Eighth Weekend of Banding 2025

Hello Everyone,

This is my eighth report of the 2025 banding season, covering the weekend of October 25th, 2025.

Saturday, October 25th

Trudi and I both had to stay home on Saturday since I had the honor of being asked to be the keynote speaker for the Inland Bird Banding Association's annual meeting being hosted by Carpenter St. Croix Valley Nature Center. Rick and Brynn went out that evening to set up nets at the banding station and to try for some Saw-whet owls that night. The owls must have taken the night off as none showed up!

Sunday, October 26th

Trudi and I drove up Sunday morning and noticed that our falconer's trapping spot at Hawk Harbor that had become overgrown was completely cleared of brush. Our Hawk Harbor neighbor Don hired some clearing work done at his place and still had some time left on his contract with the landscaper, so he sent him over to do our place! Thanks, Don!!!

Rick was already at Hawk Harbor and Brynn came back out from Duluth. We all loaded into Rick's pickup and headed to the banding station. We were ready to start at 9:15 am. What a beautiful day! Clear skies and a slight wind out of the Southeast. It took a while, but we started seeing some raptors getting up, a few eagles here and there with a red-tail or two trying to find some thermals.

About two hours later, one lone Northern harrier floated in, took a shot at the fake owl, drifted off toward the Southwest corner of the hayfield, and kept on going down the shore. An hour or so later, we had a Red-tailed hawk come in and take a close look at our rig, but then it spotted the fake owl and made one pass at it before hooking into a thermal and rising up out of sight. We had a couple red-tails float in above us and sit in the trees over the blind, but they soon lost interest and continued on.

About mid-day, we spotted a small black and white bird hovering over the draw. Rick pulled the lure and a Shrike came in and sat on one of our net poles. You don't often get to see one of those close up! This one obliged me by posing on that pole long enough for me to get a series of photos.

The afternoon dragged on and we started seeing some Rough-legged hawks come in and hover over the field. One of them made a pass at the fake owl and then flew by in front of our blind, taking a closer look at us. It didn't commit and just kept moseying along Southward.

From 2:00 pm on, we didn't see any more raptors, just a few Ravens circling up and having fun dipping in and diving out of thermals, so we closed down at 4:00 pm and went in to the Culver's in Two Harbors for supper.

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

A Skunked Day!!!

Monday, October 27th

Monday morning, Trudi, Rick, and I loaded into Rick's truck to try our luck again at the banding station. Brynn had to work, so she was not able to join us. We set up and started looking for birds at 8:15 am. As we arrived at the blind, we were greeted with a gorgeous sunrise over Lake Superior! Clear blue skies and no wind. What could go wrong?

We sat there with that beautiful day dawning over us, but didn't even see any small birds migrating! It is absolutely stunning how the raptor migration can just shut off on some days like that! We sat there scanning an empty sky until noon when we decided that was enough and packed our gear back down to Hawk Harbor. Our good neighbor Don had brought up some apples and an apple pie earlier in the day, so we dished that up before packing up for home.

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

Another Skunked Day!!!

A "Skunked Weekend" 0 total birds for the weekend!!!

Still at 72 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!