This noon hour we went to the Young at Heart event at the Keystone Complex in Shedden. There was a nice ham and scalloped potatoes meal being served to the tables. The chef from Royal Oak Senior Living prepared the meals in their kitchen. This is only the second time the group has served indoors, most meals have been take out since Covid. There were about 100 people in attendance.
Karen Auckland introduced Al Hurst and Cyril Crocker, members of the Hawk Cliff Raptor Banders. Al talked about some of his personal
adventures as a bander and birder in general. He also brought a stuffed Red-tailed Hawk for the audience to view close-up. Cyril followed with a very in depth presentation on the processes of trapping, banding and documenting the raptors.
One of the new projects undertaken by the banders is installing Motus tags on American Kestrels to help find out why the population is decreasing in recent years. He recently was able to band three Osprey chicks at Lake Margaret in St Thomas with the help of Todd Sawyer and other city parks department personnel.
Cyril forgot his rubber chicken prop and substituted by tossing a pringles can into the mist nets to show how a hawk would be trapped in the folds until gathered by the bander. He gave a good talk on all the birds of prey that can be expected to be seen during the fall migration. Between September 15 and 20th large groups of Broad-winged Hawks may be seen migrating West. Cyril mentions that it takes up to three banders to handle and band a Golden Eagle. Fortunately only a few are caught on any given year.
Overall it was a pleasant afternoon and everyone enjoyed the presentation.
Kudos guys for a presentation well done.
