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| Photo Credit: Sarah Johnson |
Hawk Ridge is an outdoor overlook space, along the northern
side of Duluth’s Lake Superior shoreline.
The views of the woods and Lake Superior are outstanding, and the birds
fascinating. Every year, thousands of
birds concentrate in this spot during the fall migration, and thousands of
people gather to view the action. The
banding, counting, and education that happen are due to the efforts of the
non-profit HRBO, along with the Town and other NP partners.
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| Photo Credit: John Aldridge |
The big, visible birds migrating through are hawks,
vultures, eagle, osprey and harriers.
The HRBO crew count the birds, and band as many as they can. The data gathered is sent to a centralized
database, allowing monitoring figures to be used by professionals such as
wildlife researchers and forest habitat managers. So, not only is this place cool, but it’s
valuable for future habitat management and can be an indicator of when
something is going wrong, or right, in our natural world.
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| Photo Credit: John Aldridge |
This past October weekend, the Discovery Center led a field
trip to Hawk Ridge. In September, you’ll
see a greater number of smaller birds. These
birds – Broad-winged Hawks, Merlins, Kestrels, and Sharp-shinned Hawks – need
to migrate earlier. They have longer to
go (Broad-winged Hawks fly to South America), and their food sources (snakes,
frogs, dragonflies) are often warm-temperature dependent.
In October, the Ridge sees greater numbers of Bald and
Golden Eagles, Red-tailed and Rough-legged Hawks, Turkey Vultures and Northern
Goshawks. During our visit, we were
fortunate to see most of these species, and in good numbers. The final counts for some of the key species
were:
|
Turkey Vultures
|
Bald Eagles
|
Red-tailed Hawks
|
Northern Goshawk
|
Sharp-shinned Hawks
|
Northern Harriers
|
|
45
|
111
|
355
|
13
|
351
|
8
|
We did see some other species, too – bringing the total
birds counted to 896, a great count for a mid-October day.
One other really fascinating thing to witness
is the post-banding release of these magnificent birds.
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| Photo Credit: John Aldridge |
HRBO has 3 banding
stations where certified banders lure birds in.
Our group participated in a behind-the-scenes tour to see how this process
is carried out (think pigeons, bow traps and mist nests). Once the birds are caught, data gathered, and
bands placed, they are then transported to the overlook. The birds are handled by volunteers and
staff, and information about the species is shared with the audience. All the while, staff and volunteers encourage
HRBO’s “Adopt A Raptor” program. For a
donation, people can “adopt” a banded bird.
What this means is that if the bird is found anywhere, you receive
follow-up info on that bird. What it really means is that you get to handle &
release your adopted bird back to the wild.
I was the lucky adopter of an immature Red-tailed Hawk, and got to toss
this bird up with everyone cheering the bird’s release and the re-start of its migration
journey.
