Raptor Banding

Last weekend I was given an incredible opportunity thanks to fellow blogger, Liz. She invited me down to participate in the Cape May Raptor Banding Project.I use the term 'participate' loosely since I know nothing about hawks and eagles (or, as I call them, eagles and not-eagles) and I spent the day mostly staring in wide-eyed wonder and whispering, "Here birdy, bird. I just wanna touch you once."

It was an incredible learning opportunity and I got to ask a ton of questions, which Liz, Mandy, and Arthur answered very patiently. I now know all about catching, processing, banding, and releasing raptors. And by 'know all about' I mean 'I suspect that's just the tip of the iceberg'.

I got off to a late start the morning of the big day.

The night before I'd experienced some abdominal pain. Determined not to let it ruin my birthday and my awesome weekend, I ignored it and went to bed. By 1am, I still couldn't fall asleep. At 1:30am I took some ibuprofen and laid back down. At 2am the pain was so bad that I had Mike scared that my appendix was going to go. At 2:30am he put me in the car and declared, "We are going to the ER." I cried, thinking I'd miss this awesome opportunity, and wondering how I'd pay for surgery without insurance. We drove up to the new hospital five minutes away and got the grand tour (seriously, the ER driveway winds all the way around the building. I think we spent more time driving around the hospital than TO the hospital). By the time we parked, my pain had gone away entirely. We sat around for an extra half hour, just in case, then decided to go home. I fell asleep almost immediately, but leaving at 5:30am just wasn't going to happen.

(For those of you who are concerned, the pain turned out to be cramping from my ovaries deciding to act up a week early.)

I made the drive down to Cape May in record time. It took me two hours on the dot. The roads down there were still pretty empty from the super storm, since people haven't been allowed back in their homes yet. Thankfully, I was able to find open gas stations with no lines and the drive was totally uneventful.

I called Liz when I got there and she met me in the park parking lot to guide me the rest of the way to the blind. She told me about the basic rules for the day as we approached the blind, then introduced me to Mandy and Arthur, the experts for the day.

That's when I asked, "So, how exactly do you catch these birds?"
Liz replied, "It's easier if you just watch."

That's when they taught me the secret bird whistle and I learned how to call wild raptors to me.

Just kidding. Liz is right and the best way to explain the capturing process is to demonstrate.

Once the birds are retrieved, they go through processing. They are weighed, aged, and measured. I got to learn about the digestive process and how to evaluate a bird's body condition. I also learned how to tell how old a bird is and asked questions about life expectancy, etc. In the event of an injured bird, some types of medical aid are applied. The birds' legs are measured and everyone gets banded, a quick and painless process. Occasionally, they catch banded birds and the information is used to track their migration, hunting habits, life spans, etc. We didn't catch any banded birds the day I was out there, but some of the other blinds did, and I got to hear that process over the radio.

After the birds are processed, they are taken outside, photographed, and released. And here's the really cool part. I GOT TO HOLD THE BIRDS!!! Liz and company even let me release some of them which was the coolest feeling!

I wasn't in the blind for long before we caught our first bird, a juvenile Cooper's hawk female. When Mandy went out to get the bird, my jaw dropped and I did my happy dance while squealing, "The bird is in her hand!!!"
Why, yes Dom, yes it is.

Before we released that bird, they caught another juvenile Cooper's hawk, this time a male.

But the catch of the day was a drop dead gorgeous adult female red tail. I could not believe my eyes when she came in to the blind. She had an old injury to one leg, but she seemed otherwise healthy and vibrant. She was also BIG. It's funny because I'm not intimidated by horses or dogs or raptors with inch-long talons, but cats scare the crap out of me.

Overall the day was well spent and 100% worth the drive down and back. Liz was completely awesome, not that I expected any less and all four of us spent a lot of time cracking up that day. It was definitely a break from my usual routine and I feel very lucky that I got the chance to experience it all. It's just too bad lives so far away. I suspect we'd get up to a lot of shenanigans otherwise.

Cooper's hawk.

The red tail's injured foot.

This bird spent the whole day taunting us. He would swoop in, grab a mouse from the next field, eat it on a branch right in plain view, then preen himself as if to say, "I don't need you guys to get my food."

This is Joseph.

That is not ok.

The blind :)