Fourth Weekend of Banding 2018

Hello All,

Here is the report for the fourth weekend of our 49th year of hawk trapping at the Mattson Farm.

It was an exciting weekend, in spite of the fact that the weather continues to be an issue! Trudi and I met Rick, Chuck, Nancy, and Todd at Hawk Harbor at 8 AM Saturday morning. We piled everything into Rick's truck, drove up to the main blind and were set up and ready to go by 8:45. Skies were clear with the winds out of the Southwest. Of course, we had just missed the preferred Northwest winds that had come through on Friday! 

Our first bird of the day, a shin hunting the draw, came in at 9 AM. He was our first male shin of the year. We banded it, took photos, and released it. Half an hour later, coming in from the South, a Merlin made two passes at the fake owl before turning toward us and hitting the net. We banded and released it, our SECOND species of the day! Fifteen minutes later, we saw a large accipiter coming down from the North, heading towards the owl. It spotted the lure before reaching the owl, turned, and came right in. It was an adult male Cooper's Hawk and our THIRD species of the day! This bird was a beautiful pale color; we banded it, took lots of photos and released it.

A while later, a very light colored young Red-tailed Hawk dropped straight down from high above the blind and hit the back side of the front net. Our FOURTH species of the day, the red-tail, was followed by another young male Sharp-shinned Hawk. Just before noon, we spotted a dark falcon making a pass at the owl. At first we thought it might be a large Merlin, but it turned out to be a small, young male Peregrine! Rick pulled the lure line and it came right in. Our FIFTH species for the day!

While we were banding the Peregrine, we saw three cars pulling up at the base of the field. It was fifteen members of the Minnesota Zoo's Environmental Educators group led by Dawn Devens. This group has visited our banding station for several years now. I went down to meet them and gave them my orientation talk on the way back up the field. After a quick tour of the blind and nets, Chuck, Rick and I talked about the three species we still had in hand; gave them time to take photographs; and then played the "Guess the Number Game" to find out who would release each bird.

After the release of the three birds, we got the group settled into the main blind and the overflow blind. There were not many birds migrating that day, so we explained that even though we didn't see many hawks flying over, we still needed to stay hidden since a hawk out hunting in the area could pop up at any time. After patiently watching an empty sky for nearly an hour, we were rewarded by having a young male Sharp-shinned Hawk come in from a bush out in the draw, our third shin of the day. We banded it, took photos, did the "Numbers" game, and released it. About an hour later, we had a young female shin come in from the woods behind us and hit the back of the back net, the fourth shin of the day. We banded that one, took photos and released it. Just before the Zoo group was preparing to leave, we caught one last surprise bird. A young male Sharp-shinned Hawk, heading South along the tree line, saw the lure as he passed the blind, made a turn-around in front of the overflow blind, and observers in both blinds got to see him fly straight into the net. We banded, photographed, and released our fifth shin of the day!

Before the Zoo group left, I gave them my migration talk, showed them some of my artwork (explaining that I had started drawing hawks in third grade and had been crazy about hawks ever since!), and handed out signed art prints, book marks, and raptor identification sheets.

Soon after the Zoo group left, Gary and his wife Rose, who had both visited the blind several years before, came up. They brought along Rose's sister Clare and Clare's husband Ed. Ed is an excellent amateur photographer originally from South Africa. We gave them a tour of the banding station and settled in to look for more hawks. Right after we entered the blind, Rick noticed a large dark falcon flying South over the barn at the other end of the field. We watched it stoop into the woods over our land, thinking we had no chance of catching it. It missed whatever it was going for, came back up over the trees, and caught sight of our lure. It turned towards us and came in over the field from the South and hit the front net. Our SECOND peregrine of the day!

