Seventh Weekend of Banding 2012

October 13th, 2012

Hi All,

Here we go with my seventh report of the banding season for the weekend of October 13th, 2012.

The biggest item of note over the last week was the arrival of my new little grandson Jack!!!  On Wednesday night my daughter Becky and her husband Ben had their first child, Jack Lansing Kipp. He was only 12 hours old when Trudi and I met him on Thursday morning. I have a room full of electric trains ready and waiting for him to take over the throttle. Oh, and I hope he likes hawks and sailboats too.

Chuck and Nancy stayed home this weekend as Chuck was doing his annual entertainment extravaganza. Chuck and three other doctors did a musical review including many song and dance routines of the Beatles as a fund-raiser for the Aitkin hospital. I wish I could get a video of THAT to post here! Rick had some things to take care of at his place as well, so he couldn't come up either. So, on Saturday morning, Trudi and I drove up to Duluth to set up the banding station. Todd and my brother Mike had come up on Friday night and Mike Klimas had just arrived and was setting up his rig when we got to the land. A little while later Ben Rice, another falconer from Duluth, stopped by to sit in with Todd for the day.

Trudi and I had everything set and ready to go at 9:00 am. The skies were overcast and drizzly with no wind at all, not a good day for the migration and we didn't see a thing. At 10:00 am, a group of five volunteers and staff from the National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN, arrived. We got them all settled in and then waited, and waited, and waited. We saw a couple bald eagles flying down towards the lake through the haze and one eagle that looked like it might have been a Golden, but it was too far away to confirm. The fog kept rolling over us in waves all day, mixed in with a bit of rain now and then. We had a nice lunch break with the food they brought up and then went back to watching the fog. The only thing I could show them was an under-tail covert feather left behind by a Goshawk that we banded LAST WEEK! At 4:00 we went out to do the "Wish-bird" sign and then I walked them down to their cars so I could give them my usual handouts. Trudi and I stayed for another hour but didn't see a thing so we closed down at 5:00. Skunked!!!

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

No Sharp-shinned hawks, No Goshawks, No Red-tailed hawks, No Merlins, etc. etc. etc. NADA!

Mike Klimas and Ben Rice had the good sense to leave earlier that afternoon. So, my brother Mike, Todd, Trudi and I headed over to The Lighthouse Restaurant for supper. When we walked in, the staff noted out loud that this was going to be my 50th! Some of the customers thought it was my 50th birthday, nice compliment for a guy who is 63! We sat down and I ordered my 50th hot meatloaf sandwich with fried onions and mushrooms, topped off with an extra cup of gravy. When I finished that wonderful dish (that was just as delicious to me as the first one I had a few years ago), I was informed that this one and the couple of beers that I had were ON THE HOUSE!!! THANK YOU, Lighthouse Restaurant!!!

Sunday morning the wind was blowing very light out of the northeast and the skies were still overcast. Trudi and I headed up to the main blind and were ready to go at 8:00 am. It was still hazy but the weather reports indicated that it would be clearing off around noon. About two minutes after we were set up a Red-tailed hawk came in but pulled up in the tree above us. Things were looking a bit better than the day before! After the red-tail took off, I blew on the predator call just to see if I could get a gos out of the woods. Instead, a coyote showed up in the middle of the field coming towards us but then stopped when he got a little closer (not close enough to get a good photo). Then he caught sight of my brother Mike and his dog Abby, down at our campsite. The coyote just sat there out in the middle of the field for about ten minutes watching them, oblivious to us in the blind. At 10:00 am Bill Teft brought up a group of four from the Ely Community Education program for Naturalists, including Judy and Virginia with her twin eight-year-olds, Gracie and Gabriel. They had just settled in when Todd caught an adult female Sharp-shinned hawk in his rig at 10:55 am. Ben had come back out to sit in with Todd for the day and brought the shin up for us to band. Yeay! No skunk day today! We banded it up and took a load of photos with it and decided that Gabriel would let it go. At 11:45 am we were all watching some Red-tailed hawks and some other birds that were starting to move when, WHAM, an immature male Goshawk came shooting in from the south. We didn't even see it come in! So we did another round of photos and this time Gracie got to let it go. The light wind shifted to the southeast and the birds quit moving. Todd and Ben packed it in and left around noon. We kept watching until 1:00 and then closed down the blind. I walked down with Bill and his group and handed out my usual goodies, bookmarks, identification sheets and art prints. They headed off to Hawk Ridge and we packed away our banding gear. Then we went down to our campsite to have a late lunch that my brother Mike had prepared for us at his trailer. Mike and Abby were going to stay up Sunday night as well so we didn't even have to close down the campsite. Trudi and I took off for home.

We got 2 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

1 Goshawk and 1 Sharp-shinned hawk.

Total for the weekend was 2 birds and no bounce-outs.

1 Goshawk and 1 Sharp-shinned hawk.

Grand Total for the year is 78.

Please help hawks by supporting;

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org)

The Raptor Center (www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu)

The National Eagle Center (www.nationaleaglecenter.org)

Keep your eyes on the skies.

Frank & Trudi Taylor

01. Ben, Becky and Grandpa Frank holding our new little grandson Jack, born Wednesday night 10-10-12.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

02. The group from The National Eagle Center in Wabasha, MN with Trudi in front of the blind.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

03. Joe, Abbey, Emily, Bill and Dale taking a lunch break.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

04. Joe, Abbey, Emily, me and Bill pointing to the most interesting thing we saw all day, a Goshawk feather left behind by a bird we banded LAST WEEK!

Seventh Weekend 2012.

05. A drizzly, overcast, no-wind day put a stop to any migrating birds, so we ended up doing the "Wish-bird" sign.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

06. A Sunday morning adult female Sharp-shinned hawk that Todd caught down on our land.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

07. Trudi showing the shin to Bill Teft's Community Education Naturalists group from Ely, MN.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

08. Here I am banding the shin with Gracie and Gabriel looking on.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

09. Showing the shin to Gracie, Gabriel, Judy and Virginia.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

10. Judy holding the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

11. Close-up of Judy holding the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

12. Showing Gracie how to hold the hawk with Mom (Virginia) watching.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

13. Gracie holding the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

14. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

15. Gracie, Mom (Virginia) and Gabriel with the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

16. Close-up of Gracie, Mom (Virginia) and Gabriel with the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

17. Judy, Bill, me, Gabriel, Virginia and Gracie showing us the Sharp-shinned hawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

18. Gabriel was selected to release the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

19. Close-up of Gabriel and the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

20. Gabriel getting ready to release the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

21. Gabriel releasing the shin.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

22. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

23. Young male Goshawk that slammed into the net from out of nowhere!

Seventh Weekend 2012.

24. Trudi and I getting the gos out of the net.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

25. Trudi and I posing with the Goshawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

26. Young male Goshawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

27. Gracie, Virginia, Gabriel, me, Bill and Judy holding the Goshawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

28. Gracie was selected to release the Goshawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

29. Close-up of Gracie with the Goshawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

30. Gracie releasing the Goshawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

31. Young male Goshawk.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

32. Showing the group migration routes on a small globe.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

33. Gracie and Gabriel are twins who are in the third grade. Third grade is exactly when I got interested in hawks and started to draw them.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

34. Here I am handing out my bookmarks, identification sheets and art prints to the group.

Seventh Weekend 2012.

35. Trudi and I having lunch at my brother Mike's trailer before heading home.

Thanks, Mike, for all the treats, meals and letting us stay over night in your heated trailer.

Seventh Weekend 2012.