Third Weekend of Banding 2023

Hello Everyone,

Here is my third report of the 2023 banding season, covering the weekend of September 16th, 2023.

Saturday, September 16th

Everyone else on the banding team had projects to do at home, so I drove up alone on Saturday morning to see if I could add a few more birds to our banding data sheets. Bruce Gilbertson, from Duluth, had kindly offered to come out and help me set up. After moving my camping gear in at Hawk Harbor, Bruce met me up at the blind and we started setting up the banding station. It was a slightly overcast day with variable winds. As we were setting up, Curt Ruthenbeck came up with Kent Widmeier. Kent is the son of Bob Widmeier who was a famous Minnesota falconer and artist. Bob had a farm near my banding station where he trapped Peregrines and Goshawks and sent them off to other famous falconers all over the world in the late '40s and early '50s. Bob was my early inspiration for art and hawk trapping on the North Shore of Lake Superior.

We got started at 9:40, with Curt taking a turn at pulling the lure line. Within ten minutes, we had a small male kestrel barrel into the nets from the south and we had our first bird of the weekend! We banded it, took some photos, and we were honored to have Kent release it so near the place where his Dad had trapped hawks so many years ago.

A half an hour later, we caught a young female Sharp-shinned Hawk. It was passing to the north when it spotted the lure and then made a classic long stoop into the front net! It had a full crop, but couldn't resist another potential meal! We caught four more shins, each about a half an hour apart. During that time Bill Tefft, a professor at the Ely Community College, stopped by to say "Hi" and he got to release a shin. Around 2:00, Curt and Kent headed up to Curt's trapping spot on Moose Mountain and Bill went back to Hawk Ridge for their annual Hawk Watch Weekend celebrations. Bruce left a little later.

Just after they all left, a female Merlin came shooting in from the fake owl. It hit the top of the net and bounced out!!! Arrrgh!!! I sat there by myself for the next two hours contemplating an empty sky and an empty net.

Around 4:00, I got a call from Mark Churchill, a falconer from Nebraska, saying that he and his wife Jessica had made it up through Duluth and were heading up to the blind. Mark had a non-resident falconry trapping permit for a Sharp-shinned Hawk or a Merlin and planned to spend the next few days working the falconer's trapping site at Hawk Harbor, trying to fill his permit. Just after I saw them pull up at the edge of the field, a male Merlin took a shot at the fake owl, saw the lure, and came blasting in! Mark and Jessica who were half way up to the blind by then were able to see the Merlin shoot across the field and hit the net. We banded it, took some photos, and Jessica got to let it go. They wanted to see how the banding station worked, so we all settled in to see if another bird might come along. At 5:19, a female Merlin was passing on the north side of the field, saw our lure, and made a long slanting stoop into the front net! Mark got to release that one. We closed down at 5:30. After that we went down to Hawk Harbor and set up a trapping rig for Mark.

We got a total of 8 birds and 1 bounce-out on Saturday.

5 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, and 2 Merlins.

Sunday, September 17th

At 7:00, I met Mark at the Hawk Harbor trapping site and helped him get set up. He had a couple hours to trap before he had to go back to his cabin to pick up Jessica and catch the North Shore Scenic Railroad train at 10:00. They had bought the tickets earlier and planned to spend most of that day riding the train.

After Mark left, I headed to the banding station to set up and while I was doing that, Greg and his friend Ali from Columbia joined me. They were camping in Greg's fifth wheel trailer at Hawk Harbor for the weekend so they could set up Greg's trapping site on Hawk Hill, just up the shore from us. We were ready to start banding at 8:45.

At 9:00, we got our first bird of the day, an adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk. We banded it, took some photos, and Ali let it go. We caught two more shins right away and as soon as they were banded, Ali and Greg did a double shin release. Then they went up to Greg's site on Hawk Hill to trap.

A short while after they left, I was alone and heard a noise out behind the blind. I looked out and saw a doe White-tailed Deer in the woods behind me walking toward the nets. I got out and stood by the back net and then she turned and wandered back into the woods. A few minutes later, she leisurely walked out into the field from the south side of the blind. She started eating some seed I had put out in front of the blind for the Blue Jays that keep us company when not much else is going on. I got out of the blind to take a picture of her and she just stayed there eating the seed. When she finished all the seed, she wandered back into the woods where she came from. So, I put more seed out for the Blue Jays and a little while later, she came back out and started eating more seed. This time I got out of the blind, and slowly walked into the field between her and the nets, making sure she wouldn't bolt and run into them. She looked very thin and did not seem to care at all that I was there. I took a bunch of photos and even Face-timed Trudi on the phone to show her the deer. I talked softly to the doe, and she let me get within ten feet of her for some photos. Then I backed away to let her finish the seed. When she finished the second round, she looked at me, took a couple steps toward me, turned, and then walked off to the north! Sweet!

After the deer left, I was sitting there with nothing happening, didn't see a hawk anywhere, so I gave a pull on the lure as a kind of free advertising. WHAM!!! An adult Cooper' s Hawk came out of nowhere and slammed the front net! I banded it, took photos, and let it go.

I sat there with nothing in sight for another hour and fifteen minutes. Then, the good old fake owl came through again! A female Merlin started stooping at it, screaming her head off! I pulled the lure line, it peeled off the owl, came in and smacked the front net. I banded her, took photos, and let her go. Five minutes later, a male kestrel was over the far end of the field trying to catch a thermal. When it turned my way, I pulled the lure and it locked right on. He made a very long slanting stoop from high and far away and as he got closer, he dropped his little legs down, just like a redtail does, and hit the front net full blast! I carefully got him out of the net while he was busy chewing and footing my fingers until they bled. Then I banded him, took some photos, and let him go to look for some dragonflies to chew on instead of me!

It was very slow going after the kestrel, so I shut down at 2:00 and went over to help Mark at the trapping site on our land. I stayed overnight at Hawk Harbor to help Mark on Monday. We got started at 6:30, and by the time I left at 1:00, we had a Merlin and a shin come in, but they both bounced out. Hopefully, Mark was able to fill his permit before driving back home to Nebraska.

We got a total of 6 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

3 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 American Kestrel, 1 Cooper's Hawk, and 1 Merlin.

14 total birds for the weekend.

41 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/)

Keep your eyes on the skies!