Hello Everyone,

Our nine weekends of the 2024 banding season seemed to go very fast this year. Again this season, we did not get the weather to cooperate. There were no major cold fronts to push down large numbers of migrating raptors on the weekends that we were banding. Also our numbers this year were slightly less than last year due to an extremely warm fall. And again this year, half of our team was unable to participate due to health issues.

Even so, socially this was a fun season at Hawk Harbor. We had a couple of groups that came up and we did get visitors and campers who made the nine weekends very enjoyable.

We are trying not to schedule large groups anymore. With increasingly uncertain weather patterns, we want to be able to make last minute decisions as to whether or not we will be going up north to band.

I would like to thank all the friends and neighbors who made this year so special, even though we had low banding numbers.

A very special THANK YOU goes to the Mattson family for letting us use their hay field for the 55th year in a row!

Also a big THANK YOU goes to Bob Crosbie for supplying our lure birds this year; all of them were returned home unharmed!

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU goes out to Trudi Taylor and Rick DuPont. Without your dedication and co-operation, we would not be able to do this thing we love so much, year after year. THANK YOU, Trudi, for editing all of our weekly banding reports.

Thanks to all of you who read our weekly reports for being such great friends and for sharing an interest in our modest program!

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!

We banded a total of 82 raptors this season, compared with last year's total of 97 and 2022's total of only 70.

We had a total of 17 bounce-outs this year, compared to only 6 bounce-outs last year.

Here it is, the final breakdown.

Sharp-shins - 58

Immys  27  . . . . Males 9   . . . . . Females 18

Adults  31 . . . . Males 17 . . . . . Females 14

Cooper's - 2

Immys 1 . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 1

Adults  1 . . . . Males 1 . . . . . Females 0

Goshawks - 1

Immys  1 . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 1

Adults  0 . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 0

Red-tails - 10

Immys  6 . . . . . Males 2 . . . . . Females 4

Adults   4 . . . . . Males 1 . . . . . Females 3

Rough-legs - 1

Immys  1 . . . . . Males 1 . . . . . Females 0

Adults  0 . . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 0

Merlins - 7

Immys  6 . . . . . Males 5 . . . . . Females 1

Adults  1 . . . . . Males 1 . . . . . Females 0

Kestrels - 3

Immys  3 . . . . . Males 1 . . . . . Females 2

Adults  0 . . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 0

Total Males . . . . . . . . . 38

Total Females . . . . . . . 44

Total Immys  . . . . . . . . 45

Total Adults   . . . . . . . . 37

Total for 2024 Season . . . . 82

Eagles - 0, Gyrfalcons - 0, Peregrines - 0, Harriers - 0, Broadwings - 0.

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