Raptor and non-raptor count summaries August 15-25, 2014

Raptor and non-raptor count summaries
August 15-25, 2014

Another fall has begun at Hawk Ridge! This is my eighth season counting raptors and non-raptors for Hawk Ridge, and the excitement at starting another fall migration is as exciting as ever. We started counting on August 15th as usual, but the last week has had quite the stretch of rain and fog, even by Duluth standards, so not many hours have been put into counting, and not many birds have been seen. The raptor migration has been especially slow with the foggy weather, and as a result only about 108 hawks have been seen through the 25th. A normal August averages about 1000 birds, so we have lots of catching up to do! Luckily the fog has cleared and west winds are blowing, so hopefully this week the counts will improve.

In contrast, the songbird migration has been quite good, especially if you're a warbler. These colorful jewels are often more visible in foggy weather when they become "grounded, although we have also had good numbers on the sunny days as well. This fall we are noticing very high numbers of Cape May Warblers with day counts of 21 and 40, many juvenile Blackburnians, and definitely more Golden-wingeds than usual (often several are seen in a day, which is unusual). On Park Point, a Brewster's Warbler spent several days hanging out with a Golden-winged Warbler (Brewster's is a hybrid between Golden-winged and Blue-winged and is seldom seen in Duluth). Warblers have been about the only group of birds moving through in any numbers. We are still waiting for a big push of Cedar Waxwings, Cliff Swallows, and Common Nighthawks, all of which usually peak in late August. Although there was an evening flight of 3104 Common Nighthawks, we are hoping for a larger flight in the next day or two. Perhaps it is even possible to beat last year's amazing count of over 30,000!

I have posted a bunch of warbler photos I took in the last week along the shore, including a Cape May Warbler in flight that I took with Steve Kolbe's camera. Steve is our new assistant counter. He has counted previously at Holiday Beach, Kiptopeke, Derby Hill, and other locations, and arrived early just to see the nighthawk migration. He loves to count and photograph all the birds he sees, especially the ones in flight, and so he will be a great addition to our Hawk Ridge crew. When you look at the warbler photos and notice how amazing and colorful they are, keep in mind that some of these are probably juvenile birds, supposedly the dullest plumage. Do not believe that thing about "confusing fall warblers", they are just as beautiful in the fall as they are in the spring!

Karl Bardon
Count Director
Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory

Cape May Warbler in flight

Blackburnian Warbler with bug

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Black-and-white Warbler

Magnolia Warbler

Come Volunteer at Hawk Ridge this fall!

Imagine spending time outside, watching hawks stream overhead, looking down to the beautiful fall colors, viewing the ever changing Lake Superior and talking to visitors from all over the world!

If this sounds like something you would enjoy, come and volunteer at Hawk Ridge. Every fall we are recruiting new volunteers to help us during the busy migration season. Our new-volunteer training dates are set. So spread the word and come along!

 

You don’t need to know how to identify raptors, we’ll teach you what you need to know.

All we ask is that you:
1. be friendly!!!
2. attend ONE of our training sessions
3. commit 24 hours of volunteer time between Sept. 1 and Oct. 31.

How easy is THAT??

We need people for a multitude of jobs including greeting visitors, selling merchandise, assisting naturalists with programs, pointing out birds, running errands, construction, trail maintenance/grounds work, office help and serving on planning committees.

Training Dates/Times
Session 1 (attend both evenings):
Tuesday, August 26th, 5:30-8:30pm at Bagley Nature Center
Wednesday, August 27, 6-8:00pm at Hawk Ridge Nature Center

Session 2
Saturday, September 6, 9am-3pm at Bagley Nature Center in the AM and Hawk Ridge Nature reserve in the PM

RSVP is not required, but will be appreciated.  Please contact Volunteer Coordinator

Katie Swanson, kswanson@hawkridge.org or 218-428-6209 for more information. 
Thanks!

The Adventures of our Fledgling

The young male Peregrine Falcon has indeed taken the journey into flying. No one that we know of was there to watch his first flight but we did not have to rescue him from the street so it was a success to us. It was either the night of Monday, July 7th or the morning of Tuesday, July 8th when he decided to take flight. When we went to look for him on the 8th, he was not in or on top of the nesting box. So it was time to search all the buildings and streets to find the new place where the fledgling was perching.

