Ninth Weekend of Banding 2024

Hello Everyone,

This is our ninth and last report of the 2024 banding season, covering the weekend of October 25th, 2024.

Friday, October 25th, 2024

Trudi, Rick, and I checked the weather for this weekend on Wednesday and decided the best days to go up banding would be on Friday and Saturday. We left home early Friday morning and met Rick at Hawk Harbor around 9:00 am. The wind was out of the West-north-west and by the time we were set up at 9:45 am, hawks were getting up all around us and starting to migrate.

At 9:50, we saw a Sharp-shinned Hawk take a shot at the fake owl. Rick pulled the lure line and the shin made a long slanting stoop right into the front net. Our first bird of the day was an adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk!

About a half an hour later, a dark phase Rough-legged Hawk made a stoop at the owl and hit it! We could hear the "thwack" all the way back at the blind! It made a couple more passes at the owl and then it saw our lure. It came in fast and low, hitting the front net, dead center. What a beauty! We banded it, took some photos, and Rick released it.

It was a nice warm sunny day and the big birds all started soaring up high, riding on the thermals. Almost two hours passed before we got our second shin. This one was a young female that was also taking a shot at the fake owl when we spotted it and lured it in. It had a full crop! We banded it, took some photos, and Trudi released it.

Another hour and a half passed before a young female shin that was passing to the South of us saw the lure and charged in. That was our third shin of the day. As we were taking it out of the net, Barb and Dave Arlander came up to see us. Dave is a model railroader friend from Rochester. They were up on the North Shore for that weekend to ride the excursion steam train out of Duluth. Barb and Dave, with two other couples, were scheduled to ride the steam train that was making a run up the shore on Sunday. While we were showing them that shin, another shin, this time an adult male, came in from out in front. We banded the fourth shin of the day, took some photos, then Barb and Dave each got to release a shin.

We caught one more shin while they were visiting, our fifth one of the day. It was out over the woods North of us when it saw the lure and made a high approach over the front net and into the back net. We banded it, took some photos, and then I showed them how you can falsely hypnotize a bird. You place it down on the ground on its back while pulling your hand away slowly. It usually stays put, and then you clap your hands to wake it, letting it take off from the ground.

An hour and a half had passed after Barb and Dave left and we were thinking of closing down, when a Rough-legged Hawk that was passing high over us, started an almost vertical stoop at the lure. Before it could get all the way down to our nets, an adult Red-tailed Hawk shot in from the South, hitting the front net and scaring off the rough-leg! We banded it, took photos, and I got to release it.

We got a total of 7 birds and no bounce-outs on Friday.

5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, and 1 Red-tailed Hawk.

Saturday, October 26th, 2024

Saturday was a "nice" day on the North Shore, but not so good for hawk banding. The winds were light out of the Southwest and were going to change to the South later in the day. We set up early thinking we might catch a hunting bird before they all started "thermalizing" and going up out of sight. Later, Mary and Don Mattson, who own the farm we have been doing our hawk catching on for the last fifty-five years, came up to say hello. They have been so supportive of our banding efforts for all these years!

We stayed at it from 8:30 am to 1:00 pm without catching a single bird! We did have an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk come in and bounce out around 10:00 am. Sometime after the bounce out, I saw a bird with a long tail fly up out of the draw and come right over the bind. It was a Black-billed Magpie! We also saw a couple Golden Eagles pass over that day. We closed down at 1:00 pm and cleaned out the blind and locked it up for the season. Trudi and I stayed over at Hawk Harbor on Saturday night and went into the Culver's in Two Harbors for supper.

We got a total of 0 birds and 1 bounce-out on Saturday.

Skunked Day

7 total birds and 1 bounce-out for the weekend.

82 total birds for the season.

Sunday, October 27th, 2024

Sunday morning, Trudi and I went into Two Harbors for breakfast at Judy's Cafe. After that we went back to Hawk Harbor so we could clean out our trailer and prepare it for winter storage.

We were all packed up and ready to leave Hawk Harbor at 10:00 am. If you know me, you know I LOVE TRAINS! So, with cameras all charged up and a steam train heading our way, we drove down to meet it and get some run-by photos. We paced it up the shore, getting passing shots at several crossings. We even got pictures of Barb and Dave as they waved back at us from the Vista Dome car. (I'll be putting up a short train video on my YouTube channel soon.)

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. Our first bird on Friday was an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk.

02. It buzzed the owl and came right in.

03. Frank banding the shin.

04. An adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk.

05. Trudi, Rick, and Brynn with the shin.

06. An adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk.

07. Brynn holding the shin.

08. Brynn releasing the shin.

09. A dark phase Rough-legged Hawk buzzing the owl.

10. The Rough-legged Hawk coming in.

11. A dark phase Rough-legged Hawk.

12. Rick holding the rough-leg.

13. A dark phase Rough-legged Hawk.

14. Frank banding the rough-leg.

15. Frank, Brynn, Rick, and Trudi with the rough-leg.

16. Trudi getting a photo of Rick holding the rough-leg.

17. Rick releasing the rough-leg.

18. Another shin coming in.

19. Our second shin of the day.

20. Rick holding the young female shin.

21. Trudi about to release the shin.

22. Trudi releasing the shin.

23. Our third shin of the day.

24. Our fourth shin of the day.

25. Frank, Rick, Trudi, Brynn, Barb, and Dave with the two shins.

26. Dave and Barb holding the shins.

27. Barb releasing one of the shins.

28. Dave releasing the other shin.

29. Our fifth shin of the day.

30. A Red-tailed Hawk coming in.

31. An Adult Red-Tailed Hawk.

32. Frank banding the red-tail.

33. An adult Red-tailed Hawk.

34. Brynn, Rick, Trudi, and Frank with the red-tail.

35. An adult Red-tailed Hawk.

36. Frank about to release the red-tail.

37. Frank releasing the last bird of our 2024 banding season.

38. Rick, Frank, and Trudi with Don and Mary Mattson,
who own the farm we have been doing our hawk catching on for the last fifty-five years!
They came out on Saturday to say hello, but we didn't catch any hawks that day.

