Hello all!
This season’s raptor banding comes with a little personnel change. While Nick is working hard writing the final chapters of his PhD, I am filling his role as lead bander this spring. I am fortunate to have Josiah returning from last season to help show me the ropes at MSRW.
No surprises here; the raptor banding has been delayed by high snow levels and weather days. The trapping site held 4-8 inches of snow until last Friday. Thanks to Scott, Ed, Russ, and Jeff, we got the blind and trapping site assembled this past Saturday. Nick, Josiah and I even got a few hours of trapping in at the end of the day. Even though we didn’t catch anything, it felt good to finally kick off the season!
So far, we have run the blind for 3 full days and we’ve had lots of interest from the migrating raptors. We’ve caught 11 birds already! Weather looks foggy and cloudy for the rest of the week, so we anticipate having Saturday as our only weather day. Only time will tell! Each week, Josiah or I will post an update with exciting birds, season totals, and photos for you all to enjoy!
Cheers- Emily
Season Totals:
Red-tailed hawk: 5
Sharp-shinned hawk: 5
Northern harrier: 1
Snow levels on March 31 ranged from 4-8 inches at the trapping site!
Day one in the blind with Nick, Josiah, and I after finishing setup!
Today we had an adult and a juvenile sharp-shinned hawk, both females, in the blind at one time. We thought we would use the opportunity to highlight some of the differences between them. Notice how the adult has horizontal bars in a more rufous tone on the chest and dark red eyes (left bird), and the juvenile has vertical brown streaks on the chest and yellow eyes (right bird).