At this time, both of the parents were around so we thought that the fledgling was close. It was a difficult day to look for the bird because it was raining and this made it hard to hear and see. After about an hour of searching, the fledged falcon was spotted. He was on the Greysolon Plaza building, under a neat decorative sculpture. He seemed like he was in a pretty good spot so I decided to leave and come back later to check on him. When I did that, he had already made it across the street to a perch that was a little higher. Although I had not seen him fly, I was already feeling good about his flying skills. The next day we came to set up for the Peregrine Watch program and watch him for the day.

When we first arrived at the top of a parking ramp, where we look for the birds, we did not see anybody around. Shortly after, we saw the young bird and an adult swoop over our heads and go straight towards the Greysolon Plaza building. We were very suprised to watch the young falcon fly to the top of the building. This was only his second or third day of flying and he was already heading back to the top of one of the tallest buildings in Duluth. Needless to say, this was very promising to see. For the rest of the day, we continued to see him take short flights and land on a few different perches. We also watched the adult female swoop at him to get him to fly. Even though we was doing very well flying, he still was not the best at landing. We watched him try to land on perches, fail, and then come back and try again. It was obvious that he did not have the skills of his parents.

Now, it has been a little over a week of flying and he is continuing to succeed in flying, as well as, get better at his landings. He has started to swoop at his mother and play with her more. We have yet to see him attempt to catch any prey but I am sure this will start soon. A few days we have gone to observe them and cannot find any of the family. The young one is already expanding his flying range and finding new perches. However, just today he decided to hang out on top of the nesting box before flying off to the clock tower. It is hard to know how long we will be able to observe this family easily but I think it may not be much longer because this little one is so good a flying already. Hopefully we will be able to observe some new skill developments this week!

Close to Fledging!

Today the young falcon was 37 days old and he was doing a lot of good moving. In just the last 3 days he has advanced so much. On Wednesday he was coming out on to the perch bar and hoping back into the box for his first time. Today he was coming out to the perch bar and flapping and then eventually worked his way up to the top of the box.

We had been watching the young falcon stand on the perch bar and flap, flap, flap, flap. Then we looked away for a few moments to talk to people and when we looked back he was on top of the box. We were unsure if he would go into the box again because it seems a little harder to get back into the box then out. We watched the falcon run across the top of the box and flap his wings for a while. This area was a whole new world for him today and it was neat to watch him explore it. He was looking all around at birds, bugs and feathers passing by. He seemed pretty content in his expanded world. However, he did not stay up there as long as we had thought.

Eventually the young falcon made it back into the box. He was a sneaky bird. We looked away for another brief moment and then he was gone again. We were a little worried that he had tried to fly and we did not see where he went. We did not have our monitor for the camera in the box today because of all the time he had been spending out of the box. After a bit of observing we noticed the parents were calling and coming to the box and then flying to another perch and coming to the box again. We still did not see the young bird appear to greet his parents so we continued to wonder where he was. Eventually we did see him peak his head out of the box and begin to flap inside the box. We were happy to see he did not try to fly yet.

The parents continued to fly to the box and back to another perch on the Greysolon Plaza building. They did this over and over again. It was really some neat action.  They could have been encouraging the young bird to come out of the box again and teaching him about flying. Since he does not have any other siblings, he will have to rely on his parents to "play" with more.

We are excited to see how the next few days roll out. This young bird looks like he is really getting ready to fly. It takes about 40-45 days for a young falcon to develop enough to take its first flight. Males will usually fledge sooner then females and in just 3 days this one will be 40 days.  However, it is all up to the bird so we will just have to wait and see.

The Chick has Been Banded

Amy and Bob from RRP putting holding and putting bands on young falcon

At 27 days old, the chick was banded. We meet Bob Anderson and Amy Ries from the Raptor Resource Project at the Greysolon Plaza building at 10:30am on Tuesday, June 24th. The weather was damp and foggy but it was still ok to band the young falcon. Since there was only one, they made quick work of it. Amy Ries wore a climbing harness and tied into the window washing steps that were placed behind the box. She climbed over the box to retrieve the young falcon. Meanwhile, the adult male falcon was flying over head making a territorial call and the female was starting to make swoops.

The most unique thing about the banding this year was that Bob Anderson decided to catch the female. She is one of the more aggressive females that they work with. They wanted to avoid her swats as well as keep her from being stressed and possibly injuring her feet by continuously hitting the hard helmets that the banders where. Bob was sucessfull with this and caught her almost right away. This female will come and land next to you and stare at you before she flys to make a pass at you. In the time she landed, Bob was able to grab her, get her under control and then place a hood on her and a piece of fabric that restrained her wings and feet around her. This kept her quiet, calmer and the banders safer.

