Hello Everyone,
Our nine weekends of the 2023 banding season seemed to go very fast this year. Again this season, we did not get the weather to cooperate. There were no major cold fronts to push down large numbers of migrating raptors on the weekends we were banding. Half of our team was unable to participate this year due to health issues. Hopefully they will be back next year.
Even so, socially this was a fun season at Hawk Harbor. We didn't have all the big groups that we used to have come up before Covid, but we did get some visitors and campers that made the nine weekends very enjoyable.
I would like to thank all the friends and neighbors who made this year so special, even though we had low banding numbers.
A very special THANK YOU goes to the Mattson family for letting us use their hay field for the 54th year in a row!
Also a big THANK YOU goes to Bob Crosbie for supplying our lure birds this year, all of them returned unharmed!
A GREAT BIG THANK YOU goes out to Trudi Taylor and Rick DuPont. Without your dedication and co-operation, we would not be able to do this thing we love so much, year after year. THANK YOU, Trudi, for editing all of our weekly banding reports.
Thanks to all of you who read our weekly reports for being such great friends and for sharing an interest in our modest program!
THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!
We banded a total of 97 raptors for the 2023 season. Last year we had a total of only 70.
We had a total of only 6 bounce-outs this year, compared to 10 bounce-outs last year.
Here it is, the final breakdown.
Sharp-shins - 66
Immys 41. . . . Males 18 . . . . . Females 23
Adults 25. . . . Males 11 . . . . . Females 14
Red-tails - 14
Immys 9 . . . . . Males 4 . . . . . Females 5
Adults 5 . . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 5
Merlins - 7
Immys 7 . . . . . Males 2 . . . . . Females 5
Adults 0 . . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 0
Cooper's - 3
Immys 0 . . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 0
Adults 3 . . . . . Males 1 . . . . . Females 2
Kestrels - 7
Immys 7 . . . . . Males 6 . . . . . Females 1
Adults 0 . . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 0
Total Males . . . . . 42
Total Females . . . 55
Total Immys . . . . 64
Total Adults . . . . 33
Eagles - 0, Gyrfalcons - 0, Peregrines - 0, Goshawks - 0, Harriers - 0, Broadwings - 0, Rough-legs - 0.
Please help hawks by supporting:
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory ( https://www.hawkridge.org/ )
Midwest Peregrine Society ( https://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/ )
National Eagle Center ( https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/ )
Raptor Resource Project ( https://www.raptorresource.org/ )
The Raptor Center ( https://raptor.umn.edu/ )
Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch ( http://ospreywatch.blogspot.com/ )
Keep your eyes on the skies!
Trudi and Frank Taylor
