puzzle_me

I'm back from my trip to Duluth. The drive there and back was pretty - mixed woodlands and wetlands, with fall colours adding bursts of colour here and there along the way. I arrived at Hawk Ridge right around noon. I had never been there, so I wasn't really sure what to expect. It was essentially a big scenic overlook, with lots of birders hanging out with their binoculars and their spotting scopes and their camp chairs. Right when I arrived, one of the volunteers was showing a sharp-shinned hawk to the crowd. My immediate assumption right off was that the Raptor Center was doing a presentation, but when I went over to listen I found out that they were doing banding that day. As they caught and banded raptors, they would bring them down to show the crowd before a donor released them. (The donor for this hawk was recruited on the spot - they only required a $20 donation to release a sharp-shinned hawk.)

I was seeing a lot of hawks flying overhead, but wasn't sure what any of them were. There were a lot of naturalists there today though, so I gravitated towards one that was sometimes calling out her identifications as they flew over. She told me that today they were mostly seeing sharp-shinned hawks, since there wasn't a lot of wind, and explained some of the characteristics I could use to id them. Then they brought up another bird from the banding station.

( Pictures! )