Pair O' Swainson

April.21st 2010



ASY Female Swainson's Hawk




ASY Male Swainson's Hawk


Had a couple of buddies from Ontario visit me for two days and we went out to my study area by Asquith Sask. We caught and banded this pair of Swainson Hawks. The female was caught first, she was a little on the light side for weight, but her mate the male as in great condition, he was really fat actually. I hadn't caught a SWHA since 2007 because of moving to Ontario for my Forestry course. It has been a fantastic spring with alot of raptors banded. I had an amazing spring for Long-eared Owl banding with a total of 10 banded in 2 nights, best ever for me.



Long-eared Owls




Mike Blom
Saskatoon, SK, Canada

Cooper's Hawks

April.17th 2010



ASY Male Cooper's Hawk

For the last 2 weeks I have been counting migrating raptors at my banding station. It has been slow on the banding front but there have been alot of Red-Tailed hawks. Today brought the first Swaison and Broadwings of the spring. I did see a Coops doing its mating display earlier this morning. I caught and banded 2 Cooper's hawks, A nice ASY(After Second Year) Male and a fiesty SY female.




SY Female Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

April.3 2010



Well the first few RTHA's have finally arrived. I was out at the Migration station and counted 32 RTHA's, 2 Merlins, 1 Rough-legged Hawk, 4 Northern Harriers, 8 Bald Eagles, and the first Sharp-shinned of the spring season. I only had 2 Red-tails come in to have a look at the bait but no takers. On my way home I found a pair of Red-tails hanging around the north Industrial part of Saskatoon. Dropped the trap and the female came in, hit the trap and was caught instantly. She was in great shape weighing in at 1255 grms.