Hi All,
Here is my tenth and final report of the banding season
for the weekend of November 2, 2013.
On Saturday morning, November 2nd, Trudi and I met Rick,
Nancy and Chuck at the Burger King on London Road. We had some breakfast and
then drove to the campsite. Todd was already set up when we got there as he had
come up on Friday and had caught three rough-legs. We had all the bands with us
so none of them got banded. The field was still pretty wet so we loaded our
gear into Rick's truck and drove to the main blind. A big rough-leg bombed the
fake owl as we unloaded Rick's truck. The sky was cloudy and the wind was out
of the Northwest at 5 to 10 mph. We were ready to start at 9:00.
Nancy spotted a harrier dropping into the field just after
9:15, but not much else was moving. Randy Burington stopped in to spend the day
and my brother Mike also came up with his son Andrew. Andrew was there to work with us on a conservation project
for his college class.
At 9:30 a young Rough-legged hawk made a long, shallow stoop
into Todd's rig and we didn't see it come back out. A few minutes later, Todd
brought it up for us to band. We took a bunch of photos and then Nancy released
the rough-leg. That was the only bird we caught that day. We saw lots of
rough-legs, a few eagles, and a couple of red-tails moving South. Kenny Wagner
also came by to sit in with Todd. I spent the rest of the day explaining how
our trapping station operates and the dynamics of "North Shore"
migration to Andrew for his class project. At 4:30 we closed down.
We got a total of 1 bird
and 0 bounce-outs on Saturday.
1 Rough-legged hawk.
After we closed down the blind, Trudi, Rick, Chuck,
Nancy, Todd, Kenny and I headed over to meet Greg Mikkelson and Bob Crosbie at
Emily's Light House Restaurant for supper. Bob was up trapping with Greg on his
hill for the weekend. I ordered my 61st hot meatloaf sandwich with fried
onions, mushrooms and an extra bowl of gravy. So did two other people, just to
see what was so good. Greg bought Trudi and my supper to thank us for camping
at our place. He also has supplied us with cut-up oak pallets for our campfires
all season. Thank you, Greg! After dinner, we all went back over to our
campsite for our traditional campfire and to recount the season's highlights
and lowlights.
On Sunday morning, we woke up to a frost covered field. Even
though it was so cold, a lot of little cream-colored moths were slowly rising
up out of the frosty grass. We set up the blind and settled in to scan for some
hawks at 8:30. The skies cleared up for a while and there was no wind. However,
the only thing moving about was a Downy woodpecker determined to get a load of
bugs. He kept hammering away at the top of our lure tree. We saw only one
eagle, one rough-leg and one goshawk by 10:35. At 10:35 we caught the goshawk.
Everyone was out watching the woodpecker when Rick yelled, "Duck into the
blind"! The gos was passing low to the North of us and almost passed us when
Rick spotted it. As soon as it saw the lure, it ploughed right in. We saw a lot
of gulls passing by and a few groups of rough-legs. Three of them made passes
at our lure but none were caught. One rough-leg was only 6 inches from the net
when it put on the air brakes and shot straight up into the air. At 12:30 we
closed down for the season.
We got a total of 1 bird and 0 bounce-outs on Sunday.
1 Northern goshawk.
Total for the weekend was 2 birds and 0 bounce-outs.
1 Rough-legged hawk and 1 Northern goshawk.
Grand Total for the year is 127.
I would like to say a big THANK YOU to all the members of
our banding team for their great work, to Mr. Roy Mattson for the use of his
field, and to Bob Crosbie for our lure birds. They all made this memorable
season possible. Thank you, as well, to everyone who visited the blind this
season and to all our friends who came up to camp out with us, sharing our
campfires and dinners at the Light House Restaurant. Trudi and I would like to
invite you all to come up and do it again next year!
A special Thank You to my sweetheart Trudi for editing all
these reports and correcting all my misspellings and bad grammar.
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
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01. First bird of the day, a Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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02. Rough-leg doing the "Coming In" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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03. Todd caught the rough-leg and brought it up for us
to band.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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04. Looking at the feather pattern.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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05. Chuck banding the rough-leg.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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06. Chuck, Randy and my nephew Andrew.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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07. Explaining our operation to Andrew for his class
project.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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08. Andrew scoping for hawks.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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09. Rough-leg looking at Andrew.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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10. Rough-legged hawk doing the "Are You Lookin at
Me" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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11. Frank and Trudi with the rough-leg.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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12. Young Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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13. Todd, Nancy, Rick, Chuck and Trudi with the
Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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14. Nancy and Chuck posing with the Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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15. Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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16. Chuck and Nancy getting ready to release the
rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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17. Chuck helping Nancy release the Rough-legged hawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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18. Kenny, Bob, Greg, Trudi, Nancy, Chuck and Rick at
the Light House Restaurant.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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19. Todd, Greg, Bob, Kenny, Trudi, Rick, Chuck and Nancy
at the campfire.
Notice the eyes reflecting from the woods!
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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20. Frosty Sunday morning over Lake Superior.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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21. Downy woodpecker hammering away above the blind.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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22. Young male Northern goshawk doing the "Coming
In" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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23. Rick and Chuck taking the gos out of the net.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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24. Young male Northern goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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25. Chuck banding the goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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26. Goshawk in the "Thinking Man" pose.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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27. Rick, Nancy, Chuck and Trudi posing with the goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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28. Young male Northern goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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29. Rick getting ready to release the goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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30. Rick releasing our last bird of the year, a Northern
goshawk.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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31. Bringing in the fake owl and pole, last thing to do
when closing down the station for the year.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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32. Trudi and I want to say "Thank You" to everyone for
making this such a fun season.
Tenth Weekend 2013.
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