Raptor and non-raptor count summaries September 22nd-28th

Raptors

Well, with an entire week of south and east winds, the migration has been kinda slow! But the Sharpies keep plugging away, trying desperately to build up some respectable numbers- with only 5741 for the season, something big will have to happen soon for us to see anything even close to average (the average by now "should" be nearly twice what we’ve seen so far). Interestingly, Peregrines seem to like this weather, with 32 seen this week, including a great flight of 15 on September 26^th when a strong east wind was blowing in off the lake. Although a few juveniles have been seen, most Peregrines continue to be adults. Hopefully this strong movement of Peregrines will continue!

Non-raptors

This was also a relatively slow week for non-raptors, with only about 9,000 total seen for the week (at a time when days of over 10,000 are not unusual). American Goldfinches put on a good showing this week, with about 2400 seen, including 733 on September 24^th, which is one of the higher counts I have seen. The warm weather has given Blue Jays and Cedar Waxwings a chance to still move by in the hundreds, though I am sure their time is just about up, since by October these two species usually change over to American Crows and American Robins. We haven't had a hard freeze yet, so lots of birds are hopefully waiting to move when the weather finally gets cold again.

Karl Bardon

Count Director

Well, I may not have much to report for bird numbers this week, but at least I can show some of the better photos I have taken this week.

Palm Warbler in the perch tree by the counting platform at Hawk Ridge

juvenile Bald Eagle carrying some veggies over Hawk Ridge

What are you looking at? Downy Woodpecker checking us out!

Adult Peregrine Falcon

Sharp-shinned Hawk Kind-of-Day

The most amazing cloud formations and colors filled the skies today, as winds blew gently off of the lake. The skies were relatively quiet regarding the larger raptors, but the small Sharp-shinned Hawks kept the day's total count running high today. Of the 257 raptors observed today, 243 of them were Sharp-shinned Hawks.

Sharp-shinned Hawks will fly through the area both independently as well as in kettles (groups of raptors). Quite often, the chances of seeing kettling Sharp-shinned Hawks depends on how close to the peak migration we are for the species. When hawkwatching in peak migration on days with many Sharp-shinned Hawks moving through, it is not uncommon to see small kettles of these gorgeous, petite accipiters flying past. We had a few small kettles of 'shins today.

With the fall days of late-September and early October taking place, it is that time of the fall migration where we see a turnover of ages within the Sharp-shinned Hawks observed. In early September, the bulk of the Sharp-shinned Hawks migrating past Hawk Ridge are juveniles. As we get closer to the month of October, many (but not all) of the juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawks will have passed through, and more adult 'shins will begin to migrate past the ridge. By mid/late October, most of the Sharp-shinned Hawks observed are adults. This migrational trend of juveniles-first & adults-later, can be seen throughout the raptor species found at Hawk Ridge. Many Red-tailed Hawks that we're seeing now are juveniles (although a few adults have come through). Come late October, most of the Red-tailed Hawks flying through will be sporting the gorgeous tomato-red tail feathers!

Here is a Sharp-shinned Hawk migrating past Hawk Ridge from a few years ago. This individual was on its second fall migration when the photo was taken. A juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk would be showing a yellow set of eyes, with brown wings and brown vertical streaks throughout the underbelly. An older adult would show a dark red eye with the adult plumage of reddish horizontal barring and slate-gray wings, backside and tail. The bird in this photo shows the adult plumage, but hosts an orange eye, which is commonly seen during that 1st/2nd year transition of the bird's life.

Here is a juvenile Sharp-shinned Hawk, photographed in Duluth just a few weeks ago. Note the brown plumage, vertical streaks, and pale-yellow eye.

Tomorrow may be a rainy day... We'll have to see. Many fun times are in store at the ridge. 

Good hawkwatching!

Erik Bruhnke

Hawk Ridge Count Interpreter

Hawk Ridge Volunteers

This week I am proud to introduce two of our volunteers that are helping this fall at the overlook. Below is a photo of new volunteer, Jeff Rongitsch, and returning volunteer, Samiha Dib. They had just come back from picking up a Merlin at our banding station. This is just one of the many duties that the volunteers have at the main overlook.

