4th Weekend of Banding 2016

Hi All,

On Saturday morning, the 24th of September, Trudi, Rick, Chuck and I met Todd at Hawk Harbor around 8:00 am. Nancy would be coming up to join us on Sunday. We transferred all our banding gear to Rick's pick-up and drove up to the main blind. Everything was ready to go by 8:50.

Skies were overcast with intermittent drizzle and the winds were light, out of the East. Not exactly ideal conditions for banding!

Joe Hance and his dad, Larry, had come up to stay at Hawk Harbor and spend the day with Greg Mikkelson at his trapping spot just up the road. Greg had not arrived yet, so they came up to sit in with us for a while.

We caught our first bird of the day, a young female Sharp-shinned hawk at 9:50. It came in from the North and shot straight into the net. This was the first time Larry had seen a hawk trapped for banding and he was amazed at the shin's determination to get to the lure.

About the same time that we caught the shin, Bill Tefft drove up with a group from The Wolf Center in Ely, Minnesota. Joe and Larry headed back to Hawk Harbor to meet Greg while the Ely group came up to the blind and listened to my little migration talk and then took a tour of the banding station. Then we played a "pick the number" game to determine who in the group would get to release the shin. James was the lucky winner. Due to work commitments in the past, this was his first visit to our station. His wife Virginia and his two children Gabriel and Gracie had been up before and all had released birds. We all took photos of the shin and watched James and his family release it.

Even though there was a light drizzle, at 11:03 another shin came shooting in from out over Hawk Harbor. Most of the group got a good look at it, as it piled into the front net.  Everyone watched as Rick and Chuck took it out of the net. Chuck showed them how we measure the bird and take down appropriate banding data. We did another numbers game and Doug was the lucky winner of the release. Cameras were clicking away as the shin was tossed back into the sky. By noon the weather was not improving, so Bill and the Ely group decided to take off for Hawk Ridge.

After the group left, an adult Sharp-shinned hawk came in at around 12:30. It was flying in slow from the South and just barely caught itself in the left side of the front net. Rick charged out and pulled the rest of the net down over it and we had our fourth bird of the day. We took some photos and Trudi let it go. At 1:45 we watched a dark young female Peregrine come flying toward us low and slow from the barn. It didn't even give us a look but kept on flying right over Hawk Harbor and on to the West. Another shin, this time a young female, locked on to us from the end of the draw and came right in. As things were so slow, we decided we would "hypnotize" this shin and see how long it would lay there before rolling over and taking off. We gently laid it on its back in the grass and popped a hand up in front of it while sliding the other hand slowly out from under it. Rick ran the timer and clocked a minute and 27 seconds before it decided "I'm outta here" and took off.

Our last bird of the day was a surprise attack at 3:50. We were trying to get the attention of an adult Red-tailed hawk soaring out in front, when, without us seeing it come in high from the South, a young Red-tailed hawk dropped straight down into the nets. We banded it, took a load of photos, and I got to release it since it was close to my birthday. We closed down for the day at 5:00.

When we got back down to Hawk Harbor, the other falconers had returned and wanted to go back to Do North Pizzaria in Two Harbors. Todd stayed back to cook his own supper and start a camp fire while Trudi, Rick, Chuck, Curt, Greg, Joe, Larry and I drove into town. After filling up on delicious pizza, we all headed back to Hawk Harbor and swapped a few trapping stories around the camp fire before nodding off to sleep.

We got a total of 5 birds and 0 bounce-outs on Saturday.

1 Red-tailed hawk and 4 Sharp-shinned hawks.

We woke up Sunday morning to a light rain, NOT a good sign, and it was predicted to get worse around 9:00.

Everything was still set up at the blind, so we went up and started looking out through the rain for any bird that might be moving. A lone soaked Blue jay made a couple trips to the blind to scavenge some corn we had put out. Around 9:00 my friend Mavis Magnason came up with her niece, but the weather was so bad they decided to tour the Glensheen mansion in Duluth instead. A few other people were scheduled to come up as well, but wisely decided to cancel out for the day. Rick hung around until noon before he took off for home. Trudi and I stayed until Nancy came up around 1:00. She and Chuck were planning on staying up for the week to see if they might increase our numbers. Chuck called later that day to say that he and Nancy had caught nothing and it was our first "Skunked Day" of the year. On the way out Trudi and I stopped at Don Mattson's house to say "Thank You" to him and his Dad for the 47 years of letting us trap on their land.

We got a total of 0 birds and 0 bounce outs on Sunday.

"Skunked Day", our first of the year!

Total for the weekend was 5 birds and 0 bounce-outs.

1 Red-tailed hawk and 4 Sharp-shinned hawks.

Grand Total for the year is 88.

Remember also, to go to You Tube and search Frank Taylor Films or click on https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4sdI11-TvxPaQ5nO3PsKKA and then scroll to View All.

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. First bird of the day, a young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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02. Rick, Larry, Chuck, Joe and Trudi with the first bird of the day.

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03. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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04. Cameron, Bill, Jennifer, Kendall, Frank, Doug, Virginia, James, Gabriel, Gracie and Jeanne holding the shin.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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05. Gracie, Gabriel, James and Virginia about to release the shin.

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06. Gracie, Gabriel, Virginia and James releasing the shin.

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07. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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08. Ely group watching Chuck and Rick take the shin out of the net.

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09. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk in the rain.

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10. Members of the Ely group watching Chuck band the shin.

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11. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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12. Doug about to release the shin.

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13. Doug releasing the shin.

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14. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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15. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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16. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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17. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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18. Adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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19. Frank and Trudi about to release the shin.

Photo by Rick Dupont

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20. Trudi releasing the Sharp-shinned hawk.

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21. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk in drizzle.

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22. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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23. Young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

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24. A "Hypnotized" Sharp-shinned Hawk.

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25. A young Red-tailed hawk.

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26. Rick and Chuck taking the young red-tail out of the net.

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27. A young Red-tailed hawk.

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28. A young Red-tailed hawk.

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29. Chuck showing us the back of the Red-tailed hawk.

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30. A young Red-tailed hawk.

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31. A young Red-tailed hawk.

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32. Chuck banding the Red-tailed hawk.

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33. Young Red-tailed hawk.

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34. Young Red-tailed hawk.

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35. Frank and Trudi about to release the Red-tailed hawk.

Photo by Rick Dupont

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36. Trudi and Frank releasing the Red-tailed hawk.

Photo by Rick Dupont

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37. Hawk trappers at Hawk Harbor.

Front row: Todd, Chuck, Rick and Frank.

Back row: Greg, Joe, Larry and Curt.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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38. Sunday morning in the blind, looking for birds in the rain.

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39. Rainy day view from the blind.

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40. Dripping wet nets.

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41. Soaking wet Blue jay scavenging corn.

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42. Bright colored leaves on a rainy day.

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