While the female was restrained the banders were able to quickly put two bands on the young falcon. They get a silver band with a 9 digit number  on it and a color band that is two colors and has a letter and number sequence on it. The color band makes it easier to identify the bird from farther distances. They decided that the young falcon was a male and was healthy and feisty.  His color band is black/red and the number is E/85. He was a strong little falcon and seemed to have some attitude. He made a lot of noise while this was happening and was not  submissive to it all. We were joking that you could tell he had some of his mother's attitude in him.

Bob putting U.S. Fish and wildlife band on young falcon

After everything was done, The feisty falcon was put back in the nest and the mother was released. She flew to a common perch and did not try to swoop at anyone while we left. I would say the banding went quickly and was successful.

Katie Swanson from Peregrine Watch holding young falcon

Our Chick is Two Weeks Old!

In the last two weeks, we have had some fun watching "our" peregrine family. It is hard to believe that the eyas is already two weeks old. It is amazing to see how fast they grow and change. In just two weeks, this little bird has acquired a second dense layer of down to keep himself warm. On warmer days, the parents are able to leave their little one alone a lot longer without it getting cold. On cooler days, the adults will still stay in the box and snuggling up with the eyas to keep it warm. Along with the layer of dense down, the eya is also growing in it's flight feathers. You can see straw like structures coming out of the tail and the wings with feathers starting to protrude from them. Already, this little bird is working on developing its muscles to fly. Just today we were able to watch the eya stand up and stretch its wings out.

This eyas seems to be more active at this age then previous eyases. Maybe this is because it does not have other siblings to lean on. Through our scopes we have seen it peak its head out of the box already. We have also watched it walk around the box, following mama as she walked around and pecked at stuff. At this age, the young birds are usually still huddling together in the box mostly but this one has no siblings to lean on so may be more adventurous.

All the while, papa has still been doing his job hunting a lot. We have spotted a couple of caches with prey in them that looked like they were not plucked and untouched. Today we were able to see papa chase after a very brave pigeon. This pigeon landed on the top of the building around 10 feet away from the nest and were he was perching. Papa immediately took off and flew after the bird. The pigeon reacted fast and took off over the parking ramp nearby with papa right on its tail. He was close to catching it but the pigeon dove down in between buildings and papa headed back to the Greysolon building. Part of me wonders if he was wasn't just having a little fun on a cool rainy day. If only we could really get into their heads.

The forecast looks like rain tomorrow and then we are off for two days. It will be exciting to see what has changed when we return to the park to observe them. I expect we will see the eyas continue to grow and see more of the flight feathers emerging. While he is working on growing, I am sure mama and papa will continue to put on a fun show. If you can, stop by and observe this falcon family with your own eyes. If not, stay tuned to read about what they are up to next.

Adventures of Week One

One week has passed for our Peregrine Watch Program and there have been a few twists and turns. Over the weekend we had some unfavorable weather so we could not run the program. Also our transmitter and receiver for our monitor that gives us the picture of what is going on inside the nest box was not working. So, after we had our one chick hatch, we were kind of in the dark about what was happening in the box. Yesterday we were finally able to get a peak inside the nest box. To our surprise there was still only one chick and 3 eggs in the nest. It is quit possibly that we will not see the rest of the eggs hatch since the first one is already a week old.

In a normal year, when all eggs hatch, it is common for the eggs to hatch a few days apart. They could even hatch up to a week apart. However it is more uncommon for one to hatch and all others to not be hatched a week later. The one chick had already hatched on the later side of things from when we first discovered eggs in the nest. We are not sure why the eggs have not hatched but it could be because of the colder spring weather or infertile eggs.

Although we are disappointed that we may only have one young falcon to watch grow this season, we are still excited about the one that has hatched. This young bird will be getting all the attention and will defiantly be getting enough to eat. In the past, these adults are commonly feeding 3 or 4 chicks so they will have no problem getting food for one.

The chick seems to be doing well so far. Dad has been hunting and bringing back food for mom and the chick. We can already see a huge development in size and mobility from one week ago. At about one week old falcon chicks are already around 3 times the size that they were when they hatched. In just a few days, this chick will have developed a second layer of white down that will help is stay a lot warmer and need less brooding. You can really see a huge development from day to day and week to week.

Stay tuned to hear more about this falcon family!