Second Weekend of Banding 2013

Hi All,

This is my second report of the banding season for the weekend of September 07, 2013.

On Saturday morning, September 7^th, I met my old friend Marc Rude at the North Branch exit around 5:15 am. He put his gear into my car and we headed for Duluth. We got there around 7:15 am and met Rick and Chuck at the McDonalds on London Road. After a quick bite to eat, we all drove on to the campsite, set up camp and then loaded all the banding gear into my old Dodge Caravan. It now lives at the campsite and is just used for storing and hauling all our stuff out to the main blind in the Mattson hayfield. Trudi and Nancy stayed home this weekend, but Jenny, Todd's wife, was up for the weekend to help out down at his trapping site on our land. Marc set out the decoy owl and crows, I set up the blind while Rick and Chuck set the nets. We were all set up and ready to go at 8:45.

Winds were light out of the Southwest, the sky was clear, the air temperature was very hot. Nothing was moving until around 9:00 when we saw a shin and crow having a dogfight out over the ridge. A young female Northern harrier did a few circuits around the field and took off toward the Southwest without even batting an eye at us. At 10:00 we were watching some Eagles and Turkey vultures passing over when Brynn Johnson drove up with three of her friends (Kelsey Griffin, Holly Grams and Katy Shimizu) who volunteer with her for The Raptor Center at the University of Minnesota. Brynn has been coming up for many years with her Dad and last year she bought Kelsey along.

Our first bird on Saturday at 11:15 was a young Red-tailed hawk that dropped from about 200 feet directly above the blind and then parachuted through the tree tops and hit the back of the front net. We were only able to see the last few feet of the approach through the branches before it hit the net. Chuck banded it and we got out the cameras to get some shots. As this was Holly and Katy's first time up at the blind, they picked Katy to release the Red-tail.

At 11:30, Randy Burington, who is Marc's falconry apprentice, joined us at the blind. He brought along his Red-tail that he just got and started training a week ago. He also brought up 20 sausage biscuits from McDonalds, in case we didn't have any breakfast at the blind. Thanks, Randy, for being so thoughtful and generous.

The next bird to come in, at 12:45, was another young Red-tailed hawk that put on a much better show for our visitors than the first one did. It started a long flat stoop from way out near the barn and dropped its long legs down for the grab when it was still about 200 feet out! Now THAT was something to see! After some more photos, Holly let this one go.

A few minutes after we took the second Red-tail out of the net, a young female Peregrine falcon came in from the North, made a low pass over us and kept on going to the South. At 1:25 another young female Peregrine was spotted coming toward us from out over the lake. This one showed a lot more interest in our lure and made 6 blistering stoops at the nets, just missing them each time, banking up and rolling in again. It finally got bored with us and took off for the Southwest. That was a great demonstration of a Peregrine's speed and agility.

Our last bird of the day was a young male Merlin. Two small falcons were chasing each other around, high over the East end of our field at 2:20; one was a Kestrel and the other was the Merlin. Rick started luring and the Merlin broke off its chase and shot straight in to the net. I'm sure the Kestrel was thankful for our distraction to his little tormentor. Chuck banded it and we took a load of photos. Merlins are one of Brynn's favorite birds so she was chosen to release this one.

We got a total of 3 birds and no bounce outs on Saturday.

2 Red-tailed hawks and 1 Merlin.

After we closed down the blind for the night, Brynn, Kelsey, Holly and Katy headed back to their hotel in Duluth. Randy went home and Jenny, Todd, Marc, Rick, Chuck, and I headed over to the Lighthouse Restaurant for supper. Greg Mikkelson was trapping at his site on Hawk Hill and stopped by to join us for supper. I ordered my 53rd hot meatloaf sandwich with fried onions, mushrooms and an extra bowl of gravy. Marc thought it looked pretty good, so he ordered one too. We had a nice dinner and Greg came back with us to camp at our place and hang out by the campfire.

Sunday morning Marc slept in while Rick, Chuck and I opened up the main blind just after 7:00. The skies were partly cloudy and a brisk wind was rising from the Northeast. Jenny and Todd were up and going around 7:30 and had one shin come in and bounce out right away. There seemed to be a lot of birds already up and moving around, trying to catch a thermal.

The first bird to come in on Sunday morning at 7:25 was a young female Sharp-shinned hawk. It bombed in from high out over the middle of the field. Chuck banded it and we took some more photos. I got to release that one since Brynn and her friends were on the way, but had not arrived yet. At 7:45 while Rick was trying to lure in a shin from out over the pines to the North of us, a young male Merlin shot in to the net from the South. We totally missed its approach. At 8:07, the same thing happened again. We were all looking at a shin coming in from the East this time, when a young male Merlin blasted in from the North. Go figure!

