Seventh Weekend of Banding 2023

Hello Everyone,

Here is my seventh report of the 2023 banding season, covering the weekend of October 14th, 2023.

Saturday, October 14th

Rain was predicted for the North Shore on Saturday, so Trudi and I went down to help our neighbors pull out our communal dock, seeing as there was no rush to get up North. We left home at noon and met Rick up at Hawk Harbor around 3:00. When we got there, it was still raining, so we decided to have an early supper at Judy's Cafe in Two Harbors and turn in for the night. (At Judy's, I had a delicious hot hamburger sandwich with fried onions and extra gravy!)

Sunday, October 15th

The rain stopped overnight so Trudi, Rick, and I drove to the banding station and set up at 8:30. The weather looked very promising with a slight North wind and clear skies. We sat there waiting to see our first bird of the day. Nothing! Not even a shin hunting the draw! We sat there looking at an empty sky until 9:00, when Rick spotted an adult American Goshawk flying over Hawk Harbor! We tried to lure it over to the banding station, but it just kept going down the road, just over the trees. 10 minutes later we saw a peregrine over the farm house, we lured it, it turned, but made a long shallow stoop, straight North up Homestead Road and disappeared.

Around 10:00, 6 members of the University of Minnesota Fish and Wildlife Club stopped by the blind. (We are not scheduling visits with large groups at the banding station anymore due to covid and the uncertainty of the weather. Also we want to be flexible as to which day or days on either side of the weekend might give us the best chances of banding some birds. Now that all of our banding team is retired, we can head up when the birds are moving and not just on weekends.) I did tell this group when they called earlier in the year that if they were visiting Hawk Ridge, give us a call on that day to see if we were working the banding blind and if we would be able to have them stop by.

Sorry to say, we weren't able to catch a single bird while they were there. We did see our first Rough-legged Hawk of the year and a Northern Harrier that passed over later. I told them that anyone who had to sit in the blind and listen to me ramble on while no birds were coming in would be rewarded with some art prints. So, when the time came for them to leave for home, I showed them my digital artwork and gave them all sets of prints. After that it seemed like the entire migration took the day off and we ended up with our first "Skunked Day" of the year. We closed down at 2:30.

We got a total of 0 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

0 Skunked.

Monday, October 16th

Trudi, Rick, and I were back out at the banding station and ready to start at 7:45. The sky was a heavy overcast with a slight North wind. Not a bird was moving anywhere! After an hour or so, we saw a young Bald Eagle circle down and land just behind a rise in the far end of the field. We couldn't see what he went down on, but a few minutes later, a couple more young Bald Eagles went in at the same place! Later that day our neighbor Don was driving his four wheeler on that end of the field so I called him and asked him to check out that spot. He said there were a few big dark feathers scattered around. I remembered that we had seen a small flock of wild turkeys down there on October 7th. Maybe it could have been one of them?

We sat there for the rest of the morning staring at an empty sky until at 11:30, when we decided we would close down at noon. Just as we started to pack up, I noticed a small raptor out over the pines (which are really spruces)! Rick pulled the lure and it turned toward us. It came straight in and at the last second, it turned and shot into the woods just North of us! Arrrggghhh! But then, it came out of the woods from behind the nets and made a pass at the lure. It missed and took a stand in a tree, just above the nets, in plain sight! It was a young male Sharp-shinned Hawk. He sat there preening and bobbing his head every time Rick pulled the lure. After what seemed like an eternity, he took one more shot at the lure and hit the front of the back net! Hoorah! We were not skunked again! We banded it, took a load of photos, and Rick released it. We closed down at 12:15.

We got a total of 1 bird and 0 bounce-out on Monday.

1 Sharp-shinned Hawk.

1 total bird for the weekend.

91 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!