The Menon's visited us this week. Yesterday, we all went to Braddocks Bay to a hawk banding site and had the good fortune to be there when a hawk descended and was caught and banded.
Good question. They had a live pigeon in a little leather vest attached to a string attached to a post. When he saw the hawk above, he tugged the string, making the pigeon fly about. The hawk dived, and when it landed he pulled another string throwing a net over the hawk. Then he took a tube made from two coffee cans with one end still closed and went out and gently shoved the hawk in it. The hawk was very calm in the tube with just its tailfeathers and feet sticking out. He brought it in and weighed it and banded it before pulling out to measure its windspan, which he's doing in the video. He claimed that the bait mostly survives, but they use only invasive species--starlings, pigeons, sparrows...
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How do they get the hawk to land there?
Good question. They had a live pigeon in a little leather vest attached to a string attached to a post. When he saw the hawk above, he tugged the string, making the pigeon fly about. The hawk dived, and when it landed he pulled another string throwing a net over the hawk. Then he took a tube made from two coffee cans with one end still closed and went out and gently shoved the hawk in it. The hawk was very calm in the tube with just its tailfeathers and feet sticking out. He brought it in and weighed it and banded it before pulling out to measure its windspan, which he's doing in the video. He claimed that the bait mostly survives, but they use only invasive species--starlings, pigeons, sparrows...
I have some sparrows to donate.
Also, Tin Tin feels that he'd look swell in a little leather vest.
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