Raptor Banding Trip 2015

If you are fascinated by birds of prey, this is a post for you. If birds ghoul you out, then click on past.

I inundated my Instagram and Facebook feeds with photos and videos last week, so time to top off the trifecta of social media and share them on ye olde blog.

I have aided with the raptor banding efforts for the Cape May Raptor Banding project since 2011. One of my best friends is permitted and I assist her (and other banders) to trap, band, process, and release these birds. The project has been monitoring the status of raptor migration every fall since 1967. It's a fabulous long-term project and I'm really grateful to get to be a part of it. It's a really great way to celebrate the 1x a year I get to see Mandy (as she lives in CA and I live in WV); it also makes for a really epic Girls Trip. No, this is NOT a part of my normal job and no, I do NOT get paid to do this. I take a vacation to go and volunteer with this project and spend quality time with my bff.

Hatch year (HY) coopers hawk

Team Redhead selfie!

HY red tail hawk (RTHA)

Kenai beaching it up

One happy dog!

Added Arthur to the blind for a day

An epic pose with an epic bird - HY peregrine falcon

A non-epic pose with the epic bird

The box we sat in for nearly 10 hours every day

Mature coopers hawk - ain't 'e a beaut'!

Selfie with a female sharp-shinned hawk -- she looks so quizzical

And now, the onslaught of photos of the second year (SY) male northern harrier (NOHA) I trapped -- I've been wanting one of these in hand since the very first year we went

I was SO HAPPY. SO HAPPY.

See that little brown feather? That was how we ID'd him as a SY bird

This accurately describes my excitement about finally having a NOHA in hand

Such an incredibly cool bird

Beautiful "grey ghost"

Look at his long legs! Better for snatching prey out of grasslands/marshes

Another epic sunset night on the beach for Kenai

Mature adult RTHA -- a GORGEOUS bird

She was stabilizing herself in hand against the wind gusts (> 20 mph)

So gorgeous!

Talons! And her new jewelry - a band.

Another RTHA later in the morning - and Mandy's sassy face apparently.

I LOVE the eye color of these birds

Shot of a HY RTHA release from my hand -- see the band on its right leg?

Redheads with redtails. Both HY birds.

And finally, the most epic release photo of a HY RTHA.