9th Weekend of Banding 2017

Hello Friends,

On Thursday morning October 19th, Trudi and I woke up to a weather report predicting 4 to 8 inches of snow and 10 to 15 mile an hour winds on Friday for the Duluth, Minnesota, area and then more snow and cold Sunday night. I called Rick and Chuck to see if they were getting the same forecast. We decided that setting up the nets in a blizzard would not be much fun. Right away I called the people who were scheduled to come up and told them the bad news. The long term forecast was for another cold front with more snow and cold lasting through the next week. This was the first time we have had to cancel a banding weekend due to an early season snowstorm.

It looked like there might be a break in the weather on Sunday, so Trudi booked a hotel room in Duluth and we headed up to Hawk Harbor that morning to clean out the blind and winterize the trailers. We saw a couple Rough-legged hawks working the field as we hiked up to the blind. The field was covered in melting snow and it would have been impossible for us to drive our minivan up there without four-wheel drive. We placed all the mats, crates, cages and poles out on a tarp in front of the blind thinking we could drag the stuff down the hill with the two of us tugging on the tarp's towline.

While we were packing the tarp, Tammy Holmer came up to say hi. She had been up the shore taking photos. We had everything loaded on the tarp and Tammy was about to give us a hand dragging it down the hill when Greg Mikkelson came driving right up to the blind in his four-wheeled drive pick-up truck. Talk about perfect timing! Greg had been trapping up at his site and had very few birds coming in, so he thought he would stop by to see how we were doing before heading home. He saved the day! We hooked the tarp's tow line over his trailer hitch, Trudi and Tammy jumped on his tailgate, and I walked slowly along side the tarp making sure it would not snag on the weeds.

Greg and Tammy had just left and we were loading the trapping gear into our minivan at the bottom of the hill, when Chris Karraker, a falconer from Wisconsin, stopped by. He had been up duck hunting at his family's cabin in northern Minnesota and had stopped on his way home to see if we would be trapping that day. We told him we were closed for the season and Chris continued on home while Trudi and I took the trapping gear back to Hawk Harbor.

Considering the low temperatures and amount of snow predicted for the next few weeks, we decided to close down Hawk Harbor for the season. Trudi and I put tarps over all the trailers, emptied out all the water containers, packed up sleeping bags and blankets, winterized the mowers, and took everything home that might get damaged by the snow and cold. For supper we thought we would go to The Duluth Grill, since we had never been there and had heard a lot of good things about it. What a fun place to eat with a very friendly staff! After our meal and a full day out working in the cold, we checked in to our motel up near Miller Hill Mall. Trudi surprised me by getting a room with a hot tub in it. What a great way to end the day!

Monday morning we went back out to Hawk Harbor to do some last minute pick-up and check that everything was secure for the winter. Before heading home, we took a drive through Sax-Zim Bog. The snow was coming down on and off and the wind was pretty strong. We were hoping to see a Great Gray Owl or maybe a Magpie, but everything was staying out of the wind. We did see a couple deer and a container train before going home. Whoopee Ding Ding!

Our ninth and last weekend of banding was cancelled due to a snowstorm. My next post will have the statistics on the birds we banded this season.

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