Hello Friends,
Our sixth weekend of banding featured 2 Peregrine falcons,
one adult and one immy.
Saturday morning October 7th, Trudi and I took our time driving
up to Hawk Harbor. Rick had come up the night before and Nancy and Chuck stayed
home this weekend, visiting with their son David's family from Canada. Todd was
not feeling well and also stayed home. When we arrived at Hawk Harbor, Mattie
Lasch and his dad Glen were there, staying in Mike's trailer. Mattie has a
Peregrine permit he was trying to fill. They had been up on Friday trying to
catch one at Mattie's spot down by the lake. We put our stuff in the back of
Rick's truck and went up to the blind. It was an overcast morning and there was
no wind. It was a late start, but we had everything set up and ready to begin
at 9:30.
A few minutes later, Nancy Wilson and her son Eric came up.
Nancy was a volunteer when I was working at The Raptor Center twenty years ago
and she has been coming up every year ever since. We caught our first bird of
the weekend at 10:08. It was a young Sharp-shinned hawk out hunting the draw.
The next bird in was an adult shin at 10:25. We banded them, took photos and
had Nancy and Eric do a double release. Around 10:30, our White Bear Lake
neighbor, Vincent Kancans, stopped in to see us. Vincent works as a writing
translator and is fluent in multiple languages. This was his first time at the
blind.
We all settled back in the blind to look for more
birds. A few shins, harriers, some
eagles, vultures and a red-tail or two were moving but things were pretty slow.
Rick was pulling for a shin that we were all watching toward the North, when we
heard a loud swoosh from the South. It was an adult female Peregrine falcon
that had stooped in without anyone seeing it approach! We measured it and
because it looked like an unbanded local bird, we called Jackie Fallon of The
Midwest Peregrine Society to see if she wanted to color band it. Jackie
couldn't get there right away so she called Dave Evans, who had banded for many
years at Hawk Ridge and now does a lot of the banding for the Midwest Peregrine
Society. While Dave was banding the Peregrine, we got a call from our long-time
friend Ron Clarke who said he was visiting friends in Superior, Wisconsin, and
was on his way up to see us. Ron is a falconer from Alaska who grew up in Minnesota.
He has also served for many years as a director for the North American
Falconer's Association.
Dave and I finished banding the Peregrine and I thanked him
for rushing out to add this important data to the society's program. Dave had
to get back to town right away and missed seeing Ron who pulled up just after
he left. We showed the Peregrine to Ron, took some more photos and had Vincent
release it. Later on, we had a couple Merlins come in and stoop the fake owl but
we didn't catch either one. Nothing else came in that day, so we closed down at
5:00. Nancy and Eric headed for the cities and the rest of us met Mattie and
Glen at the Do North Pizzaria for supper in Two Harbors, Minnesota. We went
back to Hawk Harbor for a campfire and afterward Glen headed home and Ron went
back to Wisconsin.
We got a total of 3 birds and 0 bounce-outs on Saturday.
2 Sharp-shinned hawks and 1 Peregrine falcon.
On Sunday morning, Mattie
got up before the rest of us and went out to his spot along the lake. Trudi, Rick,
Vincent and I got up later and headed up to our blind. We were set up and ready
by 7:45. At 7:50 a young Northern harrier, one of three that were out buzzing
the owl, made a run at the net but barely touched the top of it and bounced
out. Close, but no cigar! A few minutes later at 8:08, an adult male Sharp-shinned
hawk was out hunting the draw, saw us and came right in. We banded it, took
photos and Vincent let it go, just before he left to go hiking along the lake.
Around 9:00 our friend Eric
Schraeder, a Minnesota falconer who has recently been serving over seas in the
Air Force, came up. We caught two more shins while he was there and he got to
do both releases. It was a very small way to thank him for his great service.
We caught another shin and showed Eric how we do a hypnotism, but when we woke
it up, it shot right back into the front net. (That does not count as a
recapture.)
Just as Eric was about
to leave, we got a call from Mattie saying that he had just caught a young
female Peregrine falcon! Congratulations, Mattie!!!! Eric went down to meet
Mattie at Hawk Harbor to jess up the falcon.
At 10:34 we caught
another shin, an adult male. We banded it, took some photos and Trudi let it
go. Not many hawks were flying that morning, but at 11:35 we spotted a young
female Peregrine falcon starting to rise in a thermal on the other end of the
field. Rick pulled the lure and it locked on! We watched as it did a long
gliding stoop over the field and into the front net. WOW!!! I even had enough
time to grab my camera and get a slow motion shot of it hitting the net. We
took a lot of photos, banded it and Trudi and Rick did the release.
We closed down at noon
and went down to see Mattie's new Peregrine at Hawk Harbor. When we got there,
Eric had already left but our other friends Matt Solenski, a Merlin researcher,
and falconer Jeff Stedman were there.
We got a total of 5
birds and 1 bounce out on Sunday.
4 Sharp-shinned hawks and 1 Peregrine falcon.
Total for the weekend was 8 birds and 1 bounce-out.
6 Sharp-shinned hawks and 2 Peregrine falcons.
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 Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
02. Young female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
03. Rick and Trudi setting up the nets.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
04. First bird of the weekend, a young Sharp-shinned
hawk.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
05. Second bird of the weekend, an adult Sharp-shinned
hawk.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
06. Frank banding the Sharp-shinned hawk.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
07. Frank, Rick, Eric, Trudi and Nancy with the shins.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
08. Eric and Nancy about to release the shins.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
09. Eric and Nancy doing a double shin release.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
10. An adult female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
11. Rick taking the adult Peregrine out of the net.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
12. An adult female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
13. Frank measuring the Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
14. Frank and Trudi with the Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
15. An adult female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
16. Frank holding the Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
17. Dave getting ready to color band the Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
18. Frank and Dave color banding the Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
19. Color bands on the Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
20. Frank thanking Dave for coming out to color band the
Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
21. An adult female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
22. Frank, Ron and Trudi with the color banded Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
23. Ron, Vincent, Rick, Trudi, Frank, Nancy and Eric
with the Peregrine.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
24. Vincent about to release the Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
25. Vincent releasing the Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
26. Rick, Vincent, Ron, Glen, Mattie, Trudi and Frank
having pizza for supper.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
27. A Sunday morning shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
28. Frank, Trudi, Rick and Vincent with the
Sharp-shinned hawk.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
29. Vincent about to release the shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
30. Vincent releasing the shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
31. A young female Sharp-shinned hawk.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
32. Rick and Eric with the young shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
33. Eric releasing the shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
34. An adult shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
35. Eric about to release the adult shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
36. Eric releasing the shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
37. Another adult shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
38. Trudi about to release the shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
39. Trudi releasing the shin.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
40. A young female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
41. A big young female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
42. Rick taking the young Peregrine out of the net.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
43. The young female Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
44. Frank banding the young Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
45. A young Peregrine falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
46. Frank bringing the Peregrine out for release.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
47. Trudi and Rick releasing the young female Peregrine
falcon.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
48. Mattie with the young Peregrine he caught at his
trapping site.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
49. Mattie's Peregrine hooded and sitting on the block.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
 |
|
50. Rick, Trudi, Frank, Mattie, Matt and Jeff with
Mattie's Peregrine at Hawk Harbor.
Sixth Weekend 2017
|
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.