Seventh Weekend of Banding 2025

Hello Everyone,

This is my seventh report of the 2025 banding season, covering the weekend of October 18th, 2025.

Saturday, October 18th

Trudi needed to stay home this weekend, so I drove up to meet Rick at Hawk Harbor on Friday night. He went up early to set up the nets at the banding station so we would be ready to go right away Saturday morning. Brynn also came out and we all went to Culver's in Two Harbors for supper. When we got back, Brynn set up and worked our owl net with no luck that night.

Saturday morning, Brynn came out from Duluth to meet Rick and me at Hawk Harbor, so we loaded Rick's truck, Brynn and I jumped on the tailgate, and we rode up to the blind. The weather looked promising for hawk migration that day with West-north-west winds and we started looking for birds at 8:00 am.

We began seeing lots of raptors moving, but most of them were adults that sailed right over us without coming in. Around 9:30 am, two Raptor Center volunteers joined us at the blind. Sue has been a volunteer at TRC for 37 years and was in my fourth Bird Boot Camp that I taught when I was the Curator of Education Birds years ago. She brought along Carlos who has been a volunteer at TRC for 18 years. About an hour after they arrived, we spotted a lone young male Sharp-shinned hawk hunting low over the field. Rick worked the lure and it came straight in. We processed and photographed that bird and Carlos did the release. Shortly after the release, we had a Franklin's ground squirrel start poking around the base of the net. Not a hawk, but interesting to see! An hour and a half passed before our second bird of the day came in. It was another young male shin with a full crop. Carlos got to release that one as well. At 1:00 pm, a young female shin came shooting up the tree line and hit the front net, passing right under our noses! We banded it, took photos, and then I showed them how we do a hawk hypnotism. It's a gentle way of releasing the bird. You place the hawk on its back on the ground and then quickly place your free hand about a foot from its face. It focuses on your hand and will stay there for a bit while you slowly back away. When you clap your hands, the hawk rights itself and takes off. At 1:30 pm, we had a hunting sharp-shin come in from the North, but it made a slow approach and it bounced out.

Around 2:30 pm, Don and Mary Mattson, who own the hayfield, drove up to say hi in their side by side. While I was visiting with them, a Blue jay accidentally flew into the nets. We showed it to the Mattsons and Brynn released it. At 3:10 pm, we caught our last hawk of the day. It was another young female shin that came in to buzz the fake owl. Rick pulled the lure and it left the owl and came straight in, hitting the front net. After we processed that one, Don and Mary released it.

We closed down at 4:30 pm, and headed into the Culver's in Two Harbors for supper. After supper, Brynn set and started checking our owl net every half an hour. On her first net check, we got a Saw-whet owl! Rick and I, along with Curt, who was camping at Hawk Harbor that night, were there to help Brynn get the owl out of the net. Brynn banded it, recorded the pertinent data, and we took some photos before releasing it back into the night. We caught one more Saw-whet owl later that night.

We got a total of 6 birds and one bounce-out on Saturday.

4 Sharp-shinned hawks, and 2 Saw-whet owls.

Sunday, October 19th

Sunday morning, Rick, Brynn, and I were back out at the blind and ready to start at 8:00 am. I wrote down the starting time while Rick was sitting down in the lure chair. At the same time, a young female Sharp-shinned hawk popped up over the fake owl! Rick worked the lure and it shot right into the front net! The weather was great for hawk migration that day with strong winds from the Northwest. Later we heard a single Sandhill crane calling from above us. It flew down into the field and circled around the second fake owl that we had placed out in the middle of the hay field. It walked around feeding for a while and then it took off.

Lots of hawks started getting up all around us. Again, most were adults and paid no attention to our lure. An hour and a half after the first hawk, we had an adult female shin drop in from the North. It came down the tree line and made a hard left, right into the front net. We banded it, took photos, and Rick released it. Another sharp-shin came in an hour later, but it made a slow approach and bounced out of the front net.

We started seeing more and more Red-tailed hawks going over and one Rough-legged hawk that flew right over our blind. It seemed like none of the red-tails were interested in our lure, but then at 10:40 am, an adult Red-tailed hawk came shooting in from the North, hitting the front net! We processed that one and I released it.

Things really slowed down after that red-tail and we were thinking of closing down at noon. However, we started seeing shins coming over the field low enough for us to lure. At 12:45 pm, an adult male sharp-shinned hawk came out over the pines North of us. It saw the lure and came in passing through a gap in the draw and hit low the front net! We processed that one and Brynn released it. Our last bird of the weekend was a young female shin that started buzzing the fake owl. Rick pulled the lure and it shot into the front net! For the next half hour, we didn't see any birds moving at all, so we closed down at 1:15 pm.

We got a total of 5 birds and one bounce-out on Sunday.

4 Sharp-shinned hawks, and 1 Red-tailed hawk. 

11 total birds for the weekend.

72 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. A young male Sharp-shinned hawk.

02. Frank banding the shin.

03. Carlos, Sue, Brynn, Rick, and Frank with the shin.

04. Sue and Carlos with the shin.

05. Carlos releasing the shin.

06. A Franklin's Ground Squirrel stopped by.

07. Our second shin of the day.

08. Frank, Rick, Sue, Brynn, and Carlos with the second shin of the day.

09. Carlos releasing the shin. Photo by Rick Dupont

10. Our third shin of the day.

11. Frank doing a "Hawk Hypnotism".

12. The shin laid there relaxed, until I clapped my hands.

13. A Blue jay that accidentally got caught.

14. Brynn, Mary, and Don with the Blue jay.

15. Brynn releasing the Blue jay.

16. Our fourth shin of the day.

17. Don and Mary with the shin.

18. Don and Mary releasing the shin.

19. Our first Saw-whet owl of the evening.

20. Curt and Rick helping Brynn take the owl out of the net.

21. Brynn measuring the Saw-whet owl.

22. Frank and Brynn with the owl.

23. Brynn holding the Saw-whet owl.

24. The Saw-whet owl.

25. A Saw-whet owl.

26. Frank holding one of the Saw-whet owls.

27. Curt, Brynn, and Rick with a Saw-whet owl.

28. A Sunday morning sunrise over the Mattson farm.

29. A young female Sharp-shinned hawk was the first bird of the day on Sunday.

30. Brynn banding the shin.

31. Frank, Brynn, and Rick with the shin.

32. Brynn releasing the shin. Photo by Rick Dupont

33. A lone Sandhill Crane flew in over us.

34. The Sandhill Crane landed by our fake owl in the field.

35. An adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

36. Rick, Brynn, and Frank with the shin.

37. Rick holding the shin.

38. Rick releasing the shin.

39. A Rough-legged hawk flew by.

40. We started seeing lots of Red-tailed hawks.

41. One of the red-tails looked interested.

42. It folded and stooped right in.

43. An adult Red-tailed hawk.

44. Brynn banding the red-tail.

45. An adult Red-tailed hawk.

46. It had a couple tail feathers still growing out.

47. Frank, Brynn, and Rick with the red-tail.

48. Frank releasing the red-tail. Photo by Rick Dupont

49. Some jewelry and it's on its way!

50. "Hello dare" says the Sharp-shinned hawk!

51. Brynn and Rick holding the third shin of the day.

52. Our third shin of the day.

53. Brynn releasing the shin.

54. A young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

55. Rick holding the shin.

56. A young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

57. Rick releasing the shin.