Fourth Weekend of Banding 2025

Hi Everyone,

This is my fourth report of the 2025 banding season, covering the weekend of September 27th, 2025.

Saturday, September 27th, 2025

Rick, Trudi, and I drove up to Hawk Harbor Friday evening to meet Brian and Niall, a father and son team who have been coming up from Chicago for the past few years to watch us band and sit in with some of the falconers who are also trapping along the North Shore. Falconers Todd and Curt were up for the weekend to do some trapping at their sites and were camping at our place. Before we arrived, Rick had gone up to the banding station and had all the nets set up and ready for us to start early the next morning.

Saturday morning, Brynn from Duluth met us at Hawk Harbor and we loaded up all our gear and jumped on Rick's tailgate to ride up to the banding station. Thanks to Rick setting up the nets the night before, we got everything set up very quickly and were ready to start at 7:20 am. Winds that day were out of the Northwest and the skies were clear.

Our first bird of the day was an adult male Sharp-shinned hawk that came diving in from the North at 7:45 am, and Niall got to release it. Because of the favorable winds, we started seeing lots of hawks moving through. We got our second bird, an adult female shin, about twenty minutes later, followed by a young male twenty minutes after the second bird. Brian released the second shin and Trudi released the third shin.

The fourth bird we caught was an already banded adult female Sharp-shinned hawk! We took down the data from the band, took some photos, and Trudi released it.

We caught and banded three more shins in the next half hour and then we had one bounce out at 9:20 am. I got to do a double release with two of those shins since it was my 76th birthday that day. The eighth bird we caught was an accidental capture of a Blue Jay! It was out in the grass in front of the blind with several other jays when a shin spooked them and one shot straight for the woods and hit our front net. Blue Jays are such beautiful birds and amazing to see close up! We didn't band it, but took some photos and Trudi released it unharmed back into the field.

We caught another shin with a full crop at 10:25 am, and had a second shin bounce out an hour later. At 11:36 am, a young male Merlin went shooting across the middle of the field, took a shot at the fake owl, pitched up, Rick worked the lure, and it came straight in. We banded it, took some photos, and Rick released it.

For the next two hours we experienced a bit of a noon lull. The number of birds coming over diminished considerably, but, at 1:30 pm, we caught an adult female shin that was passing high to the North. Rick pulled the lure and it made a fantastic stoop, down the tree line, and into the front net! Fifteen minutes later, we caught two more female shins, only three minutes apart. Fifteen minutes later, we had another shin come shooting low across the field, right at the front net, but at the last second it pitched up, nicked the top of the net, and bounced out!

Just after our last bounce out, Mary and Don Mattson came up to the blind to sit in with us. They own the hayfield that our banding station is located on. For two generations, the Mattson family have welcomed us up to their farm every fall for the past 56 years! We were so glad that they came up to see us, but we were not seeing any birds moving. Just as they were thinking of heading back to their house across the field, a young female shin popped up out in the draw, saw our lure, and made a bee-line towards the net. At the last second it pulled up, hit the top of the front net, bounced out, and shot over the top and right into the back net! We banded it, took some photos, and then Mary and Don released it. It was so nice to have our long time friends and hosts be able to release one of the birds we banded on their farm!

The bird we caught with the Mattsons was the last one of the day, so we closed down at 5:00 pm, and headed in to the Culver's in Two Harbors for supper. Brian and Niall bought Trudi and my supper to celebrate my birthday! We had a nice campfire when we got back to Hawk Harbor before turning in for the night.

We got a total of 13 birds and 3 bounce-outs on Saturday.

12 Sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Merlin, and an embarrassed Blue Jay (not counted).

Sunday, September 28th, 2025

Sunday morning at 7:00 am, our same team met again at Hawk Harbor and headed up to the banding station. We were set up and ready for banding at 7:30 am. The skies were clear with hardly a breeze. The winds were supposed to increase during the day coming out of the Southwest. Not good for banding at our site!

We sat there scanning the sky for the next four hours, watching a few adult shins that wanted nothing to do with us. Hardly any birds were moving, so at 11:00 am, Brian and Niall left to start the long drive home to Chicago. Finally at 11:30 am, a young female shin popped up out of the draw, made a slow approach at the nets, hit the front one and bounced out! Arrrgh!!! Just after the bounce out, a female Peregrine passed over us at tree-top height, but didn't see us and kept on going up the shore towards Two Harbors. Every bird we saw after that was so high or so far off in the distance that we figured we would quit at noon, even though it would mean our first "skunked day". Just when we thought our luck had run out for the day, a little adult male shin that was passing very high to the North of us noticed Rick working the lure. It locked on and made a long slanting stoop right into the front net! WAY TO GO, RICK!!! We closed down at noon, did some fix-up work at Hawk Harbor and headed home.

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

1 Sharp-shinned hawk.

14 total birds and 4 bounce-outs for the weekend.

48 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. Saturday morning sunrise.

02. Our first bird of the day, an adult male Sharp-shinned hawk.

03. Rick and crew taking the shin out of the net.

04. Rick, Brynn, Niall, Brian, Trudi, and Frank with the shin.

05. Brian and Niall holding the shin.

06. Niall releasing the shin.

07. An adult male Sharp-shinned hawk.

08. Brian holding the next shin we caught.

09. Brian releasing the shin.

10. A previously banded adult female shin!

11. Trudi holding the banded shin.

12. A banded adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

13. Trudi releasing the banded shin.

14. More Sharp-shinned hawks kept coming in!

15. Brynn banding one of the shins.

16. Brynn releasing one of the shins.

17. A pair of shins coming in at the same time!

18. Comparing adult female and male shins.

19. Frank and Trudi with the two shins.

20. The Birthday Boy (Frank), doing a double release!

21. A Blue Jay accidentally got caught in our net.

22. Trudi releasing the Blue Jay.

23. A young male Merlin.

24. Rick holding the Merlin.

25. A young male Merlin.

26. Rick releasing the Merlin.

27. A young female shin.

28. Frank, Trudi, Don, Mary, Brian, Brynn, and Rick with the shin.

29. A young female shin.

30. Mary and Don holding the shin.

31. Mary and Don releasing the shin.

32. Brian and Trudi heading back to Hawk Harbor on Rick's tail-gate.

33. A beautiful Sunday morning sunrise!

34. Our one and only bird caught on Sunday! An adult male Sharp-shinned hawk.

35. Frank, Trudi, Rick, and Brynn with the shin.

36. An adult male shin.

37. Rick releasing the shin.

38. Some other migrants passing over our blind. (Sandhill Cranes)