September 13,
2014
Hi All,
Here is my third report
of the 2014 banding season, covering the weekend of September 13, 2014.
What a weekend! We broke
our "All Time" record of hawks trapped in one day on Sunday!!
Saturday morning,
September 13, Trudi and I met Rick, Nancy and Chuck at the Spirit Mountain McDonalds
at 7:30 am for a quick breakfast. Todd was already at Hawk Harbor to greet us
when we arrived. We packed our gear into the old white van and headed up to the
main blind, set up, and began trapping at 9:45 am. Skies were clear with almost
no wind. The first three birds to come in were young shins, a female at 10:13,
a male at 10:15 (both in the back net) and another female at 10:30 (into the
front net). At 10:35, Professor Bill Tefft brought 14 Ely Field Naturalists up
to the blind to join us, and three people in his group got to release a shin.
We are always glad to welcome Bill’s group each year from Ely. They have been
coming up to see us for 9 years now. They left just after noon to visit Hawk
Ridge.
The next three birds were
young Merlins, at 1:33 (female), 1:34 (male from Todd), and 1:52 (female) with
winds picking up slightly out of the West-southwest. One of the Merlins had had
an altercation with something that pulled out a bunch of its primaries and
tail-feathers. By the looks of the new growth, I would say it must have
happened about a month ago. Duluth friends Jen Harner and Walter Sipila came up
to see us at around 2:00 and later, Karin and Jeff Stedman came by. They were all
there for the last two hawks of the day, both young female shins at 3:20 and
4:32 respectively. The first bird of the day and the last two came in with full
crops. We shut down at 5:30 pm.
Todd stayed at Hawk
Harbor to fix dinner with his daughter Jessie and her friend Matt who had come
up to help Todd and camp out at our place. Karin and Jeff headed home and Chuck,
Nancy, Jen, Walter, Trudi and I took Rick out for a birthday dinner at Emily’s
Lighthouse restaurant. I will not turn 65 years old until September 27th, so I
was able to order my "Golden Meatloaf Sandwich" (that would be my 64th
hot meatloaf sandwich while I am still 64 years old), with
fried onions, mushrooms and an extra bowl of gravy for supper that night. After dinner we went
back to Hawk Harbor and sat around the new and enlarged campfire before retiring
for the night.
We got a total of 8 birds
and 0 bounce-outs on Saturday.
5 Sharp-shinned hawks and
3 Merlins.
Sunday morning we began
trapping at 7:45 am with light Southwest winds and a clear sky. Our first bird
at 8:37 am was a young male shin. This was the first of many birds to come in
that day!
WE HAD AN "ALL-TIME"
RECORD BREAKING DAY!
So that I don’t end up
with a five-page report, I will give you only the times and sex on each bird
that came in or bounced out. All the birds that day (with the exception of
one Merlin that bounced into and out of the nets twice at 2:50 and 2:51) were
shins, and all but one adult female who came in at 10:12 were young birds. What
a day!!!
At 8:37 while the male shin
hit the front net, another one bounced out of the back net. At 8:45 a female
bounced out, at 8:47 we got a male and at 8:55 we got another female.
9:40: STOP THE PRESSES!
What’s that? A Pileated woodpecker in the back net?
What a sight! What a hairdo!
We had just released the
Pileated at 9:30 when we were joined by world-renowned author and photographer
Stan Tekiela who brought up his group of 8 from the Staring Lake Nature Center
in Eden Prairie, Minnesota. Good to see lots of returning friends in this group
as they have been coming up for the last seven years! After a few years of
rain-outs and no-bird days, it was a great pleasure to be able to have everyone
in Stan's group get to release a hawk. A couple people in the group got to let
two birds go. Even Stan got to release a bird this time. Check out his website
at http://www.naturesmart.com if you
want to get in on some of his entertaining and informative field trips.
Meanwhile, the shins just
wouldn’t stop coming in. At 10:12 we got our only haggard female, at 10:25
another female, 11:15 a male bounced out, 11:22 we got a female, 11:45 another female,
11:55 a female, 12:00 a female, 12:08 a female, 12:12 a female, 12:30 a female,
12:53 a male, 1:03 a female bounced out, 1:05 we got a male, 1:12 a female bounced
out, 1:14 the same shin came back in and bounced out again! 1:15 the same shin
came back in for a third time!! This time we got her. At 1:25 we got a male, 1:40
another male, 1:45 a female, 2:02 a female, 2:15 a female and at 2:20 another
female.
At 2:32 we saw a
peregrine who, deciding we were too busy with shins, flew down the road South
of us and did NOT come in.
At 2:42 WE GOT A DOUBLE, a
male in the back net and a female in the front net. At 2:50 and 2:51 the only
Merlin to come in that day hit twice and bounced out twice. At 2:58 we had a
male shin that bounced out twice. At 2:59 we caught a male that was chased in
by a female that we missed. At 3:04 a male bounced out and at 3:10 we got a male.
STILL WITH US??? Remember, all these birds had to be released while the others
kept coming in!
