Fifth Weekend of Banding 2014

September 27, 2014

Hi All,

Here is my fifth report of the 2014 banding season, covering the weekend of September 27, 2014.

Saturday morning, Trudi and I met Chuck at the Spirit Mountain McDonalds at 8:30 am for breakfast. Nancy and Rick both had commitments at home this weekend and couldn't be there. Todd was already at Hawk Harbor when we arrived and he brought his new Red-tailed hawk along. Chris Funke, an apprentice falconer, was also there to help Todd with the hawk spotting for the weekend. We packed our gear into the old van and headed up to the banding station. Skies were clear with light winds from the east. We were ready to go at 10:30, but things were a little slower this weekend. We had just started when Chris came up to see our operation at the main blind. We had our first bird, a shin, come in at 10:55, but it bounced out! Drat!!! Hawks one, banders zero. We didn't catch our first bird until 11:07, an adult female Sharp-shinned hawk. At 11:30, we had a young female Peregrine falcon come by from the north and fly over our blind, but it didn't come in. A lot of hawks were moving, but they were mostly adult shins and kestrels that would stoop in but go high over the top of our nets.

Right after we got started, Professor Chad Heins brought up his group of students from Bethany Lutheran College. Again this year, their trip was arranged through the Bethany Hawk Watch Group operated by Chad in Mankato, Minnesota. The Bethany group originally started coming up to see us in 2006 when my niece Sarah was in their Science Club. We were showing the students how we do the banding on our first shin, when we caught a second one. Abe got to release the first one and Abby got to release the second one. At 1:05, we spotted a large accipiter "locked on" and in a long shallow glide from out near the barn. We watched it grow bigger and bigger, until an adult female Cooper's hawk ploughed right into the net. We banded it and Zeffie got to let it go.

At 2:07, we had an adult female Peregrine falcon stoop our fake owl and make a fast pass over the blind. Everyone got a real close look at it. We caught four more shins that day before we closed down at 5:00. I did my little migration talk for the students and handed out bookmarks, art prints and raptor identification sheets when we got back down to the van.

Chad and the students usually stay at a state campground, but this year because there were so few of them, we invited them to stay at Hawk Harbor. When we got back down to the campsite, Todd brought out his red-tail to show to the students. After that, while they were getting their gear sorted in to the various trailers at our place, my cousin Tom Schuster and his wife Corinne stopped by with their extended family. Tom and Corinne, along with their children and grandchildren, were spending the weekend sight seeing along the North Shore. We gave them a tour of Hawk Harbor and handed out some bookmarks, art prints and raptor identification sheets before they headed back to their hotel in Duluth.

Todd and the Bethany group started the campfire to cook their supper while Chris, Chuck, Trudi and I drove over to Emily's Lighthouse restaurant for ours. As this was my 65th birthday, Chris bought supper for all of us. Thank you, Chris! To celebrate my 65th birthday, I ordered, you guessed it, my 66th hot meatloaf sandwich with fried onions, mushrooms and an extra bowl of gravy. When we got back to Hawk Harbor, there was a roaring campfire going and Zach, another member of the Bethany group, had joined us. He brought up a big bag of honey crisp apples for everyone to enjoy. Thank you, Zach!

We got a total of 7 birds and 1 bounce-out on Saturday.

6 Sharp-shinned hawks and 1 Cooper's hawk.

Sunday morning, Chuck, Chris, Trudi and I walked up to the main blind. On the way up, I had to drop my gear and get a shot of the incredibly beautiful sunrise, coming up through the fog. We set the nets and had everything ready to go by 7:30. Winds were freshening out of the southwest and the skies were clear. Chad and Abe came up right away, followed by Zach. Chris went back down to help Todd when Abby and Zeffie arrived. We got our first bird of the day, a young female Sharp-shinned hawk at 7:42 and Todd caught a little immy male shin at 8:10. We banded them and had Zach and Zeffie let them go. We had two bounce-outs (shins) and caught another shin at 9:50. Birds were getting up and moving in a steady stream all day. At 10:10, we had another shin bounce out and at the same time, Todd caught another shin down at his site. Everyone in the group got to release a bird.

