Sixth Weekend of Banding 2022

Hello Everyone,

This is my sixth report of the 2022 banding season, covering the weekend of October 8th, 2022.

Friday, October 7th

I drove up alone on Friday to open up Hawk Harbor for my falconer friends Kenny and his brother Danny. They came up to try to fill Danny's Goshawk permit at the falconers' trapping site. While we were getting them set up, I noticed there seemed to be a few hawks moving through. So I loaded up the banding gear and went up to the banding blind to see if I could improve our numbers after having had two "skunked" days last weekend. Well, that didn't work out as hoped! As soon as I was set up and ready to start at 1:00, all the hawks stopped migrating. I sat there for four hours and nothing came in, not even to take a look. The only thing I saw that day was a lone coyote that was hunting my side of the draw. I closed down at 5:00 and met up with the falconers to go into Culver's for supper.

We got a total of no birds and no bounce-outs on Friday.

Skunked Again!!!

Saturday, October 8th

Rick drove into Hawk Harbor to meet me at 8:00 Saturday morning. Trudi, Nancy, and Chuck had other commitments and couldn't be there this weekend. Todd also came up and went over to help the falconers. Rick and I headed to the banding blind and had things ready to go by 8:30. Skies were clear with a medium westerly breeze.

After three "skunked" days, we were extremely happy to see a little male Merlin come shooting in from the fake owl and hit the front net square on at 8:45. We banded it, took photos, and Rick let it go. Hawks started getting up all around us and were coming over the blind. We caught a young shin at 9:00, and had one bounce-out at 9:30. More Sharp-shinned hawks were moving and by noon we had caught 8 more! Wiley Coyote also came by again to give us a look that morning.

After a slight noon lull, we had a young Red-tailed hawk surprise us by dropping in out of the blue. Our first large bird of the season! About an hour later, another red-tail, this time an adult, made the same approach, straight down from above. We never saw that one coming either! Half an hour later, we spotted a young red-tail out over Hawk Harbor looking for a thermal. Rick pulled the lure and it locked on! It did a beautiful, long, shallow glide, passing right in front of us and hitting the net! A little over an hour later, another young red-tail pulled a sneak attack coming straight down from above the blind, hidden from our view. At 3:30, we saw a large accipiter passing to the north of us. Rick pulled the lure and an adult male Northern Goshawk came in, hit the top of the front net, knocking it down but not getting caught! Things really slowed down after that, and at 4:30 we got our last bird of the day, an adult male Sharp-shinned hawk. We closed down at 5:00 and went back to Culver's in Two Harbors for supper.

We got a total of 15 birds and 2 bounce-outs on Saturday.

10 Sharp-shinned hawks, 4 Red-tailed hawks, and 1 Merlin.

Sunday, October 9th

Rick and I got to the banding station a little earlier than usual and had everything set up by 7:45 on Sunday. The winds had shifted to the northeast and were predicted to get stronger and more easterly as the day progressed. Not a good wind for seeing a lot of migrating raptors.

At 8:30, our good friend Greg Salo, recently retired as head of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources Conservation Officers, came up with a couple of DNR co-worker friends, Lisa and Joe. Lisa's dad Ken, who lives near Duluth, also came along. We gave them a tour of the banding station and showed them how the nets work. After explaining to them that it might be a very slow day for banding, we settled into the blind and as predicted, did not see very much moving. At 9:10, a lone shin made a pass at the owl. Rick pulled the lure and it came straight in. However, at the last second it pulled up over the nets and sat in the tree behind us. Arrrgh!!! Everyone froze dead still in the blind and Rick worked the lure just enough to get the shin to make a few more passes at it. On the third pass, the young male shin hit and stuck in the back net! We were so happy to be able to show them how our rig works and have a bird for them to release! We banded it, took photos, and had Lisa's dad Ken release it.

About an hour later, there was still very little moving when Rick spotted an adult Red-tailed hawk soaring up in a thermal far to the north of us. I got it in my binoculars and told Rick when it was facing us so he could activate the lure. It made a couple more turns in the thermal and then locked on!! We were all treated to a classic long distance shallow stoop of a Red-tailed hawk. As it neared the field, we could see the wings pull in and the legs come down before it hit the center of the front net. We couldn't have asked for a better show for people who had never seen that before! We banded it, took a bunch of photos, and Lisa did the release. They had to leave at noon and things were so slow that Rick and I decided to close down at the same time.

We got a total of 2 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

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

17 total birds for the weekend.

58 birds total for the season.

Please help hawks by supporting:

Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory ( https://www.hawkridge.org/ )

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

National Eagle Center ( https://www.nationaleaglecenter.org/ )

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

The Raptor Center ( https://raptor.umn.edu/ )

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

Keep your eyes on the skies!

Trudi and Frank Taylor

01. Having another "skunked" day on Friday.
Sitting alone all day looking for any sign of migrating hawks.
Photo by Try Podd

02. Wiley Coyote was the only one who showed up on Friday.

03. A Saturday morning Merlin.

04. Rick with our first bird of the weekend on Saturday morning.

05. Sharp-shinned hawks started moving.

06. Rick holding a couple of shins.

07. Rick releasing two shins.

08. More shins came in.

09. Frank with a couple of shins.
Photo by Rick DuPont

10. Frank releasing the shins.
Photo by Rick DuPont

11. Wiley Coyote showed up again on Saturday.

12. Some Red-tailed hawks started coming in.

13. Portrait of a young Red-tailed hawk.

14. Frank banding the red-tail.

15. Rick holding the red-tail.

16. Rick releasing the red-tail.

17. An older red-tail coming in.

18. An adult Red-tailed hawk.

19. Rick releasing the red-tail.

20. One of the red-tails had deformed pupils in its eyes.

21. Frank releasing another red-tail.

22. Last bird of the day was an adult Sharp-shinned hawk.

23. First bird on Sunday was a Sharp-shinned hawk.

24. A Sunday morning shin.

25. Past, present, and relatives of Minn. Dept. of Natural Resources employees
came up to visit on Sunday morning.
Left to right: Frank, Lisa, Ken, Rick, Joe, and Greg. Photo by Try Podd