Jeff is a new volunteer that has started helping us out just a couple days ago. Jeff went to school at UMD for a degree in general biology and came to Hawk Ridge often while he attended school. Since then he has traveled quite a bit and has been working seasonal naturalist jobs. He just returned to Minnesota for a short time after working in northern Colorado at State Forest State Park. Jeff will continue to travel to Central America after he is done volunteering at Hawk Ridge. There, he hopes to surf and scuba dive, as well as try to find some volunteer naturalist or research opportunities. Come winter time, Jeff will be back in Colorado working as a snowboard instructor. Jeff found interest in volunteering at Hawk Ridge because of his background in biology and naturalist work that he has done. In the last couple days of volunteering, he has learned the duties quite quickly. We are happy to have him on our team and hope he will be back next year as he travels through seasonal employment and volunteer opportunities.

Samiha Dib also has a very interesting story behind her volunteer work at Hawk Ridge. Samiha is a returning volunteer and has put in time at Hawk Ridge for 6 seasons. She volunteered her first season with her mother, Deborah, and brother, when she was only 7 years old. As she grew up, she moved between Minnesota and the UAE. So, when her family was away from Minnesota they took a break from volunteering, but have been consistently volunteering for the last few seasons in a row. Samiha is now taking classes as a PSEO student at UMD. She has an interest in astronomy and spends time at the planetarium, as well as,  a passion for theater and arts. When she is volunteering at Hawk Ridge, she likes everything about it and especially likes watching the raptors and the visitors. She likes to chat with visitors to find out who they are, why they are coming to Hawk Ridge and where they come from. She finds it very interesting when she meets people from other countries. Samiha is a great asset to Hawk Ridge. We really appreciate having people around who are invested in the organization and give their 100% every season.

Whether our volunteers are new and have only a short time with us, or if they have been around many seasons, they all have very interesting lives and background. They are great people to meet and we appreciate every minute of time that they take out of their lives to spend up at Hawk Ridge in helping make the season's research and education possible.

Many thanks to Jeff and Samiha!

Katie Swanson
Volunteer Coordinator

New Hawk Ridge Merchandise

The first item for sale bearing the new Hawk Ridge logo designed by board member, Ken Zakovich, has finally arrived! Thanks to Hawk Ridge members Myron and Holly Peterson and their donation for promotional merchandise, we were able to make Spudz microfiber lens cloths available for sale in our trailer. The lens cloth fits nicely rolled up in a bag that conveniently clips to your binocular straps.
 

Microfiber Lens Cloth Bags with New Logo

Lens Cloth

 

 

 

 

 

Two other exciting items available this year are cinch bags and a custom designed hat. The cinch bags are very handy, well constructed, and come in green, blue, or pink. Both custom designs feature a kettle of Broad-winged Hawks rising from a silhouette of Lake Superior.

Volunteer, Abbie, wearing the new hat

Volunteer, Brenda, with new bag

Bag color options

Youth and Children's shirts

And, back by popular demand, are the kid's "Hawk watcher in training" t-shirts! This year we had them printed with glow-in-the-dark ink for added fun. The 24-month size comes in red or blue, and the youth sizes are coral or light blue.

Hawk Ridge merchandise

More Hawk Ridge merchandise

Hawk Ridge merchandise trailer

All of our items are limited in quantity, so stop in to the trailer soon to purchase your favorite Hawk Ridge gear! We are at the main overlook at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve between 9am and 4pm daily through the end of October.

Jessica Chatterton
Hawk Ridge Operations Director

Education - Hawk Weekend, Scenes from the Overlook

Hawk Weekend at the overlook included good crowds, good weather, good birds,  good volunteers, good staff, and good food!  My thanks goes to our supporters, volunteers, and staff.  It was a great weekend.

I'll let the pictures tell the stories.

Hawk Watching.  The civilized way to watch birds.

Picnics!

It was a stunning day.

Katie shows a Broad-winged Hawk.                                                                       It's a Bald Eagle!

This picture says it all.

We are up to 65 programs scheduled.

See you at the Ridge.

Gail Johnejack

Education Director

Hawk Weekend Festival - A Success!

Our annual Hawk Weekend Festival held this past weekend was a great success! Thanks to our volunteers, staff, board, speakers, field trip leaders, auction/raffle donors, and crew at Spirit Mountain Grand Avenue Chalet for a job well done. We had approximately 100 in attendance each evening for both our Friday and Saturday programs. On Friday night, we held our Hawk Ridge Annual Member Meeting and honored Julie O'Connor with the Hawk Ridge Lifetime Achievement Award for her 10 years of dedication and heartfelt service with Hawk Ridge.



