This summer has been a record for Kestrel nests. In 10 of the Kestrel boxes i've checked 8 contained young and 2 contained eggs. I banded a total of 42 Kestrels this past Wednesday. 41 of them were young and a single female sitting on young that had just hatched. I have a few left to check but so far this is by far the best year for Saskatchewan's smallest falcon.
My sister and my neices helping out with Kestrel banding
I received word that there were high numbers of Long-eared owls nesting this year in the Saskatoon area. We went out to a few nests and banded a total of 9 young close to Saskatoon and then on Friday I went out to my study area and found 4 nests and banded 6 more young. There was 3 nests all within the same bluff which is the closest i've ever seen them together.
This was a memorable visit to Saskatoon with one of my main focuses on banding Magpies and trying to trap some Swainson's Hawks. There have been a few Black-billed Magpies with young still around so with some help from my sister and neices we caught a few close to Petrofka Bridge.
The coolest retrap so far in the 11 years of banding has been trapping this 11 year old Swainson's Hawk which was originally banded east of Highway 12 and I caught him close to Costco on the outskirts of Saskatoon. This bird has migrated 10 and a half times from Saskatoon to Argentina, now that is some serious mileage!
