A small, inland banding site like the Farm is subject to the vagaries of weather. As a rule of thumb I’ve found that weather conditions that most people find “great” usually result in poor banding numbers here. Whereas unsettled conditions have birds showing up in good numbers. Sunday (24th) was a lovely day but we banded only 4 birds. There were very few birds to be seen at all, even along the field edge which has been producing numerous sparrows. U of Guelph student, Jelany, made the trek all the way from Guelph to further his banding career – he got to band all four birds but it wasn’t a very good return on his travel investment. (Although he did get to band a lovely male Black-throated Blue Warbler.)

Last night we were treated to “unsettled” weather in this area: wet patches from scattered light showers were evident on River Road as I drove to the Farm. The field edge was hopping with sparrow activity, with birds moving between the wetland edge and prairie grass meadow. We were able to tap into this wealth and ended up banding 41 birds. The meadow is making a big difference in our catching. After today’s banding we have done 72 Song Sparrows, 17 Lincoln’s Sparrows, and 37 Swamp Sparrows and these 3 species make up just over 37% of our overall catch. Now it may just be coincidence, I realize that, but my sense is that we’re getting significantly more sparrows because of the copious amounts of food that the field provides.

For comparison, I’ll throw up some numbers from the previous 2 Fall seasons at the Farm. In September of 2021, we banded only 14 Song Sparrows, 0 Lincoln’s Sparrows, and 18 Swamp Sparrows; the Fall total for these 3 species was 21, 1 and 26 respectively. In September of 2022 (a VERY poor month) we banded only 6 Song Sparrows, 0 Lincoln’s Sparrows, and 9 Swamp Sparrows. (We finished strong though with good catches in October and finished the season with 77 Songs, 4 Lincolns, and 82 Swampies for a total of 163 birds – not that much ahead of the 126 current total for these 3 species.) We’ll see what the final Fall totals yield but my sense is that this prairie grass field is greatly benefiting sparrows passing through and our total numbers will be significantly higher.

Sandwiched between these two days was an outing at the Fern Hill Burlington campus. There, we’re operating only 5 nets, set into the scrubby edge habitat along the east side of the property. This leafy cover turns up a variety of interesting birds – both for me and for the students who seem progressively more interested in learning and getting involved – helping do net checks during recesses and lunch breaks, carrying bird bags, adding branches to our burgeoning brush pile….. It’s great to have so many students looking forward to the next banding session and participation in the Young Ornithologists’ Club. We already have a couple of good scribes!
Here are the banding totals:
Farm; September 24th – banded 4:
1 Gray Catbird
1 Song Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler

Fern Hill School, Burlington Campus; September 25th – Banded 20:
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Northern Flickers
2 Blue Jays
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 Eastern Bluebirds
2 American Robins
1 Red-eyed Vireo
3 American Goldfinches
2 Chipping Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco (the harbinger of coming Winter)
1 Song Sparrow
1 Nashville Warbler

1 Western Palm Warbler

Farm; September 26th – banded 41:
3 Eastern Phoebes
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 House Wrens
2 Gray Catbirds
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
3 White-throated Sparrows
7 Song Sparrows
8 Lincoln’s Sparrows
7 Swamp Sparrows
2 Common Yellowthroats
4 Myrtle Warblers

Rick

A beautiful, sunshiny day; birds on the move; and old friends – a nice way to spend a day. Birds weren’t plentiful but they were steady in small numbers.

Banded 29:
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
5 House Wrens
1 Marsh Wren
7 White-throated Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
2 Lincoln’s Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
4 Common Yellowthroats
ET’s: 30 spp.

Although it has the veneer of a psychiatric disorder, it isn’t. NDD – or Nature Deficit Disorder – was cleverly coined to draw attention to the large, and growing disparity between humans, especially children, and an awareness of the natural world around us. Most children in our culture can not identify 5 bird species…but can recognize, on average, 200 corporate logos. As most of us are aware, the well-being of the world we live in is on thin ice. It’s important that “people” start to do what they can to protect “the environment”. But that’s sort of an empty sentiment when most of the “people” don’t know what is in that environment – how can we ask them to protect and maintain something they have no idea about?

Fern Hill School has seen this disconnect as a problem and, following Joanne Fleet’s initiative, has fostered a field studies aspect to their education which includes the study and banding of birds. It’s a line of teaching that’s right up my alley, something I really believe in. After setting up nets last week we got going in earnest this week. What is encouraging is the interest that the students show in birds. We are starting our “Young Ornithologists” Club this week. It was supposed to be Thursday but we had enthusiasts, some of whom had been involved with banding in the Spring, run with it today, as soon as the opportunity arose. There’s a real hands-on aspect to their involvement – I try to get interested students “doing” as soon as possible – from youngsters scribing to older students walking through holding birds and then, with help, actually banding. We’ll have no trouble filling this club. Hopefully, those involved will carry this interest and knowledge into the future.

