resist another potential meal! We caught four more shins, each about a half an hour apart. During that time Bill Tefft, a professor at the Ely Community College, stopped by to say "Hi" and he got to release a shin. Around 2:00, Curt and Kent headed up to Curt's trapping spot on Moose Mountain and Bill went back to Hawk Ridge for their annual Hawk Watch Weekend celebrations. Bruce left a little later.

Just after they all left, a female Merlin came shooting in from the fake owl. It hit the top of the net and bounced out!!! Arrrgh!!! I sat there by myself for the next two hours contemplating an empty sky and an empty net.

Around 4:00, I got a call from Mark Churchill, a falconer from Nebraska, saying that he and his wife Jessica had made it up through Duluth and were heading up to the blind. Mark had a non-resident falconry trapping permit for a Sharp-shinned Hawk or a Merlin and planned to spend the next few days working the falconer's trapping site at Hawk Harbor, trying to fill his permit. Just after I saw them pull up at the edge of the field, a male Merlin took a shot at the fake owl, saw the lure, and came blasting in! Mark and Jessica who were half way up to the blind by then were able to see the Merlin shoot across the field and hit the net. We banded it, took some photos, and Jessica got to let it go. They wanted to see how the banding station worked, so we all settled in to see if another bird might come along. At 5:19, a female Merlin was passing on the north side of the field, saw our lure, and made a long slanting stoop into the front net! Mark got to release that one. We closed down at 5:30. After that we went down to Hawk Harbor and set up a trapping rig for Mark.

We got a total of 8 birds and 1 bounce-out on Saturday.

5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, and 2 Merlins.

Sunday, September 17th

At 7:00, I met Mark at the Hawk Harbor trapping site and helped him get set up. He had a couple hours to trap before he had to go back to his cabin to pick up Jessica and catch the North Shore Scenic Railroad train at 10:00. They had bought the tickets earlier and planned to spend most of that day riding the train.

After Mark left, I headed to the banding station to set up and while I was doing that, Greg and his friend Ali from Columbia joined me. They were camping in Greg's fifth wheel trailer at Hawk Harbor for the weekend so they could set up Greg's trapping site on Hawk Hill, just up the shore from us. We were ready to start banding at 8:45.

At 9:00, we got our first bird of the day, an adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk. We banded it, took some photos, and Ali let it go. We caught two more shins right away and as soon as they were banded, Ali and Greg did a double shin release. Then they went up to Greg's site on Hawk Hill to trap.

A short while after they left, I was alone and heard a noise out behind the blind. I looked out and saw a doe White-tailed Deer in the woods behind me walking toward the nets. I got out and stood by the back net and then she turned and wandered back into the woods. A few minutes later, she leisurely walked out into the field from the south side of the blind. She started eating some seed I had put out in front of the blind for the Blue Jays that keep us company when not much else is going on. I got out of the blind to take a picture of her and she just stayed there eating the seed. When she finished all the seed, she wandered back into the woods where she came from. So, I put more seed out for the Blue Jays and a little while later, she came back out and started eating more seed. This time I got out of the blind, and slowly walked into the field between her and the nets, making sure she wouldn't bolt and run into them. She looked very thin and did not seem to care at all that I was there. I took a bunch of photos and even Face-timed Trudi on the phone to show her the deer. I talked softly to the doe, and she let me get within ten feet of her for some photos. Then I backed away to let her finish the seed. When she finished the second round, she looked at me, took a couple steps toward me, turned, and then walked off to the north! Sweet!

After the deer left, I was sitting there with nothing happening, didn't see a hawk anywhere, so I gave a pull on the lure as a kind of free advertising. WHAM!!! An adult Cooper' s Hawk came out of nowhere and slammed the front net! I banded it, took photos, and let it go.

I sat there with nothing in sight for another hour and fifteen minutes. Then, the good old fake owl came through again! A female Merlin started stooping at it, screaming her head off! I pulled the lure line, it peeled off the owl, came in and smacked the front net. I banded her, took photos, and let her go. Five minutes later, a male kestrel was over the far end of the field trying to catch a thermal. When it turned my way, I pulled the lure and it locked right on. He made a very long slanting stoop from high and far away and as he got closer, he dropped his little legs down, just like a redtail does, and hit the front net full blast! I carefully got him out of the net while he was busy chewing and footing my fingers until they bled. Then I banded him, took some photos, and let him go to look for some dragonflies to chew on instead of me!

It was very slow going after the kestrel, so I shut down at 2:00 and went over to help Mark at the trapping site on our land. I stayed overnight at Hawk Harbor to help Mark on Monday. We got started at 6:30, and by the time I left at 1:00, we had a Merlin and a shin come in, but they both bounced out. Hopefully, Mark was able to fill his permit before driving back home to Nebraska.

We got a total of 6 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

3 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, 1 Cooper's Hawk, and 1 Merlin.

14 total birds for the weekend.

41 total birds for the season.