39. A fuzzy far-off photo of a Golden Eagle going over.

40. We saw very few young red-tails this year!

41. A rare Black-billed Magpie flew right over the blind!

42. We saw lots of Rough-legged Hawks going by.

43. We cleaned out the blind and closed it up for the winter.

44. Fetching the fake owl is always the last thing before leaving.

45. Pacing the steam train.

Eighth Weekend of Banding 2024

Hello Everyone,

Sunday, October 20th

Just like two weeks ago 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 medium out of the Southwest. We drove up Saturday afternoon so we could get an early start on Sunday. The next morning we went into Two Harbors to have breakfast at Judy's Cafe, thinking we would start a little later than usual. After that, we headed back to Hawk Harbor, loaded up the banding gear in Rick's truck, and went out to the banding station. We were set up and ready to go by 9:00 am.

We didn't expect many birds to be moving since there was a light fog hanging over the hayfield. But, ten minutes later, a young male Sharp-shinned Hawk was out hunting in the draw and saw our lure. It came in fast and low right into the front net! Our first bird of the weekend! We banded it, took some photos, and Rick released it.

Nothing else came by while the fog was lifting and an hour had passed before we got our next bird. An adult male shin was cutting across the middle of the field, saw the lure, changed course, and hit the front net.

Another hour passed before we started catching a shin every fifteen minutes or so. Six more shins came in before we had our first bounce out around 12:30 pm. That brought our tally up to eight shins by "noon-thirty".

All the large hawks seemed to be going around us or were too high up for us to lure them down. We did have a Rough-legged Hawk come in. That was the first one we had seen this year. It made a nice approach, looking like it was going to commit, but at the last second it pulled up into the trees above our blind. One other large hawk, a red-tail, made a pass at our fake owl, but other than that, all the other red-tails were soaring over at extreme heights.

We caught four more shins between 1:00 pm and 2:00 pm. Some of them had full crops and some were still molting. The last shin of the day came in around 2:00 pm. After that, it seemed like the migration had just dried up. We kept trying, but with nothing coming our way, we decided to close down at 4:30 pm. After that Trudi, Rick, and I went into Duluth to have supper at the local Perkins Restaurant.

We got a total of 12 birds and 1 bounce-out on Sunday.

12 Sharp-shinned Hawks.

Monday, October 21st

We had a super bright moon shining down on us that night, casting shadows all over Hawk Harbor. By morning, the winds had shifted slightly to the South. We drove out to the banding station and had everything set up by 8:00 am.

The winds were dying off and huge thermals were rising from the fields. Most of the migrating raptors soared up almost out of sight, with very little chance of us catching any. Around 9:00 am, we saw a Red-tailed Hawk flying low, out over the North side of the field. There was an adult Sharp-shinned Hawk taking shots at it. The red-tail went South, but the shin locked on to our lure and shot right in. That was the only hawk we caught that day. We banded it, took some photos, and Trudi released it.

We got a total of 1 bird and no bounce-outs on Monday.

1 Sharp-shinned Hawk.

13 birds for the weekend.

75 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. Our first bird on Sunday was a young Sharp-shinned Hawk.

02. Trudi, Rick, and Frank holding the shin.

03. A young shin.

04. Rick releasing the shin.

05. Lots of shins moving.

06.An adult Sharp-shinned Hawk.

07. Rick holding an adult shin.

08. Trudi holding the shin.

09. Trudi releasing the shin.

10. We saw our first Rough-legged Hawk of the year.

11. It came in, but pulled up into the trees.

12. Another adult shin.

13. Trudi and Rick comparing male and female, adult and young shins.

14. Frank and Trudi releasing the shins.

15. More shins coming in.

16. An adult shin.

17. A young shin.

18. Trudi holding female adult and female young shins.

19. Trudi releasing the shins.

20. Another adult shin coming in.

21. An adult shin.

22. Frank banding an adult shin.

23. Trudi recording the banding data.

24. An adult female shin.

25. Trudi holding the shin.

26. Trudi releasing the shin.

27. Guess what? It's another shin coming in!

28. An adult shin.

29. Frank holding the shin.

30. Some had FULL crops!

31. Feathers of a "Slow Bird" left in the talons.

32. This one was still molting.

33. Frank releasing the shin.

34. A very red-eyed shin.

35. A very red-eyed shin.

36. Rick releasing a shin.

37. A Red-tailed Hawk coming in at the owl.

38. A red-tail buzzing the owl.

39. Most of the red-tails passed over too high for us.

40. Super bright moon on Sunday night.

41. Monday morning sunrise.

42. Our one and only shin on Monday.

43. An adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk.

44. Trudi holding the shin.

45. Trudi releasing the shin.