During the fall and into the winter I usually carry my falconry trapping gear in my car, to include live rats, just in case something interesting comes along that I may want to trap. As the season moves into the deep of winter keeping the live rats in my car becomes just a little more difficult, as it is cold enough to freeze their water, which has to be changed out frequently. As a Master Falconer, I can have 5 birds on my license, which is about 4 birds too many for me. I struggle to make enough time to fly and hunt the one bird I currently have. However, I am a sucker for something pretty that may come along, so I keep the gear and permit in my car just in case. After all, that is how I acquired Sumi, the dark morph RT I trapped in 2018. Click the red heading for her story.
I make it a habit to check an online birding resource, as it can give a snapshot view of possible rare birds to be found. The most common variety of the Red-Tailed Hawk in our area of the Upper Midwest is classified as Buteo jamaicensis borealis. However, we are just on the margin range of, and sometimes have the occasional migrant of a light morph variation classified as Buteo jamaicensis kriderii, or simply Krider's Hawk.
One was spotted in the Twin Cities back in early November. I was motivated enough to make the effort to go up to the area where this bird was spotted and try to find it, and trap it if successful in the search. It was a fun day trip which I captured on Relive, however was unsuccessful as I never found the bird that had been spotted.
From time to time I use the birder's database to see if any other particularly desirable birds have been spotted. Birders may not appreciate my use of their resource, but it is an open, no membership required database. On Thursday 1/16 I queried the database, and discovered another Krider's morph was being spotted for several days in Rochester. I had several days off and not much else going on, so decided to go see if I could find this bird.
The search area was exactly in the same location I trapped Sumi. The synchronicity of this situation is not lost to me. I arrived Friday morning and began to canvas the area, looking over the likely marshland for a noticeable white bird. After about an hour's search I found the target bird. I am just a little proud of my ability to spot hawks. I tossed out my trap in just about the same location as where I caught Sumi, but after a short wait, the white hawk apparently did not see it, and instead turned and flew off deeper into the marsh, away from roads or access points. I took this situation as my cue, and left the area to go get some sit down breakfast at a local restaurant.
Returning to the area an hour later, I noticed a car parked pretty close to where I had stopped and dropped my trap before. I'm wondering if it was this gentleman above, who has been making the observations and posting on the Birder's Database. More about him later. I'm not going to type his name here, or the database I am using, as it would make this posting searchable, and I don't want that!! The picture above gives those details. After a few minutes the car was gone. The bird remained in the tree line just beyond.
The surrounding area is a pretty active series of intersections, so cars are driving around it frequently. For this reason, the hawk seems to be indifferent to cars. They are just part of the environment. I pulled into a side area near the copse of trees the bird was perching in, which has an old farm track running parallel to the paved road, and brushy bushes between. Turning my car, I was able to toss the trap outside the driver's window, out of view of said bird, and into the brushy margin. It is also helpfully important to be out of view by the random driver on the road. Dropped, I drove off, then down the road quite a distance, and found another turn out that allowed me to survey the entire scene from a significant distance with my binoculars. I would not have to wait long.
The target bird shortly left its perch in the copse, flashing its white beauty as it did so, and flew over to the brushy margin. It would then sit in those trees for quite a long time. It was then seen to jump down to the ground and survey the trap, again, for a long time. Another hop up into the bushes, long wait, then down again, long wait, and a brief dance on the trap, but no snagging on the nooses. It then flew off into the marsh. It may have decided the full-sized rat in the trap was much too large a meal to work for. So, no luck today! I decided to collect my trap and leave.
I spoke with my friend, Foxfeather, about this white bird in the area. I really need to keep my open trap slot on my permit unused as she and I are planning a road trip the first week of February to South Dakota, in search of a Ferruginous Hawk. I have a trap permit from the State of South Dakota, so any success there needs to go on my license. For this reason, I arranged to return on Saturday morning, but this time with my friend, who does have an open slot on her permit. If a second trapping effort for this white bird is successful, it will be her bird. I also traded out my large, fully grown rats for two smaller juvenile rats. They looked a lot less intimidating.
Saturday morning we returned at dawn. The target white bird was in his favorite copse of trees. Must be a preferred perching location for him. I say "him" because from a distance view, it did look like a rather small bird. Males in the hawk world are smaller. This would turn out to be true.
I was just a bit cautious in attempting to trap this bird, because it was a Saturday, and if there were any birders out trying to see a rare morph of red tailed hawk to add to their Life List, we could encounter them. I did not want to do that! The gentleman above who made the report was also flagged alongside his observation in the Olmstead County Rare Bird Alert.
Some of the thrill of trapping raptors is not only to find them, and lure them to the trap, but to also do so and Not Be Seen. To be observed is to risk that John Q. Public will mess up your trapping set up. And while what we were doing is completely legal, all permits in hand, sometimes people just don't understand.
I pulled again into the side area near the copse of trees, only this time in reverse. I backed up well into the brush line, tossed out my trap, and pulled away in record time, then up the road to watch. I did not have to wait long this time. It was a much colder morning, and would go on to be several extremely cold days for Minnesota. Perhaps this bird sensed the oncoming cold weather, or maybe just a bit more hungry this day at first light than the previous day. Either way, he did not over think the trap this time. The much smaller rats, two this time, might also have appeared more in line with what he was familiar hunting. He started dancing on the trap right away. When this happens, you must restrain your enthusiasm, your heart beating out of your chest if the trapping target is a particularly desirable bird, to not move in too quickly, lest you foil the effort as the bird is not truly snagged. You must be patient, and watch until you are sure. We watched for the telltale of the bird lifting up, trying to fly, and lifting the trap with it. We saw just a slight movement of this. I approached in the car closer, peering through the brush line, as the bird stood on the trap and looked right back at us, but did not fly off. One more jerk up, and I knew we had him. Moving quickly, we approached close, jumped out, and had him in hand. One noose! He was caught by only one noose. It was a close one!
I wanted to move away from the area quickly, again to avoid anyone, any birder or other unwanted onlooker, seeing what we were up to. We relocated to a not very distant, private, and more covered area to protect us from the wind. He was freed from the trap, quickly assessed and found fit, no injuries, and actually rather well fed for his size. 950 grams on the scale. Definitely a male. We put some quick field gear onto him, to include his marker band, then packed up and made our way to Fox's home and kitchen, to have a hot cup of tea, and check out our new friend.
I feel only a little bit of sadness for our birder friend up there. He surely returned that Saturday, and probably for a day or two more after, intently looking for "his" bird, only to be disappointed. Perhaps he will guess the little dude moved on because of the approaching cold weather, or worse, think maybe he didn't survive the cold, as all too many juvenile raptors fail to do their first winter. He does not know that two middle aged falconer women spirited him away.
My friend Fox is an Anime fan, especially Studio Ghibli. This seemed like an appropriate description for what happened to this little White Boy.
At her home we began the first manning lessons, and pictures. Lots of pictures.
He may not be a full Krider's hawk, but surely has some significant genetics for it. It will be interesting to see how he molts out over the summer.
He would go on the next couple days to settle in just fine in his downtime housing in a warm basement, preening his feathers into place, learning how to regain the bow perch after a bate, coming upstairs often for manning and feeding sessions. A remote access camera allows for discreet observation, which transmits to an app both of us have on our phone.
He's somewhat of a joint project. He's a very late-trapped bird, but sometimes you have to jump on something rare when it presents itself.
Sorry Mick!!
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