As soon as we pulled the falcon out of the net, we saw that it was probably an Anatum Peregrine from one of the nesting sites along the North Shore. We immediately phoned Jackie Fallon. Jackie is the Director of the Midwest Peregrine Society and has been tracking the progeny of the reintroduced peregrine falcon population in the Midwest. She and her team have been banding the progeny of this falcon population for over 25 years. They try to band every young falcon from the known nesting sites, but can't get to all of them since the population has increased so much. Jackie asked that if we caught a bird that we suspected to be from this population, we would color band it for her project. Since she is a zoo keeper at the Duluth Zoo and works close by, she came out to see the peregrine and help us band it.

Needless to say, after banding the falcon, we took a load of photos and Clare got to release it. At 5 PM our guests left, we closed down the blind, and Jackie joined us for dinner at the Culvers in Two Harbors to celebrate a TWO PEREGRINE, FIVE SPECIES day!

We got a total of 10 birds and no bounce-out on Saturday.

5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Merlin, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 2 Peregrine Falcons

Sunday morning was a total disaster! We woke up to rain and howling Easterly winds. Stan Tekiela was scheduled to bring up a busload of people from the Staring Lake Nature Center. Stan has been bringing his group up for over ten years. It was with deep regret that we had to call him and cancel out due to bad weather. With rain and high winds predicted for all of Sunday, we drove up to the main blind, in the rain, and packed all the gear away for the weekend.

Total for the weekend was 10 birds and 0 bounce-outs.

5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Merlin, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, 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)

The Midwest Peregrine Society (http://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/)

Keep your eyes on the skies!

Trudi & Frank Taylor

01. The first bird of the weekend was a young Sharp-shinned Hawk.

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02. The second bird of the day was a Merlin.

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03. Adult male Cooper's Hawk.

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04. Rick and Chuck taking the Cooper's Hawk out of the nets.

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05. Nancy, Chuck, Rick and Trudi showing us the Cooper's Hawk.

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06. A light colored young Red-tailed Hawk.

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07. Chuck showing us the back of the red-tail.

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08. Nancy, Chuck, Rick and Trudi showing us the young Red-tailed Hawk.

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09. A young male Peregrine Falcon.

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10. Rick and Chuck taking the Peregrine out of the nets.

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11. Young male Peregrine Falcon.

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12. Chuck, Trudi, Frank and Rick with a Peregrine Falcon.

Photo by Leah Darst - Minnesota Zoo staff

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13. The Minnesota Zoo Environmental Educator's group holding

a Red-tail Hawk, a Peregrine Falcon and a Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Left to right: Dawn, Sue, Carolyn, Kathie, Natalie, Rick, Jennifer, Jon, Chuck,

Ana, Edie, Carol, Nancy, Nadine, Gregg, Trent, Stephanie, Trudi and Leah.

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14. A young Peregrine Falcon.

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15. Zoo group watching Chuck and Frank band the Peregrine Falcon.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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16. Banded Peregrine Falcon.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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17. Rick, Frank and Chuck showing birds to the zoo group.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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18. Sue about to release the Red-tailed Hawk.

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19. Sue releasing the red-tail.

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20. Nadine about to release the Sharp-shinned Hawk.

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21. Nadine releasing the shin.

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22. Ana about to release the Peregrine Falcon.

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23. Ana releasing the Peregrine.

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24. Carolyn about to release another Sharp-shinned Hawk.

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25. Carolyn releasing the shin.

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26. Carol about to release another shin.

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27. Carol releasing the shin.

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28. Jennifer and Jon holding a shin.

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29. Jon and Jennifer releasing the shin.

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30. Frank showing samples of his artwork to the zoo group.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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31. Frank handing out signed art prints, bookmarks and identification sheets.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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32. Our second young male Peregrine Falcon of the day.

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33. Frank holding the Peregrine.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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34. Nancy, Clare, Ed, Rick, Chuck, Trudi, Rose and Gary holding the Peregrine.

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35. A young male Peregrine Falcon.

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36. Frank, Jackie and Chuck holding the Peregrine.

Photo by Trudi Taylor

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37. A young male Peregrine Falcon.

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38. Clare about to release the Peregrine.

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39. Clare releasing the Peregrine.

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40. Strong easterly winds with rain shut us down on Sunday.

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