FreeLists / bristol-birds / [Bristol-Birds] Hawk trapping and banding (Merlin)

[Wallace Coffey <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>]

Bristol Area Birders:

A group of us went hawk trapping and hawk banding in eastern Sullivan
County, TN today (1/10), enjoying nice success following the recent snowfall.

Captures included a female American Kestrel,  adult Red-tailed Hawk and a
large immature female Cooper's Hawk.  The kestrel was taken at Bristol Motor
Speedway, the Red-tail at PowerLine Farms and the Cooper's at Observation
Knob Park near South Holston Lake.

We saw a Merlin fly past at the PowerLine Farms on Pemberton Road.  The
bird,  a nice male,  paused in a tall sycamore tree.  We got a trap set  for
the bird and it made a long stoop to our trap from well over a 100 yards
away.  In the last 10 feet or so the falcon spooked and left the trap,
flying off into the distance without further interest.  Either the trap
scared the bird or a fence just behind the trap distracted it from capture.
Of course we were greatly disappointed when we thought we would have the
bird in hand.

The party included Rack Cross, Andy Jones, Chris O'Bryan and Wallace Coffey.

We lured a second Cooper's Hawk to our trap, which was set near the trash
dumpster at Musick's Campground.  The bird made a great dash and struck the
trap.  It was briefly caught before managing to free itself.   The bird did
not return to the trap.

Near the stateline in the new housing development along VA 75 not far from
Musick's Campground,  we came upon a Red-shouldered Hawk hunting from a low
utility line in an upland situation.  The bird flushed away when we
attenpted to get the trap set.  It went back into a woodlot and could not be
relocated.

Chris gave Andy a specimen of a Sharp-shinned Hawk he found dead behind his
home in Shady Valley.  This tiny male was barely the size of a Blue Jay .
That,  compared with the nearly crow-sized female Cooper's Hawk we captured
today,  was a dramatic field lesson in the size range of accipter hawks.
The Sharp-shinned was salvaged for Andy to take back to the Bell Museum of
Natural History at the University of Minnesota.

With the exception of the single kestrel we caught and banded early in the
morning, we did not attempt to capture additonal kestrels seen during the
day.  Our attention was focused on the other raptors which kept us busy from
9 a.m to 5 p.m.  

Let's go birding.....

Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN











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