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!