Sixth Weekend of Banding 2012

October 6, 2012

Hi All,

Here we go with my sixth report of the banding season for the weekend of October 6th, 2012.

Chuck and Nancy stayed up banding during the week, after we left last Sunday.

On Monday they got 6 Sharp-shinned hawks, 2 Merlins, 1 Red-tailed hawk, 1 Goshawk and no bounce outs.

On Tuesday they got 1 Goshawk and 1 bounce out.

They didn't trap on Wednesday or Thursday.

On Friday they got 4 Sharp-shinned hawks and 1 Goshawk and no bounce outs.

They got 16 birds and 1 bounce-out for the 3 weekdays they trapped.

10 Sharp-shinned hawks, 3 Goshawks, 2 Merlins and 1 Red-tailed hawk.

On Saturday morning, I drove up to Duluth with my good friend Larry Miller from the Chicago area. I have known Larry for over forty years. Larry is a retired fire fighter from Aurora, Illinois, and a long time falconer and hawk bander. He used to do a lot of banding along the Fox River in Illinois. Larry and I met Rick at the Burger King on London Road in Duluth at 7:15 am. We had a little breakfast and headed up to the land. Chuck and Nancy were already set up and trapping when we got there. Todd and his wife Jenny had come up on Friday along with Mike Klimas. They were already set up over on my land and ready to go. Just as we were heading up to the main blind, Natasha Leong pulled in and went over to trap with Todd and Jenny.

Chuck and Nancy had started trapping at 7:30 am and the skies were clear and the wind was out of the north. Just as we got settled into the main blind, we saw a large accipiter go diving past the barn and right down into the falconer's set up over on my land. Within ten minutes of her arrival, Tasha had caught herself a nice male Goshawk to train. Larry and I went down to take a look at it and I asked her if she would bring it up to the main blind so we could take some measurements. When we got back up to the main blind, they had caught another immature male Goshawk at 9:35 am. So, we measured Tasha's bird, banded the one we had caught and then took some pictures. As Larry was the guest of honor, he got to release our Goshawk and Tasha headed off to start training her bird.

At 10:00 am, Brynn Johnson and her friend Kelsey Griffin came up to see us. Brynn has been coming up with her Dad for many years and this was her first time up on her own. Brynn and Kelsey both volunteer at The Raptor Center and this was Kelsey's first time up to our site. Right after they arrived, Todd caught an immature male Sharp-shinned hawk and Jenny brought it up so we could band it. We had a shin come in and bounce out at 12:14. A little while later, Kenny Wagner came up to say hi to our old friend Larry. Then a little later Brad Johnson, a conservation officer and long time friend, came by to sit in for a while. Brad was my falconry apprentice when I was working at The Raptor Center and his Dad, who has also been up to the blind, was Rick's biology teacher back in high school. After a while, at 1:35, I noticed a Red-tailed hawk that was "locked on" but was miles away. It seemed to take forever until it finally lowered its legs and shot straight into the net. While we were out in front of the blind taking pictures of the Red-tailed hawk, Kenny spotted a Merlin that flew over us and landed in a tree close by. Oh well, I guess we missed that one! As this was Kelsey's first time up at the blind, she got to release the Red-tail. At 2:30, Kenny spotted another Red-tail "locked on" and again, it was way out there. It took what seemed like hours for it to come in, but it just kept coming in on a straight shot right into the net. I love watching those big bombers barrel in! We banded it up and Brynn got to let it go. We had one more shin bounce out that day and then we got one at 4:03. It was a nice adult female Sharp-shinned hawk to finish off the day.

We got a total of 5 birds and 2 bounce-outs on Saturday.

1 Goshawk, 2 Red-tailed hawks and 2 Sharp-shinned hawks.

Brad headed back up the shore to his place while Brynn and Kelsey went back to Duluth to get checked in to their room. They thanked us for a good day and I gave them their complimentary bookmarks, raptor I.D. sheets and one each of my art prints. They were going to spend Sunday up on Hawk Ridge and exploring Duluth. Chuck and Nancy headed for home as they had been up all week. Todd and Jenny were fixing supper in their camper and Tasha had headed home long ago with her gos. So, Mike joined Larry, Kenny, Rick and me at The Lighthouse Restaurant for supper. I ordered a nice cold beer and then decided on what I should get to eat. Hmmm, let's see, . . . what else? A hot meatloaf sandwich with fried onions and mushrooms, topped off with an extra cup of gravy. That was my 49th all-time hot meatloaf sandwich!