Around 10:30, we were honored to have Roy Zimmerman, who is President of the Minnesota Ornithologists Union, join us for the day. We caught four more shins before the Bethany Group had to leave. One of the shins came in while Trudi and I were out in front of the blind talking to our "up north neighbor" Don Zerbies, who came up on his four wheeler to bring us some tomatoes from his garden. He couldn't believe it as the shin flew right past the three of us, out in the open, and went right into the net. The students went back down to Hawk Harbor to pack up their gear while Roy stayed on at the blind and got to release the shins.

Just after the students left for Hawk Ridge, we had a young female Peregrine falcon make a quick pass over the blind, but it didn't get caught. After that, an adult Red-tailed hawk made a heart-stopping stoop at the nets, but pulled up at the last second, no doubt a preview of things to come in October. We also saw a lot of Northern Harriers drop out of thermals to hunt the field and then catch another one to ride up on and continue their migration. We caught three more shins. The last one was a very old shin that was already banded!!! At 1:50, another Peregrine falcon came by. This one was an adult female. She made three passes at the net and didn't get caught, but we got a really close look at her. The final bird to come in that day was a shin at 2:15. It stooped in over the front net, hit the back net, bounced out of that side and then hit the other arm of the back net and bounced out of that one too! Oh well! Everything seemed to dry up after that so we closed down at 3:00 and headed home.

We got a total of 11 birds and 4 bounce-outs on Sunday.

11 Sharp-shinned hawks.

Grand Total for the year is 133.

Age and sex of all birds that bounce-out are obviously a "best guesstimate" by the closest witness and should not be considered hard data.

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. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

02. Chris holding an adult shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

03. Bethany College group holding a Sharp-shinned hawk.

Left to right: Prof. Chad Heins, Zeffie, Abby, Frank and Abe.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

04. Chad holding an adult and a young Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

05. Comparing the adult and immy.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

06. Frank showing Abby, Zeffie and Abe how we band the hawks.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

07. Abe got to do the first release.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

08. Abe about to release the shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

09. Abe releasing the shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

10. Abby getting ready to release a shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

11. Abby releasing the shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

12. Cooper's hawk doing the "Coming In" pose.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

13. Banding the adult female Cooper's hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

14. Cooper's hawk with "Attitude".

Fifth Weekend 2014.

15. Group photo with the Cooper's hawk.

Left to right: Abby, Abe, Trudi, Chuck, Zeffie and Chad.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

16. Zeffie about to release the Cooper's hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

17. Zeffie releasing the Cooper's hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

18. Adult female Cooper's hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

19. Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

20. Chad holding a shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

21. Chad listening to what the shin is telling him to go do.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

22. Chad releasing the shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

23. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

24. Todd showing the Bethany group his Red-tailed hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

25. Todd showing his hawk to my cousin Tom's (in orange t-shirt) family.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

26. Handing out bookmarks, art prints and raptor identification sheets to cousin Tom's family.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

27. Total group shot down at Hawk Harbor.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

28. Chuck, Chris, Trudi and me (The Birthday Boy) having supper at Emily's Lighthouse restaurant.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

29. Foggy sunrise as we were hiking back up to the main blind on Sunday morning.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

30. Young male Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

31. Zack (who came up late Saturday night) holding a young Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

32. Zach releasing the shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

33. Zeffie about to release another shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

34. Adult shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

35. Abe about to release a shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

36. Abe releasing the shin.

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37. Zach getting ready to release another shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

38. Zach releasing a shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

39. Chad about to release a shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

40. Chad releasing the shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

41.  Roy Zimmerman, President of the Minnesota Ornithologists Union,  joined the Bethany group on Sunday.

Left to right: Zeffie, Abby, Zach, me, Chad, Chuck, Roy and Abe.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

42. Young male Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

43. Trudi, Roy, holding a shin, and me.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

44. Trudi, Roy and me.

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45. Roy holding a young Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.

46. Roy releasing the young Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

47. Adult Sharp-shinned hawk doing the "Coming-In" pose.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

48. Roy Zimmerman, President of the Minnesota Ornithologists Union, about to release the adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

49. Roy releasing the shin.

Fifth Weekend 2014. 

50. Close up of a very old Sharp-shinned hawk.

Fifth Weekend 2014.