Executive Director, Janelle Long (left), presenting the
2013 Hawk Ridge Lifetime Achievement Award to Julie O'Connor (right)

Keith Bildstein gave an enlightening talk that left everyone with a new and interesting impression of vultures and migration.



Hawk Weekend Festival Friday night speaker -
Dr. Keith Bildstein of Hawk Mountain Sanctuary

On Saturday night, we held our Hawk Ridge fundraiser with both a fun new raffle and great assortment of auction items. Norman Smith of Massachusetts Audubon presented an entertaining talk on owls that was engaging and educational.

 

Norman Smith (left) holding first Northern Goshawk
banded for fall 2013 season with
Hawk Ridge Banding Director, Frank Nicoletti (right) 

 

Field trips were led to local birding hotspots and workshops were held at Hawk Ridge Nature Reserve on advanced hawkwatching and songbird banding. 
 



Board Member, David Alexander, teaching a group of students

from Lakehead University (Thunder Bay, Ontario)

about songbird banding techniques



Thankfully, I was able to get out from behind-the-scenes to spend a beautiful day at Hawk Ridge on Sunday. I left the weekend physically tired, but after much good conversation and true camaraderie, I feel even more inspired, motivated, and energized about Hawk Ridge. The potential we have is exciting. Our future is bright - just check out the rainbow that presented itself at our evening event on Friday! Thank you for the connections and believing in us.

 

 

Janelle Long
Executive Director

An Exciting Week of Banding September 12-22

The weather finally cooperated for part of the last week, and we had a day of over 100 passerines banded and one day of 250 hawks banded. There were several rainy and foggy days, but we had enough good weather to make it a very successful week at the banding stations. We are running all day passerine banding demonstrations at the main overlook on the weekends, as well as banding station tours.  Please stop by and sign up!!!

Golden-winged Warbler - photo by Miranda Durbin

Passerine banding was slow most days, but Friday and Saturday mornings there was a significant movement of birds. Due to high winds, we were unable to band on Friday but all day birds were moving south on the strong Northwest winds. On Saturday, the winds died down enough so we could set up nets. We banded 100 passerines that day including 25 Nashville Warblers, two Black-throated Blue Warblers, and two Golden-winged Warblers just to name a few of the birds. For the week, we banded 144 total birds. This week we banded our first Hermit Thrushes, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Brown Creepers which are usually the late migrants and suggest the fall migration is starting to wind down.

Black-throated Blue Warbler - photo by Miranda Durbin

Owl banding was slow this week due to rain and wind. The busiest night was on the 21st when 18 Northern Saw-whet Owls were banded. For the week, the total number of owls was 36 all of which were adults. The saw-whet owl migration should continue to build in the next few weeks. The larger owls such as the Long-eared Owl should peak in mid-October but expect a few to arrive in the next week or two.

Raptor banding was slow most of the week, but all three stations were very busy on Friday the 20th when a total of 250 raptors were banded. The week's total was 412 birds banded plus three recoveries. The week included 1 Bald Eagle, 4 Northern Harriers, 352 Sharp-shinned hawks, 10 Cooper's Hawks, 1 Northern Goshawk, 4 Broad-winged Hawks, 6 Red-tailed Hawks, 22 American Kestrels and 12 Merlins. We had three recoveries this week of adult female Sharp-shinned Hawk. Two were from Thunder Cape, Ontario from 2010 and 2012. The third was a return from 2010 as a SY (hatched in 2009). The most exciting bird banded this week was an adult Bald Eagle banded on Tuesday at the main station. This is the first adult banded at the main station; we banded an adult in 2011 at the Paine Farm station. We band a lot of birds every year, but each eagle we catch is special and an adult Bald Eagle is exceptional. It was a joy for all of us just to see it. We released it at the overlook with a large crowd present. What a bird!

 Bald Eagle with bander David Alexander
photo by Kate Nicoletti

Raptor and non-raptor count summaries September 15-21

Raptors

The strong cold front on September 20-21st brought what was probably the last major push of Broad-wings over Hawk Ridge this season, including 1148 on September 20^th and 2975 on the 21^st, which gives us only a little over 10,000 for the season, which is much lower than average. The vast majority of this species flies through in a very narrow window from about September 8-22, and if we don’t get the right weather conditions to push them to Lake Superior during this period, they simply fly elsewhere.. This season a series of low pressure systems, with south and east winds, including rain days on the 18^th and 19^th, appeared to disperse the flight.

