Hello All,
Here is the report for the sixth weekend of our 49th
year of hawk trapping at the Mattson Farm.
I drove up to
Hawk Harbor on my own Saturday morning. Trudi stayed home due to family
commitments while Chuck and Nancy took the weekend off to visit their
grandkids. When I got to Hawk Harbor at 8:00, Rick was already there with Todd
who had come up the night before. Chris and Emily, two falconers from Wisconsin
with non-resident falconry capture permits, were there also. They would be
trapping with Todd, hoping to catch a Merlin for Emily or a Goshawk for Chris at
the falconry trapping site down on our land. Rick and I loaded up his truck and
drove out across the field to the banding station. Setting up was a little slow
as there were only two of us, but we got it all ready to go by 8:45. The day was
a bit dark and overcast, but we had nice Northwest winds to push the birds
toward us.
As we were
setting up, our friends Jude and Larry from Chicago came up, followed by Dave
and Luanne from Rochester. Larry and I have been falconry friends for over 45
years! We had all just settled in the blind and started looking for hawks when
we noticed that a young Goshawk, way down at the other end of the field, was
locked on and heading for Todd's blind. A few minutes later we heard the good
news that Chris had filled his permit and was the proud new owner of a Goshawk.
Way to go, Chris!
Just before
9:00, a young shin that was hunting in the draw saw our lure and came right in.
We banded it and Jude did the release. We started seeing a lot of birds getting
up and heading over us. An adult male Cooper's Hawk that was passing to the
North spotted the lure and stooped in. Larry got to release that one.
Around 9:30,
Brynn, Katy and Jennifer, who have been coming up for many years, arrived. Right
away, we caught four more shins that Katy, Brynn, Jennifer and Dave got to
release. A Red-tailed Hawk was the next bird to come in on a long shallow dive
from the North. We caught three more red-tails and two more shins before having
a shin bounce out. The next bird to come in was a Merlin. It made three passes
out in front before finally hitting the net. We did a triple release with a
shin, a red-tail and a Merlin. After that, we caught another red-tail and a
shin before closing down at 5:00. Greg, who was trapping at his site, joined us
and nine of us went to the Culvers in Two Harbors for supper. Later, those who
were camping at Hawk Harbor built and enjoyed a nice camp fire before turning
in.
We got a total of 15
birds and 1 bounce-out on Saturday.
8 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Merlin and 5
Red-tailed Hawks
Sunday morning, we woke
up to an overcast, drizzly day with light winds out of the East. I fixed a pot
of hot chocolate to warm us up and we all went to our various trapping sites.
Greg went to his, Todd, Emily and Chris went to Todd's blind, and Rick and I
went to the banding station. While we were setting up, we got calls from Jude
and Larry saying that Larry would be up but that Jude was going to go shopping.
Luanne and Dave called to say that they would be staying in Duluth for the day
as well due to the bad weather. We were set up and ready to start at 8:45.
Even though everything
was soaked from the rain, we managed to catch a shin at 9:00 and then another
one at 9:30. Rick and Larry released them. Around 11:00, my friend Mavis and
her family came up. Mavis worked in the freight department of Northwest
Airlines years ago when I was Curator of Education Birds at The Raptor Center.
Anytime we would have a problem shipping education birds to programs all over
the country for the grand openings of Target and Petsmart (our major sponsors),
Mavis would sort it all out for us, no matter what time of day or night it was.
We caught another shin just as they were getting out of their car. Mavis's
cousin who was visiting from Oregon got to let that one go. We had one more
red-tail come in that day at noon, but it bounced out. We closed down at 1:00.
We got a total of 3 birds
and 1 bounce-out on Sunday.
3 Sharp-shinned Hawks
Total for the weekend was 18 birds and 2 bounce-outs.
11 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, 1 Merlin and
5 Red-tailed Hawks
For the last couple of weeks, I have been having
problems getting my camera to focus properly. Last week I tried to do a reset
to factory defaults, but somehow I managed to reset the file size to the
smallest setting. That setting is usually used only for sending emails. So, the
photos from this weekend may not be very good.
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/)
Trudi &
Frank Taylor
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01. The first bird of the weekend was a Sharp-shinned
Hawk.
Sixth Weekend 2018
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02. The trapping team for the day included:
Left to right: Katy, Brynn, Dave, Frank, Larry, Jude,
and Jennifer.
Sixth Weekend 2018
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03. Larry and Jude about to release a shin.
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04. Larry and Jude releasing the shin.
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05. An adult male Cooper's Hawk.
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06.Jude and Larry about to release the Cooper's Hawk.
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07. Jude and Larry releasing the Cooper's Hawk.
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08. Another Sharp-shinned Hawk.
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09. Brynn, Katy, and Jennifer about to release a pair
of shins.
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10. Jennifer and Brynn doing a double shin release.
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11. Dave about to release a shin.
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12. Dave releasing the shin.
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13. A Red-tailed Hawk.
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14. Larry showing the group the red-tail.
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15. Brynn about to release the red-tail.
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16. Brynn releasing the red-tail.
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17. A young red-tail.
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18. Brynn, Katy , and Jennifer with the red-tail.
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19. Katy releasing the red-tail.
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20. An adult red-tail.
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21. The back of the red-tail.
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22. Jennifer about to release the red-tail.
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23. Jennifer releasing the red-tail.
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24. A shin.
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25. A red-tail.
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26. A Merlin.
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27. Larry, Jennifer, and Brynn with a shin, red-tail,
and Merlin.
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28. Larry, Jennifer, and Brynn doing a triple release.
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29. A bluebird inspecting our net pole.
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30. A Sunday morning shin.
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31. Rick about to release the shin.
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32. Rick releasing the shin.
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33. Cindy, Michelle, Rick, De De, Mavis, and Jaclynn
with a shin.
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34. Rick showing the group the shin.
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35. Mavis and De De about to release the shin.
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36. Mavis and De De releasing the shin.
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37. Blue jays coming in for the corn.
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38. A blue jay that hit the net and got caught.
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39. Chris and Emily with a shin.
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40. Chris with his new Goshawk.
Sixth Weekend 2018
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