Tuesday, October 8, 2024

Sixth Weekend of Banding 2024

 Hello Everyone,

Sunday, October 6th

The weather did not look good for banding on Saturday, so Trudi, Rick, and I decided to band on Sunday and Monday instead. Winds for those days were predicted to be strong out of the West-North-West. We drove up Saturday afternoon so we could get an early start on Sunday morning. We had the banding station set up and ready to go at 8:00 am. The winds were already howling pretty strong and birds were starting to move.

 

Around 9:00 am, we had two shins come in at once, but we had the nets set pretty hard due to the strong winds, and they both bounced out! Aaargh!!! However, that started a great migration day! Soon the sky was filled with raptors and migrating song birds!

 

Shins started coming in from all directions! We caught our first bird of the weekend, a young female shin, at around 10:00 am, and then caught five more shins within the next hour!  That rush of shins was topped off with an adult Red-tailed Hawk that saw our lure from way out over the farm, and made a long slanting stoop into the front net! We banded it, took some photos, and Rick released it.

 

Brynn, who has been a bander for The Raptor Resource Project and now lives in Duluth, stopped up at noon. By then, the sky was filled with hawks! Many came in like they meant business, only to chicken out at the last second and pull up into the trees above the blind. We had another shin bounce out around 1:00 pm, and then caught two more before a Cooper's Hawk came powering down from the North! We banded it, took some photos, and I got to let that one go.

 

We had another shin bounce out right after we released the Cooper's Hawk. But then we caught seven more shins between 2:00 pm and 5:00 pm, when we closed down for the day! This was our best day so far this season! When the winds push the birds down toward the lake shore, the numbers that pass over are astounding!

 

We got a total of 17 birds and 4 bounce-outs on Sunday.

15 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, and 1 Red-tailed Hawk.

 

Monday, October 7th

The winds stayed strong all night, but died off on Monday morning as we headed out to the blind. We opened the banding station at 7:45 am, and had a shin hit the back net and bounce out two minutes later! We caught our first bird of the day, an adult female shin that came in from the owl, just after 8:00 am. We caught three more adult shins in the next hour and then had a shin bounce out around 9:30 am.

 

With the winds dying off and huge thermals rising from the fields, most of the migrating raptors soared up almost out of sight. A few hunting shins were still hanging at treetop level and we caught one more young male shin and another adult female shin before closing down at 12:30 pm.

 

We got a total of 6 birds and 2 bounce-outs on Monday.

6 Sharp-shinned Hawks.

 

23 birds for the weekend.

57 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. Lots of shins moving on Sunday.

02. Our first bird of the weekend, a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

03. Trudi holding the shin.

04. An adult shin.

05. Another adult shin.

06. Trudi releasing a shin.

07. Another adult shin.

08. Comparing male and female adult shins.

09. Comparing male and female adult shins.

10. Rick and Trudi releasing the shins.

11. Another adult shin.

12. Trudi holding a shin.

13. Trudi releasing a shin.

14. Lots of Red-tailed Hawks moving this weekend.

15. An adult Red-tailed Hawk.

16. Frank holding the red-tail.

17. Frank banding the red-tail.

18. Trudi, Rick, and Frank holding the red-tail.

19. Rick releasing the red-tail.

20. Another adult shin.

21. Rick, Brynn, Trudi, and Frank with a shin.

22. A Sharp-shinned Hawk checking us out.

23. The shin showing what it thinks of us!

24. A young female shin.

25. Brynn holding the shin.

26. Brynn releasing the shin.

27. An adult male Cooper's Hawk.

28. Rick holding the Cooper's Hawk.

29. Frank banding the Cooper's Hawk.

30. An adult male Cooper's Hawk.

31. Frank holding the Cooper's Hawk.

32. Frank releasing the Cooper's Hawk.

33. Another young shin.

34. Rick releasing the shin.

35. Another adult shin.

36. Trudi holding the shin.

37. Trudi releasing the shin.

38. Another adult shin.

39. Another young shin.

40. Comparing an adult female shin to a young male shin.

41. Frank and Trudi holding shins.

42. Frank and Trudi releasing shins.

43. Our fake owl at sunrise Monday morning.

44. An adult shin checking us out.

45. First shin on Monday.

46. Second shin on Monday.

47. Third shin on Monday.

48. Fourth shin on Monday, a young one.

49. Fifth shin on Monday.

50. Rick releasing the sixth shin on Monday.