Yesterday (18th) at Fern Hill Burlington we banded 23 birds:
1 Downy Woodpecker
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 House Wren
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 American Robin
5 Gray Catbirds
1 American Goldfinch
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
3 Tennessee Warblers
2 Nashville Warblers
1 American Redstart
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Northern Cardinal
ET’s: 29 spp.

September 19th at the Farm:

I don’t think I was ever meant to be a hermit but I must admit that being on my own at the Farm today was a treat. Blue skies, light winds and a river of birds moving along the edges and filtering through the treetops. Unfortunately I didn’t get much of a chance to just kick back and take it all in. Birds were finding the nets. At one point a flock of 18 juvenile Cedar Waxwings decided to pile into Net #1 at the same time. They’d been feasting on grapes as my hands would have indicated……Interestingly, the “late” warblers, Myrtles and Blackpolls are starting to move through as are White-throated Sparrows, a species I usually associate more with October.
Banded 72:
4 Eastern Wood Pewees
2 Blue-headed Vireos
3 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 House Wren
2 Marsh Wrens
1 American Robin
18 Cedar Waxwings
2 White-throated Sparrows
6 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
5 Nashville Warblers
4 Common Yellowthroats
1 Magnolia Warbler
2 Blackpoll Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
14 Myrtle Warblers
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
ET’s: 39 spp.
Rick

In these days, if you listen to the news at all, it’s difficult not to get depressed with each new climate disaster – fires, floods, storms, disease outbreaks. A recent article in the Guardian notes: Earth’s life support systems have been so damaged that the planet is “well outside the safe operating space for humanity”, scientists have warned. A sense of hopelessness seems to be setting in and that disaster in inevitable. It’s a difficult feeling to ignore. There’s also a sense of helplessness, that nothing I do (or we do) can make a difference. I’ve given up on hoping that governments will do the right things and I’m putting my hope (what little remains) in the collective impact of small initiatives that individuals and groups can do. I really do think that decision makers are missing the boat and we’re simply trying to put band-aids on the results of the main problem, the one that is driving this change: over-population. Just recently I heard about an international conference in which nations expressed the need to increase their populations, that many countries were concerned that their populations were, in fact, decreasing. Other than having a work force to feed pensions, how is this a bad thing? It’s go me shaking my head.

But I have to do something, not just give up. So I have been trying to find some small way to do what I can. The above article outlined two important issues that must be addressed: Phasing out fossil fuel burning and ending destructive farming are the key actions required. That’s why the Hurkmans Farm project is so important to me. We’re taking a small 7-acre field, historically used to grow soybeans and corn, and turning it into a meadow of prairie grasses and native wildflowers. On the one hand it’s been a labour of love; on the other, it’s a lot of hard work.

The grasses (Big Blue Stem, Native Switch Grass, and Indian Grass) were planted last Fall and, with the good growing conditions resulting from this Summer’s rains, have “exploded” and are now head-height….or taller. The next step was to begin the planting of native wildflowers to go along with the grasses and diversify the habitat for insects and birds. On Saturday a “team” of 23+ volunteers arrived to plant over 1,250 wildflower plugs. The flower seed is locally sourced and grown at Kayanase Greenhouse at 6 Nations of the Grand River in Oshweken.

We worked in small teams through much of the morning until all the plugs were in the ground. The wildflowers included: Dense Blazing Star, Brown-eyed Susan, Butterfly Weed, Hairy Beardtongue, Nodding Onion, Lance-leaved Coreopsis, Spotted Bee Balm, Purple Coneflower, Wild Bergamot, Swamp Milkweed, Blue Vervain, Boneset, and Spotted Joe-Pye-Weed. The plantings targeted the northern 10 meters of the field and were divided between dry and wet areas depending on the species. It was a big job but, as the saying goes, many hands make light work. And while we had many hands I don’t think my knees and back would agree with the light work part. I will be watching with great interest how this project unfolds – and I hope some of you take the time to visit the site and wander the paths through the meadow. In the great scheme of things it’s only 7 acres but if we made it a point to develop small wild spaces, even very small ones (like in our yards), their collective area and value would improve the world around us greatly..

And while all this activity was going on, we ran some nets to do some banding. It was a slow day – even well before all the planters arrived. I had been thinking that lots of birds would have required my having to band or oversee the banding thus providing an excuse to shirk my planting duties. But the birds didn’t co-operate.

Banded 8:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Song Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
3 Common Yellowthroats
1 Indigo Bunting
ET’s: 44 spp.
Some pictures from the day:

Today, the 17th, it seemed even slower than yesterday even though there was considerable cloud cover that got my hopes up. There was almost no activity up high in the treetops but….we still managed to band 17 birds including the first Blue-headed Vireo and Blackpoll Warbler of the migration.

Banded 17:
1 Blue-headed Vireo

1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 House Wren
4 Song Sparrows
2 Lincoln’s Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
3 Common Yellowthroats

1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Indigo Bunting
ET’s: 27 spp.
Rick