Sharp-shinned Hawk

When I was there a story kept running through my mind, one written by Loren Eisley about an experience of capturing a kestrel and then releasing it. Here is a link to the story: http://people.tribe.net/8a1666c0-7544-416a-80d8-798b506ff32c/blog/e92b35dc-4bfa-422c-beae-9db43a060d46

Several people, after being given some training, got to release birds, mostly sharp-shinned but one redtail as well. The thing I noticed about them were their grins. Ear to ear grins. They couldn't stop smiling. It was an adventure to be sure and made an indelible mark on them. Plus seeing those big kettles of birds....fascinating...

This is an annual banding program along the shore of Lake Superior in northeast Duluth. Raptors heading south in the fall get pinched to the west by Lake Superior, which is large enough they prefer not to fly over it. The ridges in this area provide good thermals as well, so it's not unusual to have large numbers of birds flying through this spot to take advantage of thermals and to avoid the lake. One day over a 100,000 broad-winged hawks transited the counting station located here. This makes it an ideal place to mist net raptors and band them. The banding, as one might expect, is used to determine migratory paths, wintering areas, longevity, etc. The birds are captured, banded, details noted, and then released. Usually this occurs over just a few minutes. The group doing this, however, sometimes permits visitors to release the birds for a small fee, which helps fund this mostly volunteer effort.