2nd Weekend of Banding 2016

Hi All,

On Saturday morning the 10th of September, Trudi and I met Rick at Hawk Harbor around 8:00. Todd and Jenny came up Friday night and were already there. Nancy and Chuck couldn't make it this weekend as they had a class reunion to go to. We loaded up Rick's truck and drove to the main blind.

Skies were clear with a light wind blowing out of the Northwest. We were set up and ready to start banding at 9:00 am. Todd caught the first bird of the weekend, a young female Sharp-shinned hawk, and Jenny brought it up to us.

Just before 10:00, Butch Ukura arrived with eight members of the Bee Nay She Bird Club from the Brainerd, Minnesota, area. We gave them the standard migration talk and handouts and got everyone settled in. Last year this group came up for the first time and we didn't get any birds while they were there.

Before we could set up a release of our first bird, a young female shin popped up near the owl. Rick pulled the lure and we caught it right in front of the group at 10:01. At 10:02 Jenny came back up to the blind, this time with a beautiful female Merlin that they had caught down at Hawk Harbor. We took a bunch of photos, showed the group how we did the banding and set up a "guess the number" game to see who would get to release the birds. Marilyn, Linda and Doug were the lucky winners. We did the three releases and got back into the blinds.

Three more shins came in at 10:50, 11:00 and 11:01, but they all bounced out. Even though we didn't catch them, they provided a great show for the group. This was turning out to be a much better day than they had experienced last year. At 11:34 another young shin came bombing in from out over the owl and hit the front net. We banded it, took some photos and Nancy got to release that one. We caught one more shin at 11:55 while they were there. We took some photos of it with people who didn't win a release and Pam picked the number that won the release of that bird. At noon the group headed for Duluth to do some birding there.

What a great day it was turning out to be! We caught two more shins and had two shins bounce out before Mattie Lasch, the president of the Minnesota Falconers Association, came up. The MFA was holding its monthly meeting in Duluth that night so Mattie and his dad Glen were camping out at Hawk Harbor. We caught five more shins, so we all got to release some shins. At 1:45 a young Red-tailed hawk dropped in from the North but pulled up short and sat in the trees behind the blind. It gave us the "once over" and took off.

We had one more shin bounce out and caught two more shins before Mattie's dad Glen came up. At 2:40 Todd caught a young male Merlin. We took some photos of the Merlin and Mattie did the release. We caught another shin at 2:50 and Glen let that one go.

Later that afternoon Carolyn Standlee-Hanson came up to see us. Carolyn is an MFA member from Saint Charles, Minnesota, who came up to camp at Hawk Harbor and attend the MFA meeting that night. We caught a shin while she was walking up to the blind so we banded it, took some photos, and she let that one go. We caught two more shins while Carolyn was there and she got to release them as well. 

We caught our last bird of the day, a young female Sharp-shinned hawk, at 4:28. We banded it and took a shot of Rick letting it go. We closed down at 5:00.

A few more MFA members showed up at Hawk Harbor to camp and go to the meeting. We all drove into Duluth for the meeting at 6:30 and ate supper right afterwards at the Perkins on London Court Road. Todd and Jenny had a nice campfire going for us when we got back to Hawk Harbor.

We got a total of 21 birds and 8 bounce-outs on Saturday.

2 Merlins and 19 Sharp-shinned hawks.

The campers started getting up at Hawk Harbor around 6:30 Sunday morning to make coffee or to fix some hot chocolate and have some of the delicious cookies that Carolyn made. Trudi and I jumped on the tailgate of Rick's truck for the ride up to the blind. We were set up and ready for birds at 7:30.

Sunday morning had a bit of cloud cover and no wind. Rick noticed that the wind was supposed to start blowing hard from the south by noon. Right after we started, Joe Dargay, the secretary of the MFA, came to sit in with us. Our first bird of the day was a young male shin that was out in front hunting the bushes and got caught at 7:42. We caught another young male shin at 8:17 and at 8:38 we caught an adult female shin in the back net. We took our photos, banded them and Joe got to release them.

