Banding Totals for 2018

Hi All,

Well, this is it, my final tally for the 2018 banding season. This year we banded a total of 106 birds. Last year we caught 132. We caught considerably fewer birds this year because of my eye surgery causing us to miss one weekend and a day called off for bad weather on one Sunday. Additionally, we never got good Northwest winds during the whole season.

We get lots of birds visiting each year, but we also get a good number of relatives, friends, falconers, birders and students coming up to share in the fun. I did a tally again this year of individuals who were up enjoying our banding activities. I counted each person only once, even if they came up multiple times. We had 39 individuals and 8 organized groups containing 56 people. A total of 95 guests were able to have an exceptional hawk viewing experience at our site this year!

I hope their visit inspires each of them to a greater appreciation for our feathered friends, the raptors, and to make donations to:

The Raptor Center (www.raptor.cvm.umn.edu),

The National Eagle Center (www.nationaleaglecenter.org),

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org) and

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

Please support the people who work to help the raptors in our state.

A very special THANK YOU goes to Mr. Mattson for letting us use his hay field for the forty-ninth year in a row.

Also a big THANK YOU goes to Tina Cisewski and Kevin Bartness for supplying our lure birds this year.

THANK YOU also goes to Greg Mikkelson for bringing up a full trailer load of firewood.

Last but not least, I really must say a BIG THANK YOU to every one of our banding crew who came up to do the banding again this year. What a great and dedicated team of regulars we have. Trudi Taylor, Rick DuPont, Chuck & Nancy Schotzko and Todd Rosengren: without your dedication and co-operation, we would not be able to do this thing we love so much, year after year.

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!

2018 Total Raptors 106

We had a total of 11 bounce-outs (13 fewer than last year).

Thanks for being such great friends and sharing an interest in our modest program!

NEXT YEAR WILL BE OUR 50TH CONSECUTIVE YEAR OF TRAPPING HAWKS AT THIS SITE!!!

We hope to see you all again next fall, and meanwhile keep your eyes on the skies!

Frank & Trudi Taylor

Here it is, the final breakdown.