Second Weekend of Banding 2021

Hello Everyone,

This is my second report of the 2021 banding season,

covering the weekend of September 11th, 2021.

Trudi and I drove up to Hawk Harbor on Friday so we could prepare our place for hosting the September meeting of the Minnesota Falconers Association. Although we are not scheduling any large groups anymore at the banding station, our land on the North Shore of Lake Superior is a nice camping destination for a northern meeting of the club.

Saturday, September 11th

Rick met Trudi and me at Hawk Harbor Saturday morning at 8:00 am. Trudi stayed down at Hawk Harbor to greet members of the MFA, while Rick and I went up to the banding station to set up. A few members of the club who had arrived the night before came up to help us get started. Winds were out of the North-northwest and the skies were clear. We were ready to start at 8:30.

It seemed a little slow at first, but half an hour later, birds were getting up all over. Members of the club started showing up as well. We caught 3 shins in a row and then had a young Broad-winged hawk bounce out of the back net. We caught another shin and had a shin bounce out of the back net. We next caught 2 shins, a one year old Broad-winged hawk, 2 more shins, and then had another shin bounce out of the front net. We caught 6 more shins before noon. Everyone who came up to the blind got to see birds drop in and were able to release a bird.

At noon, Trudi brought up sandwiches; drinks and snacks for lunch and the birds kept coming in. At 12:25, we caught another shin and then had one hit high on the front net, but it bounced out. We caught one more shin and then caught 3 Merlins in a row, followed by 2 more shins and another Merlin. At 3:59, we caught our first young Red-tailed hawk of the year. We finished the day with another shin, another very dark Merlin, and a young Cooper's hawk. We closed down at 5:00.

Everyone headed back down to Hawk Harbor for the cookout and meeting, followed by a nice small campfire.

We got a total of 27 birds and 4 bounce-outs on Saturday.

19 Sharp-shinned hawks, 5 Merlins, 1 Broad-winged hawk, 1 Cooper's hawk and 1 Red-tailed hawk.

Sunday, September 12th

Sunday morning, Trudi fixed hot chocolate and put out some cookies and donuts for the campers. Rick and I packed up his truck and went back up to open the banding station. We were ready to start at 8:15. The skies were clear with no wind. Several members of the club who had camped at Hawk Harbor came out to join us.

Our first bird of the day was a Sharp-shinned hawk that came in low across the field at 8:38. We caught 5 more shins with the last one coming in at 10:22. After that, it seemed like the migration of raptors had just stopped, so we closed down at noon.

We got a total of 6 birds and 0 bounce-outs on Sunday.

6 Sharp-shinned hawks.

33 total birds for the weekend.

79 total birds for the season.

Please help hawks by supporting:

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory, Midwest Peregrine Society, National Eagle Center,

Raptor Resource Project, The Raptor Center, Twin Cities Metro Osprey Watch.

Keep your eyes on the skies!

Trudi & Frank Taylor

01. Trudi and I hosted the September meeting of the Minnesota Falconers Association
at Hawk Harbor. This is the group photo of the members who attended.
Photo by Try Podd