Two more shins came in at 8:56 and 10:02. Trudi and Rick let them go. We noticed a long line of migrating birds coming toward us around 10:00; it was a huge flock of American White Pelicans! At 10:34 a young Red-tailed hawk was spotted getting up in the middle of the field. It flew a couple loops out around the owl and then spotted the lure and came right in. After catching small shins all day, the tail looked like a big bomber coming in! We banded it, took our photos and Rick released it since it was his birthday. We caught one more shin at 11:03. The wind was coming hard out of the South and the birds seemed to stop moving, so we closed down at noon.

We got a total of 7 birds and no bounce outs on Sunday.

6 Sharp-shinned hawks and 1 Red-tailed hawk.

Total for the weekend was 28 birds and 8 bounce-outs.

2 Merlins, 25 Sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Red-tailed hawk.

Grand Total for the year is 37.

Scroll down to see my photos covering this report.

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. A young Sharp-shinned hawk was the first bird of the weekend.

Second Week of Banding 2016

02. Rick, Jenny and Trudi with the shin.

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03. Frank banding the shin.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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04. Giving handouts to members of the Bee Nay She Bird Club.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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05. Young Sharp-shinned hawk.

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06. Young female Merlin.

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07. Showing the bird club how we band the birds.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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08. Showing members of the bird club how to hold the hawks.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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09. Lorrene, Doug, Linda, Lesley, Frank, Carol, Nancy, Butch, Pam and Marilyn.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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10. Marilyn about to release a shin.

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11. Marilyn and group releasing the shin.

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12. Linda about to release a shin.

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13. Linda releasing the shin.

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14. Doug holding the Merlin.

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15. Doug releasing the Merlin.

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16. Another young shin came in.

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17. Nancy about to release a shin.

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18. Nancy releasing the shin.

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19. Another young shin came in.

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20. Butch holding the shin.

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21. Lesley holding the shin.

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22. Carol holding the shin.

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23. Lorrene holding the shin.

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24. Pam about to release the shin.

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25. Pam releasing the shin.

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26. Another young Sharp-shinned hawk.

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27. Rick holding the shin.

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28. Rick releasing the shin.

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29. Yet another young shin.

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30. Trudi about to release the shin.

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31. Trudi releasing the shin.

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32. Mattie holding a shin.

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33. Mattie releasing the shin.

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34. Trudi and Frank holding a shin.

Photo by Rick Dupont

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35. Frank releasing the shin.

Photo by Rick Dupont

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36. Trudi releasing another shin.

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37. Trudi, Mattie and Rick with two shins.

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38. Mattie doing a double release of the shins.

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39. A young Red-tailed hawk looked us over from behind the blind.

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40. A young male Merlin.

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41. Glen and Mattie with the Merlin.

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42. Mattie releasing the Merlin.

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43. Young Sharp-shinned hawk.

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44. Mattie and Glen holding the shin.

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45. Glen releasing the shin.

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46. Trudi, Carolyn and Rick holding a shin.

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47. Carolyn holding a shin.

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48. Carolyn releasing the shin.

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49. Rick releasing the last shin of the day.

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50. Greg, Todd, Jenny, Carolyn and Trudi at Hawk Harbor on Sunday morning.

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51. An adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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52. Joe holding the shin.

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53. Joe releasing the shin.

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54. Another young shin.

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55. Trudi, Joe and Rick with a shin.

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56. Rick holding a shin on his Birthday.

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57. Rick releasing his Birthday shin.

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58. A flock of American White Pelicans came over.

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59. Another young shin.

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60. Trudi, Joe and Rick holding the shin.

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61. Trudi about to release the shin.

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62. Trudi releasing the shin.

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63. Young Red-tailed hawk.

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64. Trudi, Rick and Frank with the young Red-tailed hawk.

Photo by Joe Dargay

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65. Banding the red-tail.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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66. Young Red-tailed hawk giving us the "LOOK".

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67. Rick releasing the Red-tailed hawk on his Birthday.

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