Good numbers of Peregrines have been flying through this week, but almost all of them have been adults, at a time when I would expect the flight to be mostly juveniles. This is true also for Red-tails, which have just started to increase in numbers, but most have been adults, and it appears we may not have any significant flight of juveniles, which generally would come through in late August and September. These species may have had poor production of young this season. The first adult dark (“rufous”) morph Red-tail of the season flew through on September 19th, which seemed earlier than normal.

Non-raptors

This was another great week for songbird migration, with another mass movement on September 20-21st as a strong cold front came through the region, and what was probably the last major push of neotropical migrants departed.

This has the been the week of the Blue Jay, with over 18,000 seen in the last seven days, including single day counts of 5627 on September 16th and 5434 on September 21st, bringing the season total to about 25,000. This has also been a great week for large numbers of warblers, including a great flight of 4270 warblers on September 20th. Although this flight started out with a good diversity of warbler species in the morning, including good numbers of Nashvilles, Palms, and American Redstarts, by the afternoon when the warblers were still flying, the flight appeared to have shifted to mostly Yellow-rumps, which was also true on the 21^st.

With the departure of many neotropical migrants, the diversity of species moving through is dropping. Interestingly, the overall number of migrant songbirds will increase the next few weeks, as very large numbers of primarily more diurnal, shorter distance migrants become more common, such as American Robins, Rusty Blackbirds, and finches. As the number of Blue Jays decrease, these other species will become the most abundant migrants of the fall. On the 21st, thousands of Blue Jays were joined by hundreds of robins and Rustys, which made for an excellent flight.

Sandhill Cranes, American White Pelicans, American Golden-Plovers, American Goldfinches, American Pipits, and Common Grackles have all been increasing in numbers as well. Luckily American Crows don't start moving in numbers until October, because that would be just too many Americans.

The funniest sighting of the week was a single Ross’s Goose that tried to join a flock of 35 American White Pelicans on 21 September, falling into the V and even staying in formation as the flock of pelicans began circling, but then as the flock continued circling it realized it didn’t know what to do with these giant, soaring birds, so it finally gave up and broke off.

Karl Bardon

Count Director

juvenile Red-tailed Hawk attacking the owl decoy at Hawk Ridge

Migrating from the Northwest

Northwestern winds are often thought of as the preferred winds for exciting flights of birds at Hawk Ridge. All day today, winds blew with considerable force out of the west and northwest. The air was cool & refreshing, and nonstop streams of warblers pushed through the area as did kettles of Broad-winged Hawks! Why was today such a busy day (migration-wise) at the ridge, and what can you expect for this upcoming Hawk Weekend?

When cold fronts push through, these winds can alter the insect populations in line of the storm's path. When the warblers's food (primarily insects) is reduced well north of here due to cold fronts, these amazing little birds are forced to meander southward. Quite often Sharp-shinned Hawks will follow the big pushes of songbirds coming through  The hearty Yellow-rumped Warbler were the most commonly observed warbler species today. Warblers are really pouring throughout the area as they make their way towards their wintering ground!. Although not as commonly seen today as the Yellow-rumped Warblers, a considerable amount of Palm Warblers moved through the skies. While count interpreting yesterday, I pointed out several other migrating warblers including American Redstarts, a Magnolia Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler and even.a Bay-breasted Warbler. Several American Pipits and Horned  Larks passed through the breezy skies as well. By the time 4:00pm came around, 469 Sharp-shinned Hawks had been seen at Hawk ridge.as did 638 Broad-winged Hawks!

Adult male American Redstart. Very flashy and vocal warbler species seen today!

Yellow-rumped Warbler from this afternoon (also know as a "butter-butt")

Here is an adult Peregrine Falcon from early this morning.

The recent cool front that moved into the northwoods has definitely sparked migration, both currently in the present day, and for the upcoming days of Hawk Weekend! Get ready for some fun flights of birds moving through the western tip of Lake Superior this Hawk Weekend.

Good hawkwatching,

Erik Bruhnke

Count Interpreter

Hawk Ridge Volunteers

Being a volunteer at Hawk Ridge has many perks. One perk is that you are able to work closely with the amazing birds that are flying passed or getting caught and banded at our banding station. Volunteers are able to hold and release birds that are not being adopted at the overlook. Below are photos of volunteer, Mary Slattery, holding and releasing a juvenile male Sharp-shinned Hawk that was caught at our banding station and brought up to the overlook for education and release.

