First Weekend of Banding 2023

Hello Everyone, 

 

Here we go again, starting OUR 54th YEAR in the Mattson Farm hayfield!!! 

This is my first report of the 2023 banding season, covering the weekend of September 2nd, 2023. 

Saturday, September 2nd 

Trudi and I met Rick at Hawk Harbor at 8:00 am. Rick had come up the night before and was ready to go. We loaded up his truck and headed up to the banding station in the Mattson hayfield. Trudi and I had been up the weekend before to mow and clean up the blind so there was very little preparation left to do. We put up the nets and were ready to start the first weekend of our 54th consecutive year of trapping hawks in the Mattson hayfield!!! The forecast called for three days of some very hot but clear conditions. The wind was light out of the southwest, so we didn't expect to see much at all in the way of migrating birds. 

We did see some shins hunting the draw at the other end of the field when we drove up, but nothing coming over our way. About a half an hour after we started, a big adult female Cooper's Hawk came blasting out of the woods from behind us and hit the back net! Hooray!!! We got our first bird of the 54th season banded, recorded, and in the books!!! 

Around 10:00, we started seeing some migrating Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures, American Kestrels, and a few Sharp-shinned Hawks trying to catch a thermal. One of the shins saw our lure, locked on, and came right in! Bird number two in the books! 

Another young female shin came in about an hour later, accompanied by a young male. The female got caught and the male went on his way. Bird number three in the books! 

By 1:00, it was getting very hot in the blind. The outside temperature was around 89° f and the inside of the blind was turning into an oven. Fortunately, our "Tech Guru" Rick had brought along some fans with a portable power-pack to run them. Thank You, Rico!!! 

Around 3:00, we saw a Merlin come zipping into the field and start buzzing the kestrels. After a few minutes of harassing them, he caught sight of our lure, and, as Merlins do, he powered right into the front net! While we were banding the Merlin, we noticed three people walking up to the blind. It was our falconer friend Bruce Gilbertson from Duluth and Mr. and Mrs. Mattson, who own the hayfield we have been trapping in for these many years. It was so nice to be able to show them a "hawk in hand"! I set up a shot that was supposed to show the three of them releasing the Merlin, but when I hit the shutter release, I forgot that the camera was still in the ten second delay mode and the Merlin was long gone before the shutter went off. Rats!!! 

The Mattsons headed home and Bruce stayed to help us spot hawks and then to close down the banding station at 5:00. When we got back down to Hawk Harbor, Bruce presented Trudi and me with one of his beautiful falcon carvings! My brother Mike was up for the weekend and also met us at Hawk Harbor. Bruce headed home and Trudi, Rick, Mike, and I went in to eat supper at Culvers in Two Harbors. 

We got a total of 4 birds and no bounce-outs on Saturday. 

2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Cooper's Hawk, and 1 Merlin. 

Sunday, September 3rd 

Sunday morning was predicted to be even hotter than Saturday. We loaded the banding gear into Rick's truck then Trudi and I jumped on the tailgate for our morning ride up to the blind. We watched a beautiful sunrise as we rode up across the field. We had the nets reset by 7:15 and settled in to look for some birds. 

About an hour later, a young female shin that was out in the draw flew in with a male shin to check us out. They took turns swooping in and out between the nets and finally the female hit the back net! We banded it, released it and sat back to look for more. Lots of Blue Jays and American Robins were moving through. The Jays stopped by to sample the corn I had put out for them in the field in front of us. We also had some migrating American White Pelicans fly right over the blind! 

Just after 10:00, a male American Kestrel shot in from the field without anyone seeing his approach! We banded him, took some photos, and sent him back on his way south. By then the sun hitting the front of the blind was making it almost too hot for the fans to keep up, but we stayed at it! 

A half hour later, we spotted a Red-tailed Hawk circling up over the north end of the field. Before it got too high, it saw our lure and set its wings to come straight in. This one was still in heavy molt, with a lot of feathers only half way down. We banded it, took photos, and sent it back out to find another thermal. 

By this time the temperature outside the blind was at 92° f and the inside was roasting, fans or no fans. So, we decided to close down at noon. Five minutes before noon, a young male shin came in and landed above our nets. Rick used his expert luring technique to send it into the back net! Bird number eight for the weekend! 

The weather forecast for Monday was for continued high temperatures and strong winds from the southeast. We decided to head for home and beat the heat and the heavy traffic that would be on the roads the next day. We felt pretty good about our first weekend of banding, getting eight birds banded and five species! 

We got a total of 4 birds and no bounce-outs on Sunday. 

2 Sharp-shinned Hawks, 1 Red-tailed Hawk, and 1 American Kestrel. 

8 total birds for the weekend. 

8 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! 

