Bald Eagle release

First Merlin OTS

Today started out rainy,rain stopped about 12PM, but was still cloudy. I opened the station, nothing was flying for most of the day. At 5ish I caught this nice female merlin, first merlin to get a band! Tomorrow's weather is W-NW winds, mostly sunny, 70's.

Osprey with band

Here is the Osprey with band.


Yesterday I saw a few hawks but didn't caught any.
Today I'm closed because of Earl coming up the coast, tomorrow hopefully will be ok.

PM add-on: Earl - the hurricane that wasn't in Cape May. I should have opened today, oh well, still plenty of days to trap. Hopefully this weekend will be good, W winds 15-20 mph, sunny, 70's

1st raptor OTS and a banded Osprey

Today we caught the first raptor of the season!!! It was a HY male coop. And my very first band to be used. We went to Mag. site to secure the station for the coming of Earl. While we were there we had lunch and watched a hand full of raptors flying around - harriers, coops, a jev. bald eagle, ospreys, and a distant redtail. I photographed the eagle and a near flyby osprey. The osprey had a band!!!! to cool! I'll post photo when I get a chance.

A new banding season!

The 2010 raptor banding season starts tomorrow!! I'll be in a new blind this season, at least for me it's new. In Jan of this year I received my master permit to band raptors so I'll be using my own bands and reporting them to the BBL(Bird Banding Lab.).
The research tech for the season is Jordan Jones.
I've been at the blind the last couple days to watch the flight lines of the hawks. So far, I'e seen several coops, sharpies, a kestrel, harrier, and several merlins. We've seen a few merlins pluck swallows out of the air, too awesome!!
Dragonfly on a lure line.

i've been very busy

I've been busy with Cape May Raptor Banding Project this month. I haven't had time to post, i'll try to post a bit more frequently.

A Sharpie and a Few Merlins

A sharpie on it's back.


The cost of handling falcons.

Today there were not many hawks flying, a few kestrels, couple sharpies, and afew merlins.
We caught 1 sharpie and 3 merlins. I think tomorrow will be better and Monday should be great.