Ninth Weekend of Banding 2023

Hello Everyone,

Here is my ninth and last report of the 2023 banding season, covering the weekend of October 28th, 2023.

Saturday, October 28th

A cold North wind greeted Rick and me as we met up at Hawk Harbor. We were the only members of the team able to make it up for the last weekend of banding before the opening of deer season. We had the nets and blind ready for action by 9:00. We started seeing lots of red-tails and eagles getting up at around 10:30. They went up and up and up, but didn't even give us a glance. It seemed like hundreds were moving, but all of them were going over at various altitudes, high above and out of reach for our set up. The temperature outside the blind was around 24° f. It was a good thing that I had brought up a Mr. Heater gas fired ceramic heater. That made the long hours of waiting for a close bird bearable but still a bit chilly.

We kept seeing red-tails and eagles going over in great numbers, but nothing coming our way. A lone male Northern Harrier made a circle around the far end of the field and lifted off down the road heading South. The biggest surprise of the day was a Black-billed Magpie that flew across the field in front of us.

We sat there all day trying to lure something in. At 2:33, A young Red-tailed Hawk hit the front net without us seeing it approach! Thank goodness!!! We are not skunked! We took it out of the net, measured it, and banded it. While we were doing that, a second young red-tail made another unseen surprise stoop right into the front net! Wow!! Two within ten minutes! While we were banding the second one, Kenny, who was trapping for a falconry bird down at Hawk Harbor, called to say he had just caught an adult Red-tailed Hawk and wanted to know if he should bring it up to the banding blind for us to band it. He did, we did, and then each of us released one of the three red-tails that were all caught within fifteen minutes of each other.

We had a few more red-tails come in at us that day, but they all pulled up and sat in the trees above us. We closed down at 4:10. Later we met up with falconers who were trapping at other sites and all went in to Do North Pizza for supper.

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

3 Red-tailed Hawks.

Sunday, October 29th

Sunday morning at 7:30 the temperature was still around 24° f. We figured that nothing would be moving anyway until around 10:00, so Rick and I went in to have a nice warm breakfast at Judy's Cafe in Two Harbors. We were back at the blind and set up by 9:30. It was still pretty cold out, but this time I had brought a second and even bigger Mr. Heater up with us. Running two Mr. Heaters made the inside of the blind quite comfortable for us old guys!

Sunday was a repeat of Saturday with lots of birds getting up, but all going way too high for us to have a chance at catching one. We sat there for hours watching loads of them go over at nose bleed height. At 12:00, from out of nowhere, an adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk dropped in over the front net and got caught in the back net! Hooray! Another skunk day averted!!! We banded it, took photos, and Rick released it. Almost an hour later, a young adult Red-tailed Hawk made a surprise attack, hitting the front net. We banded that one, took photos and I got to let it go. An hour later, the last bird of our banding season came in. It was another young adult Red-tailed Hawk. This one came in from over the farmhouse. It hit the back of the front net, got out of that net, and flew straight into the back net! We banded it, took photos, and Rick released it. Other than a few deer that ran across the field in front of us, we had a couple more red-tails make half-hearted attempts, ending up in the trees above us. We closed down at 3:30 and cleaned out the blind for the year.

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

1 Sharp-shinned Hawk and 2 Red-tailed Hawks

6 total birds for the weekend.

97 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 first bird of the weekend was a young Red-tailed Hawk.

02. Rick holding the red-tail.

03. Frank banding the red-tail.

04. Another young Red-tailed Hawk.

05. Frank and Rick holding the young red-tails.

06. An adult Red-tailed Hawk going into Hawk Harbor.

07. An old Red-tailed Hawk.

08. Kenny brought the old red-tail up for us to band.

09. It had an un-molted tail feather.

10. Frank banding the old red-tail.

11. Three red-tails within fifteen minutes.

12. Frank releasing red-tail number one.

13. Rick releasing red-tail number two.

14. Kenny releasing red-tail number three.

15. 25° outside the blind on Sunday morning, 50° inside.

16. The first bird on Sunday was a shin.

17. An adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk.

18. Frank and Rick holding the shin.

19. Frank banding the shin.

20. An adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk.

21. Rick holding the shin.

22. Rick releasing the shin.

23. A red-tail coming in.

24. A young adult Red-tailed Hawk.

25. Frank banding the red-tail.

26. A young adult Red-tailed Hawk.

27. Frank holding the red-tail.

28. Frank releasing the red-tail.

29. Another Red-tailed Hawk coming in.

30. Another young adult red-tail.

31. Rick holding the red-tail.

32. Rick holding the same red-tail.

33. Frank and Rick holding the last bird of our 2023 banding season.

34. I stopped by Hawk Ridge on my way home.

35. A last look back at Duluth for the season.