Trudi & Frank Taylor

1. Riding up to the blind on Rick's tailgate.

2. First hawk of the year was an adult female Cooper's Hawk.

3. Frank, Rick, and Trudi with the Cooper's Hawk.

4. Trudi doing the data recording.

5. Adult female Cooper's Hawk.

6. Trudi and Rick releasing the Cooper's Hawk.

7. A young female Sharp-shinned Hawk came in next.

8. Rick did the luring and net setting.

9. I did the banding.

10. Trudi releasing the shin.

11. Another young shin came in.

12. I got to release the second shin.

13. The last bird of the day was a Merlin.

14. Banding the Merlin and trying not to get bit!

15. Trudi, Mary, Don, Frank, Bruce, and Rick with the Merlin.

16. A Merlin.

17. Bruce gave Trudi and me one of his beautiful falcon carvings!

18. Sunday morning sunrise over the Mattson Farm.

19. First bird of the day was a young female Sharp-shinned Hawk.

20. Trudi and Rick with the shin.

21. Trudi releasing the shin.

22. Some American White Pelicans flew over the blind.

23. A male American Kestrel.

24. Frank and Trudi holding the kestrel.

25. A young male American Kestrel.

26. Rick releasing the kestrel.

27. A heavily molting Red-tailed Hawk coming in.

28. An adult Red-tailed Hawk.

29. Rick, Frank, and Trudi with the red-tail.

30. Rick releasing the red-tail.

31. Last bird of the weekend was a young male Sharp-shinned Hawk.

32. Trudi releasing the shin.

33. We quit at noon due to the extreme heat.

34. Our "tech genius" Rick saved us from overheating with his power-pack run fans.

Banding Season Totals for 2022

Hello Everyone,

Our nine weekends of the 2022 banding season seemed to go very fast this year. Having electricity at Hawk Harbor made the camping much more comfortable. However, the weather patterns were so odd this year that we only had a few days with major numbers of birds pushing through on the weekends that we were up there. That combined with some rained out weekends made the count this year the lowest we have had for the past 15 years.

Even so, socially this was a fun season at Hawk Harbor. We didn't have all the big groups that we used to have come up before Covid, but we did get some visitors and campers that made the nine weekends very enjoyable.

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 53rd year in a row.

Also a big THANK YOU goes to Bob Crosbie for supplying our lure birds this year.

A GREAT BIG THANK YOU goes out to every one of our banding crew who came up to do the banding again this year. What a great and dedicated team of regulars we have. Trudi Taylor, Rick DuPont, Nancy & Chuck Schotzko, and Todd Rosengren: without your dedication and co-operation, we would not be able to do this thing we love so much, year after year.

Thanks for being such great friends and sharing an interest in our modest program!

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH!!!!!!

We had a total of 70 birds for the season. (Last year we had a total of 172 hawks.)

We had a total of only 10 bounce-outs this year. (We had 18 bounce-outs last year.)

Here it is, the final breakdown.

Sharp-shins - 54

Immys 27. . . . Males 14 . . . . . Females 13

Adults 27. . . . Males 12 . . . . . Females 15

Red-tails - 7

Immys 4 . . . . . Males 1 . . . . . Females 3

Adults 3 . . . . . Males 3 . . . . . Females 0

Merlins - 3

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

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

Cooper's - 2

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

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

Broad-wings - 1

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

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

Kestrels - 2

Immys 2 . . . . . Males 0 . . . . . Females 2

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

Goshawks - 1

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

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

Eagles - 0, Gyrfalcons - 0, Peregrines - 0, Harriers - 0, Rough-legs - 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

Ninth Weekend of Banding 2022

Hello Everyone,

This is my ninth and last report of the 2022 banding season, covering the weekend of October 29th, 2022.

Friday, October 28th

Trudi and I drove up to Two Harbors on Friday morning to do some sight seeing and celebrate our 30th wedding anniversary, which was actually on August 21st. Trudi had booked a room at the Country Inn and check in wasn't until 3:00, so we went over and had a great lunch at the Black Woods restaurant in town. After lunch, we stopped by the Burlington Station Candy Store for some treats. After we checked in at the motel, we headed up to hike around at Gooseberry Falls. A great way to celebrate on the North Shore and I must say that even after all these years, it still feels like we are newlyweds.

Saturday, October 29th

Trudi and I had breakfast at the motel, which included pancakes made in a machine with a conveyor belt that started up with the wave of your hand! We met Chuck at Hawk Harbor around 9:00 am. Nancy, Todd, and Rick could not come up due to commitments at home. The weather forecast for the North Shore called for clear skies, warm temps, and almost no wind. This has been our slowest year ever! The weather patterns have conspired against us almost every weekend this season. We set up the banding station and started looking for hawks at 9:30 am.

A lot of small birds were starting to move and at 9:47 we got our first bird of the weekend, a young female shin that was out hunting the draw. It popped up near the fake owl, Chuck worked the lure, and it came right in. We banded it, took some photos, and Trudi released it. An hour later we had another young female shin "lock on" from the north and hit the front net. We banded it, took photos, and Chuck released it.

