Well folks, the diurnal raptor banding season has come to an end. As much as we had hoped that the weather would cooperate, increasing our numbers, no such luck was had. This made for some very long days in the blind. However, Nick was able to deploy the last of his transmitters on three healthy, second-year Red-tailed Hawks (RTHA). The very last transmitter bird was an exciting one… a dark morph! Nick had been holding out hope for one of these unique birds the whole season, and it paid off. These birds are fairly uncommon to see and much less common to band. Take a look below at the last three transmitter birds of the season.
Note: at the time of these pictures the transmitters had not been attached yet.
Pictured above: our eighth transmitter of the year went on this second-year RTHA
Pictured above: our ninth transmitter of the year went on this second-year RTHA
Pictured above: our tenth, and final, transmitter of the year went on this dark morph, second-year RTHA
A big thank you to everyone who helped with set-up and take-down this season, to all of our lovely visitors we had, to Ed and Scott who helped with various tasks throughout the season and kept us company on some long blind days, and to Faye for letting us stay in her apartment for another season. Thanks to those of you who kept up with us all season long. We appreciate the support!
‘Till next time, Hannah and Nick 🙂
Our totals for the season are as follows:
Red-tailed Hawks: 87
Red-shouldered Hawks: 1
Broad-winged Hawks: 1
Northern Harriers: 7
Cooper’s Hawks: 5
Sharp-shinned Hawks: 53
Merlins: 5
American Kestrels: 1
Total: 160