At 8:16 we caught a young female Sharp-shinned hawk that dropped in high from the North. Things got really slow after that and we had one more young male Sharp-shinned hawk take a shot at the nets; he hit the very top line and bounced out. Kelsey was the only one that did not get a chance to release a bird on Saturday, so she was first up and got to pick what bird she wanted to release. She chose a Merlin and with the encouragement of her buddies, released it. Brynn released the other Merlin and Katy let the shin go after we all took a ton of photos. Around 11:00 we had another Merlin, this time a large young female, make one pass at the net, miss it, and then she kept on going. We also saw an Osprey come right over us trying to catch a thermal while carrying a fish in its feet. We decided to close down at noon. After that, I made sure that each of the young ladies got a couple bookmarks, a raptor identification sheet, and a signed art print along with my usual migration schpeel before they took off for the Twin Cities.

We got a total of 4 birds and one bounce out on Sunday.

2 Sharp-shinned hawks and 2 Merlins.

Total for the weekend was 7 birds and only one bounce-out.

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

Grand Total for the year is 25.

In an effort to keep this file small and save me some time resizing photos, I am including my

"North Shore Banding - Frank Taylor" link so you can look at the photos from this last weekend.

Click on the link below and then scroll down below the report to see all the photos. You can also review any of my weekly reports from last year as well by clicking on the 2012 links at the right side of that page.

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)

If you would like, you can friend me on Facebook.

Look up . . . https://www.facebook.com/Frank.Taylor.Raptor.Specialist

Keep your eyes on the skies.

Frank & Trudi Taylor

01. First bird of the day, a young Red-tailed hawk.

Second Weekend 2013.

02. Chuck and Rick taking the Red-tail out of the net.

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03. Chuck and the Red-tail.

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04. Katy, Kelsey, Brynn and Holly watching Chuck take a tail measurement.

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05. Kelsey, Holly, me, Katy and Brynn with Red-tail.

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06. Brynn and young Red-tail.

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07. Brynn and young Red-tail.

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08. Kelsey and young Red-tail.

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09. Kelsey and young Red-tail.

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10. Holly and young Red-tail.

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11. Holly and young Red-tail.

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12. Katy and young Red-tail.

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13. Katy and young Red-tail.

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14. Kelsey and Holly with Katy about to release Red-tail.

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15. Kelsey and Holly with Katy releasing Red-tail.

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16. Marc and Randy with the Red-tail Randy trapped for falconry about a week ago, near his house.    

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17. Randy showing his Red-tail to the group.

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18. Second young Red-tailed hawk to come in on Saturday.

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19. Marc holding our second Red-tail of the day.

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20. Young Red-tailed hawk.

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21. Young Red-tailed hawk.

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22. Young Red-tailed hawk.

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23. Katy, Holly, Kelsey and Brynn with the Red-tail.

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24. Katy and Kelsey watching Holly, who is about to launch the Red-tail.

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25. Holly releasing Red-tail. Dang, just a little too late on the shutter.

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26. Saturday's Merlin in the "Coming in" pose.

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27. Rick, me, Brynn and Chuck with the Merlin.

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28. Young male Merlin.

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29. Brynn holding the Merlin.

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30. Kelsey holding the Merlin.

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31. Holly holding the Merlin.

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32. Katy holding the Merlin.

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33. Randy holding the Merlin.

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34. Randy, Kelsey, Katy and Holly with Brynn about to release the Merlin.

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35. Brynn releasing the Merlin.

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36. Young Sharp-shinned hawk doing the "Coming in" pose on Sunday morning.

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37. Rick holding the first shin we caught on Sunday.

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38. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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39. Chuck banding the first shin of the day.

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40. Chuck took a shot of me releasing the shin.

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41. First Merlin to come in on Sunday.

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42. Chuck holding the Merlin.

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43. Chuck banding the Merlin.

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44. Young male Merlin.

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45. Second young male Merlin on Sunday.

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46. Chuck banding the second Merlin.

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47. Young male Merlin.

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48. Me posing with two Merlins about 20 years ago.

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49. Me posing with two Merlins on Sunday 9-8-13,

(I've had my hair "lightened" since the previous picture).

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50. Marc holding two Merlins.

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51. Marc making fun of me posing with two Merlins.

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52. Our second young female Sharp-shinned hawk on Sunday.

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53. Katy, Holly, Brynn and Kelsey holding Merlins and shin.

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54. Katy, Holly, Brynn and Kelsey holding Merlins and shin.

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55. Kelsey holding Merlin she is about to release.

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56. Holly, Katy and Brynn watching Kelsey releasing a Merlin.

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57. Kelsey, Holly and Katy watching Brynn releasing a Merlin.

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58. Brynn, Kelsey and Holly watching Katy release the shin.

Second Weekend 2013.