A half an hour later, a pair of Northern Harriers dropped in and started working the other end of the field. The female went straight on through, but the adult male saw our owl and took a few shots at it. Chuck worked the lure and it started a flappy, but steady approach. In typical Harrier fashion, it pulled up at the last second, just nicking the top of the net, knocking it down without getting caught. A bounce out!!!

My brother Mike came up around 2:00, just in time to see a shin make a long slanting stoop from out over the barn, zooming right into the center of the net! We banded it, took photos, and Mike got to release that one. Mike had not slept at all the night before, so a little while later he went down to take a nap at Hawk Harbor.

We caught an adult female shin at 2:45. No one saw it come in! I heard what sounded like a shin peep while Chuck was luring for another bird out front. I looked out the side window of the blind and saw the shin was already caught in the net!

We had two more shins come in that day, both making long slanting stoops from way out over the field. Those are the most exciting ones to watch! The first one was another young female shin and the second was an adult male. We banded them, took photos, and I got to release the male.

Around 4:15, we had a White-tail doe walk out of the woods right next to the blind. It nibbled some grass out front while we took photos and then moseyed off to the north. We closed down at 4:30.

After securing the banding station for the night, Trudi, Chuck, and I went in to the Culver's in Two Harbors for supper.

We got a total of 6 birds and one bounce-out on Saturday.

6 Sharp-shinned hawks

Sunday, October 29th

Sunday was our last day of the 2022 banding season. Trudi, Chuck, and I drove back up to the blind just as the sun was coming up over the lake. Always a beautiful way to start the day! The weather forecast said the skies would be partly cloudy and the wind would be out of the south-west. We were all set up and ready to go by 8:00 am. My brother Mike had taken orders all around for McDonalds breakfast before we left for the blind. He bought us all breakfast and brought it up to us. Then he went back down to Hawk Harbor.

Talk about a SLOW day, we didn't see anything moving until about an hour after we got started. A single shin flew past to the south of us, but too far off to even notice our lure. Just after the shin went by, I heard a strange little buzzing sound. I looked up and saw a drone that came zipping in and stopping about two feet in front of my face. It was my brother Mike's drone that he was operating from down at the road. He came back up to the blind and showed us the incredible flying abilities of his fancy little drone. While sitting in the blind, he was able to send it down to Hawk Harbor, descend to just above ground level, and do a 360° scan of the entire campsite. Shortly after the flight demo, he left to visit our older brother Tony who was 50 miles south of us.

At 11:30, we caught our 70th and last bird of the season. It was a small young male Sharp-shinned hawk that was out hunting in the draw. It took a shot at the owl and then came straight in to our nets. We banded it, took photos, and Chuck released it.

We didn't see any other raptors moving until just after noon when eagles and red-tails started swarming up in kettles! We saw more than one hundred red-tails, all adults, and many eagles mounting up in thermals passing to the north of us! Some came over the blind to take a look, but none of them came in. Just as quickly as they started, they shut down. We closed up at 1:00.

We got a total of 1 bird and no bounce-outs on Sunday.

1 Sharp-shinned hawk

7 total birds for the weekend.

70 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. The candy counter at Burlington Station in Two Harbors, MN.
Photo by Trudi Taylor

02. One of the tunnels on the way up to Gooseberry Falls.
Photo by Trudi Taylor

03. Trudi and I at Gooseberry Falls.
Photo by Friendly Passer By

04. Trudi at the Upper Falls.

05. Celebrating 30 years married to this beautiful lady.

06. Saturday morning shin coming in.

07. First bird of the weekend was a young female Sharp-shinned hawk.

08. Chuck, Trudi, and Frank holding the shin.
Photo by Troy Podd

09. A large young female shin.

10. Trudi about to release the shin.

11. Trudi releasing the shin.

12. Another Sharp-shinned hawk.

13. Chuck getting the shin out of the net.

14. A young female shin.

15. Frank banding the shin.
Photo by Trudi Taylor

16. Another young female shin.

17. Frank, Trudi, Chuck, and Mike holding the shin.
Photo by Troy Podd

18. A bulging full crop on this shin and it still came in.

19. Mike holding the shin.

20. Mike releasing the shin.

21. An adult female Sharp-shinned hawk.

22. Frank and Chuck taking the shin out of the net.
Photo by Trudi Taylor

23. An adult male Sharp-shinned hawk.

24. Frank releasing the shin.
Excellent photo by Trudi Taylor

25. Trudi watching the deer in front of the blind.

26. A visiting deer came out in front of the blind.

27. The deer checking us out.

28. The deer slowly walking away.

29. Sunday morning sunrise over Lake Superior and the Mattson farm.

30. Another visitor to the blind.

31. Drone's-eye view of our banding station.
Photo by Mike Taylor

32. Mike landing his drone.

33. Only a few shins came over on Sunday.

34. The only shin we caught on Sunday.

35. Chuck and Frank taking the shin out of the net.
Photo by Trudi Taylor

36. Chuck, Trudi, and Frank with the shin.
Photo by Troy Podd

37. Chuck releasing the shin.

38. One of the many eagles that flew over on Sunday.