Fourth Weekend of Banding 2020

Hello Everyone,

Here is my fourth report of the 2020 banding season, covering the weekend of September 19th, 2020.

Saturday, September 19th

Rick, Nancy, and Chuck were already at Hawk Harbor when I pulled in at 9:00 am on Saturday. Trudi stayed home to help edit her brother's book and Todd had a fishing trip planned with his family. We loaded the banding gear into Rick's truck and drove out to the blind. Nancy set up the main blind, Rick and Chuck set up the nets and I set up the overflow blind and the pop-up blind. We were ready for birds at 9:30.

Skies were cloudless but hazy from the western fires and the wind was light out of the Southwest. Our first bird of the day was an adult shin that took a pass at the fake owl, saw the lure, and shot right in at 9:40! While Chuck and I were out in front of the blind taking photos of the first shin, another one came in from the owl, flew past us and hit the front net! A half an hour later, we got another shin.

Around 10:30, just as my long-time birding friend Barb Lindeke was hiking up to the blind, we caught another shin. Barb had been to several of my raptor programs over the years but has never been up to the blind. She and her friends were staying in Duluth on a North Shore adventure, so she figured as long as she was in the area, she would stop by and check us out. Barb got to release the shin we had just caught and then we all got back into the blinds. As soon as we got settled in, another shin came in, went over the front net, bounced out of the back net and into the back net again, getting caught! While we were banding that one, a Merlin spotted our lure from the other end of the field, turned on the afterburners, flying in fast and low. After we banded those two birds, Barb got to do a "Double" release with a shin and a Merlin! We caught three more shins before Barb had to leave to meet her friends back in Duluth.

In between catching shins, Don Mattson, the land owner, drove out in his four wheeler and brought us some fresh produce from his garden. He gave us bags of beets, onions, tomatoes, cabbages, and a pumpkin, all just pulled from his garden! Later in the day, our neighbor from over on Homestead Road, Don Zirby, came up on his four wheeler and gave us bags full of tomatoes and cherry tomatoes! Eatin' good in the neighborhood!

Around noon, we had a young Turkey Vulture come down close over the blind. With all of us being "up there" in years, we did a quick check to see that none of us was dead! Fortunately the young vulture was focusing in on a deer skeleton near the blind. He landed, pecked around for a bit, found nothing left to eat, and took off. Whew!!! Close call!!

We caught 4 more shins and also had 2 bounce-outs before we spotted an adult Red-tailed hawk soaring over the far end of the field. It made a few more circles before it decided it just couldn't resist Rick's great luring technique. After catching all those shins, this thing looked like a B-52 bomber coming in! At the last second, he flared off up into the trees above us. A few seconds later, he dove in, hitting the back net! Most of the redtails that go into the trees above us just sit there for a while and then take off. We banded it, took photos, and Rick released it. That was the last bird we caught on Saturday. About a half an hour later, we saw an adult Peregrine, that flew right over us, but didn't even look at the lure.

We closed down for the day at 4:30. When we got back to Hawk Harbor, Curt Ruthenbeck and Mattie Lasch were there to camp for the night. Curt was trapping at his site South of us and Mattie was setting up at his site farther up the shore. Everyone pitched in and I made a "pizza run" to Do-North Pizzaria in Two Harbors. When I got back, they had a nice campfire going and the picnic table cleared and ready for the pizzas. Although we were social distancing, it was great to visit with old friends by the fire before turning in for the night.

We got a total of 13 birds and 2 bounce-outs on Saturday.

11 Sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Merlin and 1 Red-tailed hawk.

Sunday, September 20th

Sunday morning I got up and put some water on the burner for hot chocolate. We all had a cup and loaded our gear into Rick's truck. Curt and Mattie headed out for their respective trapping spots and we drove up to our blinds. As we were partially set up from the day before, it took only a few minutes until we were ready to begin at 7:30 am.

A big orange sun rose up through the haze and the winds were freshening out of the Southwest. At 7:40, we didn't even see the first bird that came in! Rick was doing a "Free Advertising" lure, when a Sharp-shinned hawk came in low, up the tree line from the South, passing right under our noses and hit the front net!

We didn't think it would be a good day for banding with the wind turning from the South, but after that first shin, the day turned into "Shins-A-Go-Go" (you have to be pretty old to get that reference)! We caught 7 more shins before our first bounce-out. Some would come in groups of three or four, one would hit a net and the others would zip back and forth overhead. Other shins would sit in the trees and make little shin scolding noises as their friends bombed in. It was a shin circus all day! We saw some kestrels and a couple Merlins that came close, but only the shins were serious.

We caught 13 more shins and had 4 more bounce-outs before things really slowed down. At 2:15, we spotted a large dark Peregrine falcon flying West over the road on the South side of our field. Two minutes later we saw a smaller dark Peregrine following the exact same route.

We caught one more shin at 2:22 and decided that was enough for the weekend. We closed down at 2:30 and headed for home after that. I stopped by Hawk Ridge on my way home and saw a few raptors that were still going over.

We got a total of 22 birds and 5 bounce-outs on Sunday.

22 Sharp-shinned hawks.

We got a total of 35 birds for the weekend.

33 Sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Merlin and 1 Red-tailed hawk

97 total birds for the season. (97 birds was our season total for last year. We have 6 more weekends to go!)

Please help hawks by supporting:

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory (www.hawkridge.org)

Midwest Peregrine Society (https://midwestperegrine.umn.edu/)

National Eagle Center (www.nationaleaglecenter.org)

Raptor Resource Project (https://www.raptorresource.org/)

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

Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch (http://ospreywatch.blogspot.com/)

Keep your eyes on the skies!

Trudi & Frank Taylor