Mary is a returning volunteer that has been dedicating her time to Hawk Ridge during the fall season for many years. Her passion for Hawk Ridge shines through in all the time she spends up there, as well as, her willingness to help out with what is needed to get done. Mary is retired from work so she likes to spend time at the main overlook assisting our staff and other volunteers. Mary also has an interest in art and likes to spend time with her loving dog Sadie. Mary is a great person to chat with and fun to be around. If you have the chance to get to know her this fall, you are a lucky person. Thanks for all you do Mary!

Adult Bald Eagle at the Overlook!

Jill Genaw and adopted Bald Eagle

Hawk Ridge member Jill Genaw of Shoreview, Mn experienced an unforgettable day at Hawk Ridge yesterday. Not only did she have the extremely rare opportunity to adopt an adult Bald Eagle but she also got to watch it being caught at our banding station! Just as she and tour leader, Linda Estel, reached the banding station to begin the tour chaos broke out and everyone from the banding blind went running to the net where the eagle had been caught. Jill had been on banding station tours before but nothing like this! She decided she had to adopt this bird. Handling and releasing a bird this large is more complicated than most of the raptors caught at Hawk Ridge and must only be done by someone as experienced as Frank Nicoletti, our Banding Director. Jill was more than content with this of course (eagle talons are huge!) and watched with teary eyes as this amazing bird took flight.

This adult Bald Eagle was caught in a bow net at the main banding station by raptor bander and Hawk Ridge board member Dave Alexander. Bald Eagles are not often caught here but this year we have already had two others before this. Neither of these were old enough to have the white head and tail of the mature adult though. Tuesday's bird was estimated to be at least four or five years old since that is the age when the head and tail feathers turn completely white. The last time one of these magnificent creatures was seen in the hand at Hawk Ridge was in 2011 when volunteer Gretchen McDaniel adopted an adult Bald Eagle in honor of her brother-in-law who was a marine based in Afghanistan. 

Frank releases the Bald Eagle

Private banding station tours, such as Jill's, are complimentary for Hawk Ridge members at the Owl membership level or higher. This year for the first time we are making tours available to the public as well. For $15 per person you can now enjoy watching our banders attempt to catch the many hawks that fly over Hawk Ridge. On these tours you may also have the opportunity to adopt a banded bird. Who knows, you may be lucky enough to see something as spectacular as Jill did!


Jessica Chatterton
Hawk Ridge Operations Director

Education... on Slow Bird Days

Greetings from the Overlook,

I was at the overlook all day last Saturday.  It was a slow bird day.  Very slow.  The counters counted 50 birds compared to the 8,000 something two days before.  It was slow.

So what happens on slow days?  We make connections with visitors.  We find out where people are from. We tell them about all the birds that come here (except today, because it is a slow day).  We find out if they have been here before and we help them use binoculars to see the fake owl because it feels like that's all there is to see.  But that isn't really true.

Christian with his dragonflies.

Saturday included a short public program on dragonflies, including how American Kestrels catch and eat them while they are flying.  After the program, young Christian went home and came right back with his mom and two dragonflies he was inspired to catch, one of which was a White-faced Meadowhawk.  We also had songbird banding and 'Eyes on the Skies' beginning hawk-watching programs.  There was a flock of geese that included a Cackling Goose according to Erik Brunke's ear.  There were several birds caught at the banding station and we were able to show the public some Sharp-shinned Hawks and a Northern Harrier.

Right before the Sharp-shinned Hawk release.

Katie with the harrier.

Katie Swanson was holding a harrier, when an 8 year-old boy saw it and told his mom, "That's an 'immature, female Northern Harrier". My head spun and I looked at him and said, "You are right!"  His mom smiled and said something like, "He knows these things."  I guess so!  He ended up adopting the sharp-shin and his brother adopted the harrier.

Slow days also give us time to appreciate tractor parades and Belgian horses.  You just never know what is going to show up at Hawk Ridge - maybe it's raptors, and maybe it's not.

One of about 13 tractors in the tractor parade. 

Really big, Belgian horses.

Fog banks rolled in and out on Monday morning, Sept. 16th.

We are up to 56 programs scheduled for the season!

See you at the Ridge.

Gail Johnejack
Education Director