Dan Berger and Helmut Mueller started the banding station in 1950 and caught two red-tails that year. Dan passed away in 2018 and Helmut and Nancy now visit for only a day.
The oldest bander at the station now is John Bowers, 82 from Cedar Grove, who has been volunteering for the past 31 years. When he greets an old visitor he always says, “I have not seen you since the last time I saw you.” John arrives every day from August 15 to November 15 at noon and heads home after supper. Besides trapping and banding, he enters all the banding data on the “confuser” (computer). In the past 30 years John has volunteered on about 2,670 days and has only missed 30 days.
Tom Meyer and Rick Hill now supervise the banding with two interns this year, Savanna Steward from California and Danny Erickson from Waukesha County, along with many dedicated volunteers.
This year Tom Meyer reported that Cedar Grove has three records or highlights for 2019: In addition to turning 70, they banded their 44,000th raptor, and now have HOT WATER!
Last year 685 raptors were banded. When I spoke with Rick Hill on November 7, they were banding a northern goshawk, the 700th bird of the year and the third goshawk of the morning. Banding highlights this year included banding a Swainson’s hawk and a broad-winged hawk. Normally broad-wings feed on small mammals, amphibians, and insects. Few saw-whet owls were caught this year due to the many nights of rain when they closed the mist needs. Running totals for this fall include Sept. 27, - 300 birds banded, Oct. 8 - 400, Oct. 16 - 487, and Oct. 26 - 600.
Check out the Cedar Grove Facebook page that includes information on birds banded at Cedar Grove and recovered another year at Cedar Grove or at other locations. Steve and Laura Holzman with Fish and Wildlife Service from the state of Oregon spend a week of their vacation every year at Cedar Grove banding raptors. They complied the species recovery maps.