At 3:18 we got a male,
3:30 another male, 3:40 a male, 3:47 a male, 3:50 a female bounced out and at
the same time, a female came in and we got her, 3:55 another female, 4:03 a
female, 4:08 a male, 4:18 a male, 4:29 a female bounced out, 4:42 a male bounced
out, 4:43 we got a male, 4:45 another male, 4:48 a male, 4:58 a female bounced
out, 5:07 another female bounced out and at 5:30 we got the last bird of the
day, a young female Sharp-shinned hawk. We shut down at 5:35 pm and headed for home.
A big THANK YOU to Nancy
for getting all of this data recorded in the book.
We got a total of 38
birds and 16 bounce-outs on Sunday.
38 Sharp-shinned hawks
and 1 Pileated woodpecker (which we didn't band and we don't count).
Grand Total for the year
is 59.
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.
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01. First bird of the weekend, a young female
Sharp-shinned hawk.
Third Weekend 2014.
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02. Meeting Bill's group down at the van and checking
out passing hawks.
Third Weekend 2014.
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03. Bill Tefft brought up his group, the Ely Field
Naturalists.
Third Weekend 2014.
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04. Showing them a shin we just caught.
Third Weekend 2014.
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05. Showing Jasper how to hold the shin he is about to
release.
Third Weekend 2014.
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06. Jasper letting the shin go.
Third Weekend 2014.
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07. Size comparison of young male and female
Sharp-shinned hawks.
Third Weekend 2014.
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08. Lots of "Grins with Shins" from left to
right:
Gloria, Katheryn, Joanna (in stroller), Bill, Ami,
Rebecca, Joseph, Chuck, Jasper, Karen, Gabriel, Jerritt, Frank, Anne, Abby,
Sherry and Patrick.
Third Weekend 2014.
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09. Gabriel getting ready to release a shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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10. Gabriel releasing the shin with great form.
Third Weekend 2014.
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11. Trudi carrying Joanna down to the van.
Third Weekend 2014.
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12. Back down at the van doing my little migration talk
for the group.
Third Weekend 2014.
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13. Handing out art prints, bookmarks and info sheets to
the group.
Third Weekend 2014.
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14. Young Merlin doing the "Coming In" pose.
Third Weekend 2014.
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15. Todd bringing up a Merlin that he caught down at
Hawk Harbor to be banded.
Third Weekend 2014.
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16. "Profile Pose" of a young Merlin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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17. Nancy holding a Merlin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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18. Nancy comparing sizes of young male and female
Merlins.
Third Weekend 2014.
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19. Chuck, Nancy and Rick holding three Merlins.
Third Weekend 2014.
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20. This Merlin was re-growing some of its primary
feathers and all of its tail feathers.
Third Weekend 2014.
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21. Chuck showing us the short primaries and tail feathers.
Makes you wonder what happened to this bird, probably
about a month ago.
Third Weekend 2014.
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22. Chuck banding the tail-less Merlin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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23. Rick releasing one of the Merlins.
Third Weekend 2014.
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24. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk doing the
"Coming In" pose.
Third Weekend 2014.
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25. Walter and Jen holding a Sharp-shinned hawk.
Third Weekend 2014.
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26. Walter and Jen releasing the shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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27. Young shin doing the "Yearbook" pose.
Third Weekend 2014.
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28. Jeff and Karin holding a shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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29. Jeff and Karin releasing the shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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30. Todd, Jesse and Matt at the campfire.
Third Weekend 2014.
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31. Nancy, Chuck, Walter, Rick (Birthday Boy), Jen and Trudi at The
Lighthouse restaurant.
(With my "Golden" hot meatloaf sandwich.)
Third Weekend 2014.
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32. Chuck holding the Pileated woodpecker Sunday morning.
Third Weekend 2014.
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33. "Profile Pose" of a Pileated woodpecker.
Third Weekend 2014.
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34. Comparison of female young and adult Sharp-shinned
hawks.
Third Weekend 2014.
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35. Stan Tekiela's Staring Lake Nature Center group with
shins.
Left to right: Stan, Ingrid, Roberta, Ellis, Leah, Alyssa,
Chris, Maria and Steve.
Third Weekend 2014.
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36. Main blind overflow group looking for hawks.
Third Weekend 2014.
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37. Chuck showing guests how we band the birds.
Third Weekend 2014.
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38. Stan's group with banders.
Left to right: Stan, Ingrid, Nancy, Roberta, Ellis,
Leah, Alyssa, Chuck, Chris, Maria, Steve, Trudi and Frank.
Third Weekend 2014.
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39. Roberta, Ellis, Alyssa, Chris and Maria with shins
to release.
Third Weekend 2014.
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40. Leah holding a shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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41. Ingrid releasing a shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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42. Steve releasing a shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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43. Frank filming Ellis and Steve releasing their second
shins of the day.
Third Weekend 2014.
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44. Stan getting a "closer look" at the shin
he is about to release.
Third Weekend 2014.
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45. Stan releasing the shin.
Third Weekend 2014.
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46. Sunday, September 14, 2014, we broke our "All
Time Record" for number of hawks banded in one day.
Our old record was 32 hawks banded in one day. Today we
banded a total of 38, all Sharp-shinned hawks.
Third Weekend 2014.
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