First Weekend of Banding 2021

Hello Everyone,

This is my first report of the 2021 banding season, covering the weekend of September 4th, 2021.

Saturday, September 4th

Trudi and I met Rick at Hawk Harbor around 9:30 Saturday morning. Nancy, Chuck, and Todd were not able to be there this weekend. This was our first weekend of banding and we needed to set up our camping trailers and the banding station. It took most of the morning to get Hawk Harbor ready for us to move in. After that, we loaded all the weed whackers, rakes, and banding gear into Rick's truck and drove up to the banding station in the Mattson hayfield. It was 1:00 by the time we got the blind cleaned out and set up and all the weed whacking and raking done. We put up the nets and were ready to start at 1:15.

Winds were light and variable out of the Southwest with a clear blue sky. Our team of three was ready to go! Rick did the luring, Trudi did the recording, and I did the banding. We saw our first bird coming over around 1:30; it had three other shins with it and they all made a pass at us, but missed the nets, ending up in the trees behind us. More birds started moving and we got our first bird of the season at 2:00, a nice young female Sharp-shinned hawk!

We caught two more shins and then a young Red-tailed hawk with a very reddish colored tail hit the back net but bounced out. We had another shin come in right after that and it also bounced out. The next shin that came in got caught and then a Merlin started bombing the fake owl out in the draw. Rick worked his magic with the lure and it came right in. Our first Merlin of the year, a young male!

Later, we had another shin bounce out, caught two more shins, and then a very light colored male Merlin came in to end the day.

We got a total of 8 birds and 3 bounce-outs on Saturday.

6 Sharp-shinned hawks and 2 Merlins.

Sunday, September 5th (Our Record Breaking Day)

Sunday morning, we loaded into Rick's truck and were back up at the blind, set up and ready by 7:35 am. Skies were partly cloudy and the wind was out of the Northwest. It was a good sign that as soon as we started, with the first pull of the lure, we caught a shin at 7:35! Birds started getting up and moving all around us! The next shin bounced out, but another one was coming in right behind it. The second one didn't seem too interested but was coming our way, causing Rick to mention that he thought it might have some "commitment issues." It was probably looking around for something else to do when it hit the net and got caught!

The next bird we caught was a young male Cooper's hawk. It flew low across the field and had a kestrel take a shot at it on the way in. We caught three more shins and had another one bounce out. After that, we caught nine shins in a row and had an adult Broad-winged hawk come in and sit in the tree above the nets. Fortunately, a young Broad-winged hawk followed the adult in and that one got caught!

Around 12:30, Mary and Don Mattson, who own the hayfield we trap on, drove up to the blind in their four-wheeler to say hi. I was out talking to them when Rick pulled the lure and a shin flew past in front of us, and while we watched, it hit the net! We banded it, took a group photo, and Mary released it.

Shin-O-Rama continued through the day with 17 more shins getting caught, 3 of them doubles!, and 3 more bounce-outs. (Doubles are 2 birds hitting the nets at the same time.) At 3:00, we had a shin bounce-out and at 3:06, a young male Merlin came shooting in from the South side of the hayfield! That brought us to a total of 35 birds so far for the day. (Our past record was 36 birds banded in one day.) Another shin came in at 3:30, tying our all-time record! It was starting to rain a little and we were very excited about tying the record, when another shin popped up out by the owl and came in through the rain! That one set a new record of 37 birds in one day! Just when we thought it couldn't get any better, and we were getting ready to pack up between rain showers, one more shin came in and landed in the trees above the nets. Rick worked his magic again with the lure and it dropped into the back net, setting a new record of 38 birds banded in one day!!!!

We closed down for the day at 4:30, just before a huge rain cloud moved in. To celebrate the record breaking day, Rick drove us into Two Harbors and bought us a pizza by the bay. Rick's legs must have been aching by then, since he had to charge out of the blind and try to secure the netted birds 43 times, when you count the bounce-outs as well, not to mention the 11 times he charged out on Saturday!!!!!

We got a total of 38 birds and 5 bounce-outs on Sunday.

35 Sharp-shinned hawks, 1 Cooper's hawk, 1 Broad-winged hawk, and 1 Merlin.

46 Total birds for the weekend.

46 Total birds for the season.

Rick left for home early Monday morning since the weather called for South winds and possible rain by noon. Trudi and I fired up the riding mower that we had brought from home and headed over to the spot on our land that falconers use for trapping. We cleaned out the 2 blinds, mowed, weed whipped, and did some much needed leveling of one of the blinds. We headed for home around 2:30, thinking the traffic would be pretty bad, but there were only a couple of slow-downs along the way.

All in all, it was one of the best opening weekends we have ever had in the 52 years that we have been coming to this hayfield!

Please help hawks by supporting: Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, Midwest Peregrine Society, The National Eagle Center, Raptor Resource Project, The Raptor Center, and The Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch.

Keep your eyes on the skies,

Trudi and Frank Taylor