Seventh Weekend of Banding 2020

Hi Everyone,

Here is my seventh report of the 2020 banding season, covering the weekend of October 10th, 2020.

Saturday, October 10th

Trudi, Nancy and Chuck stayed home this weekend. Good choice! So, I met Rick and Todd at Hawk Harbor around 9:00 am. Ken Wagner was also there, hoping to trap a Goshawk for falconry under his permit. Rick and I drove up to the banding station while Todd and Ken set up at their site. With just Rick and me working the station, it took us about 45 minutes to set up and be ready to start at 9:45. Skies were clear, but a nasty Southeast wind was starting to build, coming directly off the lake. When that happens, it usually pushes all the birds inland and they pass by Northwest of us. It also blows the cold lake air right in on us through the front of the blinds.

Right away, we saw a couple of shins rising up, but they paid no attention to us and kept on going high above us. A lot of crows started getting up and heading South and some Bald eagles started passing by to the North of us. Around 10:30, Brynn and Holly stopped by with masks on and an extra blind. While I was greeting them and watching them set up their blind, a young Red-tailed hawk came in and made a pass at the nets but kept on going. At 11:00, Sharon, "The Bird Chick," also came up for the day.

We got settled into our various blinds and started scanning the skies for hawks. As suspected, the wind had pushed the few kettles of hawks we saw, a long way to the North of us. At 11:55, we noticed a very dark Buteo looking a little interested and moving closer to us. When still a long way to the North, it "locked on" and made a long, slanting, legs-down, stoop into the net. We took it out of the net, banded it, and took a load of photos. Brynn asked if she could release it, so she got to do the honors. That was the only bird we banded that day!

Just when we thought things were getting pretty boring, at 1:15 a pair of shaggy looking wolves came walking out of the woods just South of us and continued on across the middle of the field! They walked slowly and we were able to take lots of photos and videos. But, due to the sun heating up the field, the rising warm air tended to distort or blur the photos.

We had one more adult Red-tailed hawk stoop down from the South, shoot past the front net, and keep on going. There was nothing much moving after that so we closed down at 4:00. The ladies headed home while Rick and I met Todd and Ken to camp out at Hawk Harbor for the night.

We got a total of 1 bird and no bounce-outs on Saturday.

1 Red-tailed hawk.

Sunday, October 11th

Sunday morning, I put on the kettle for some hot chocolate, we all had a cup, and headed off to our respective blinds. Skies were hazy and the wind was getting stronger out of the Southeast. We were set up and ready by 8:00 am.

At 8:30, a few shins were hunting the woods to the North of us and one that was still hungry came up over the fake owl, noticed the lure, and shot straight in! After that, we saw a couple of Merlins working the far end of the field, but they never came up to our end. It got so slow that Rick and I decided to close down at 11:00. On my way home, I stopped at Hawk Ridge. Not many birds were moving, but the fall colors were fantastic from up there.

We got a total of 1 bird and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

1 Sharp-shinned hawk.

We got a total of 2 birds for the weekend.

1 Sharp-shinned hawk and 1 Red-tailed hawk.

128 total birds for the season.

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/)