Sunday morning the wind was coming out of the west and the skies were clear. Larry, Rick and I headed up to the main blind and were ready to go at 7:55 am. Not much was moving at that time so I tried blowing on my predator call, thinking I might get something to come out of the woods from behind us. Sure enough, a young male Goshawk made a low pass around the blind and pulled up in the brush right behind the net. I squeaked my little Audubon birdcall as Rick pulled the lure line and we had our first bird of the day at 8:06 am. We decided that Larry should have the honor of releasing the Goshawk, so we all got set up to take shots of the release. Rick was shooting with his special slow-mo mode camera and I was ready for a still shot. Larry released the gos; it shot back around him towards the woods and right into the net. I don't think we can count that as a recapture! The second time went like a charm, so Rick ended up getting two slow-mo shots of the SAME bird! More hawks started getting up and moving. At 8:15 am, Todd caught an adult male Sharp-shinned hawk and Jenny brought it up for us to band. While she was on the way up, we caught another shin at 8:32 am. After we banded the bird that Jenny brought up, she got to release it. We caught two more shins, one at 9:42 am and one at 9:45 am. Kenny and Larry did a double release with those two. A little while later Nancy Wilson and her son Eric stopped by the blind. By then the migration had pretty much stopped. They stayed for a while and a couple birds came close but we didn't catch anything more that day. We did our obligatory "Wish-bird" sign for the group photo and they headed back to Duluth to do some sightseeing. We closed down the blind at noon.

Larry was going to stay up in Duluth for the night and head up to Hawk Ridge in the morning and it was too early for him to check in at his hotel. So, I said I would drive up to Hawk Ridge with him to show him the best way to get there. When we arrived, I ran into Erik Bruhnke, the "Naturalist on Duty", and introduced him to Larry. Erik is one of the most knowledgeable naturalists that I know and is definitely the most enthusiastic and friendly guy you could ever meet. I knew Larry would have a great time up at the ridge on Monday. After that we headed down to have my second favorite meal on the north shore, the spaghetti with meat sauce at Pizza Hut on London Road. Larry went to get checked in and I headed for home.

We got 5 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

1 Goshawk and 4 Sharp-shinned hawks.

Total for the week and weekend was 26 birds and 3 bounce-outs.

16 Sharp-shinned hawks, 5 Goshawks, 3 Red-tailed hawks and 2 Merlins.

Grand Total for the year is 76.

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. Goshawks are moving through! Young male Goshawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

02. Goshawk up in a tree behind the blind.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

03. Goshawk diving in.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

04. Natasha brought her Goshawk up so we could measure it.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

05. Natasha, Larry, Chuck with Goshawk, Nancy and Rick.

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06. Me with my old friend Larry.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

07. Young male Goshawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

08. Larry getting ready to release the Goshawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

09. Larry releasing the Goshawk.

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10. Sharp-shinned hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

11. Brynn, Kelsey (holding the shin) and Jenny.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

12. Brynn and Kelsey with the shin.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

13. Kelsey getting ready to release the shin.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

14. Kelsey releasing the shin.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

15. Young male Sharp-shinned hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

16. Young Red-tailed hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

17. Chuck banding the Red-tailed hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

18. Young Red-tailed hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

19. Rick, Brad, Kenny, Larry (holding the Red-tailed hawk), Kelsey, Brynn and Chuck.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

20. Kenny pointing to the Merlin he just spotted landing in a tree near us.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

21. Brad and I with a young Red-tailed hawk. Brad was my falconry apprentice when I worked at The Raptor Center years ago.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

22. Young Red-tailed hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

23. Brynn holding the Red-tailed hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

24. Kelsey and Brynn with the Red-tail.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

25. Kelsey getting ready to release the Red-tail.

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26. Kelsey releasing the Red-tailed hawk.

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27. Our second Red-tailed hawk of the day.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

28. Larry watching Chuck and Rick getting the Red-tailed hawk out of the net.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

29. Kenny, me and Larry with an adult Red-tailed hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

30. What a scruffy old bird!

Sixth Weekend 2012.

31. Brynn and Kelsey having a good time catching hawks.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

32. Brynn getting ready to release the adult Red-tailed hawk.

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33. Brynn releasing the Red-tail. Sorry it's so blurry.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

34. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk doing the "coming in" pose.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

35. Larry, Kelsey, Brynn, Chuck, Kenny and Rick with the shin.

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36. Sharp-shinned hawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

37. Sharp-shinned hawk doing the "diving in" pose.

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38. Sunday morning Goshawk that we called in with a predator call.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

39. Me and Larry holding up the Goshawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

40. Profile of a young male Goshawk.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

41. Here I am getting ready to band the gos.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

42. Banding the young male Goshawk.

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43. Larry releasing the Goshawk.

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44. Young male Goshawk.

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45. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

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46. Rick, Larry and Jenny with a couple shins.

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47. Two adult Sharp-shinned hawks.

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48. Jenny releasing a shin.

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49. Larry and Kenny getting ready to do a double release.

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50. Larry and Kenny doing a double release.

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51. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

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52. Eric, me and Nancy doing the "Wish-bird" sign, as we didn't get any birds while they were up.

Sixth Weekend 2012.

53. I know that raptors are descendents of the dinosaurs, but I was quite surprised to see this coming down the shore near a gas station. Hmmmm?

Sixth Weekend 2012.