No banding for us in the Straits today thanks to constant rain showers. Aside from today and one other day of opening late and closing early due to weather, we’ve been in the field.
Of note this week includes a fourth transmitter being deployed on a second-year Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA). This juvenile was in great condition with minimal feather lice.
Note: at the time of these pictures the transmitter had not been attached yet.
Pictured above: our fourth transmitter of the season went on this second-year RTHA
The last couple of weeks have been producing decent numbers of Sharp-shinned Hawks (SSHA). One of my favorite things about these small accipiters is their eye colors. As young birds, they start out with yellow eyes that gradually turn to orange and then red as they age. It is a feature that can be used to help get an estimate on a bird’s age but never definitively.
Pictured above: a progression of changing eye color in ageing SSHA
Last but not least, we banded two Northern Harriers (NOHA) within moments of each other one day. One was an adult male, and the other was a juvenile male. It was really neat to see the differences between age classes in hand. If you’ve been reading the prior blog posts, you can put your skills to the test to see them for yourself and know why it is a juvenile male and not a female!
Pictured above: here I am holding an adult male NOHA (left) and a juvenile male NOHA (right) with views of both the ventral and dorsal sides
Our totals for the season are as follows:
Red-tailed Hawks: 38
Red-shouldered Hawks: 1
Northern Harriers: 6
Cooper’s Hawks: 4
Sharp-shinned Hawks: 33
Merlins: 3
American Kestrels: 1
Total: 86
