It was Family Day at Ruthven Park National Historic Site and the local Common Grackles got into the spirit of the occasion by inviting all of their relatives. At least so it seemed – clouds of grackles flew every which way overhead throughout the day with a (very) conservative estimated total of 2500.

Other species were more sparsely represented however, and the nets were fairly quiet. A total of 59 species were encountered throughout the day.

Banded: 36
American Redstart 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Chestnut-Sided Warbler 1
Wilson’s Warbler 1
American Goldfinch 2
Blue-Grey Gnatcatcher 1
House Wren 1
Common Yellowthroat 3
Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher 2
Eastern Wood Pewee 6
Warbling Vireo 2
Ovenbird 3
House Finch 1
Red-Eyed Vireo 1
Yellow-Throated Vireo 2
Song Sparrow 2
Downy Woodpecker 1
Grey Catbird 4

Retrapped: 16
Magnolia Warbler 1
Black-Capped Chickadee 4
Common Yellowthroat 2
House Wren 1
Yellow-Throated Vireo 1
Downy Woodpecker 1
White-Breasted Nuthatch 2
Song Sparrow 1
Grey Catbird 3

B

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I’ll be adding pictures taken on August 21st, 2007 to the photo gallery. Also, I posted a few below.

Here is one of a Great Crested Flycatcher. Note the rufous color in its wings and tail. I know this is useful for identifying age, but I don’t know the age of this guy. Someone will have to leave an enlightening comment.

Apparently, all good birders can identify this bird by looking at its tail. I wasn’t able to, but I suppose I’ll remember it from now on. It’s a young Magnolia Warbler.

Michelle Kenny and myself (Jeff MacLeod) helped Rick Ludkin with banding on the 21st. Here is a picture of Michelle banding and bird while Rick scribes in the background.

Here are a few of the shots Michelle took:

A young Canada Warbler

A young Ovenbird

A young Black and White warbler (I only know age because all the warblers were hatch year birds on the 21st).

And finally, here is one of an astounding appearance on my shirt. Much to the amazement of Rick, Michelle, and I, while I was banding a Chestnut-sided Warbler, the seagull on my shirt pooped. I thought about leaving the poop on the shirt and putting it on display somewhere so that people could come from all over to see the pooping t-shirt gull. I expect it might draw the same sort of crowd as Jesus does when he appears in dirt on the wall of Tim Hortons in Florence, NS (the store across the street from ‘Lick-a-Chick’, the fried chicken store; read about that by clicking here). Unfortunately, my wife threw the shirt in the wash. She complained about the stain too.

August 21st, 2007  – Pictures to be added to this post soon. 

The great migration is on. We had a very interesting morning banding 22 species, 10 of which were warblers. The overcast skies, easterly winds and occasional light drizzle brought birds down and into the nets. For example, we banded 4 Easter Wood Pewees, a bird of the sub-canopy. All of the warblers were “HY” or hatch year birds (i.e., birds that were hatched this Spring/Summer). Are the adults ahead of them or are they lagging behind finishing off their complete moult – after fledging their young most species replace ALL their feathers before continuing south. This is a pretty costly exercise from an energy perspective.

The berry/fruit crop at Ruthven looks pretty good and should provide good habitat this Fall for migrants that need to put on fat to fuel their flight. Things are starting to get interesting.

Banded 47:
1 Mourning Dove
4 Eastern Wood Pewees
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 Black-capped Chickadee
2 House Wrens
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
2 Gray Catbirds
1 Cedar Waxwing
7 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Blue-winged Warbler
2 Chestnut-sided Warblers
2 Magnolia Warblers
1 Black-throated Green Warbler
1 Blackburnian Warbler
2 Black and White Warblers
2 American Redstarts
1 Ovenbird
1 Common Yellowthroat
3 Canada Warbler
1 Savannah Sparrow (first of the year)
6 Song Sparrows
4 American Goldfinches (including the 1st HY bird of the year – with hordes to come)

Retrapped 11:
4 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Gray Catbird
1 Blue-winged Warbler
1 Canada Warbler
2 Song Sparrows
1 Purple Finch

Rick

August 18th, 2007 

At opening time, before the sun was up, I thought I was living Rachael Carson’s “Silent Spring”  – a book from the 60’s that predicted the loss of song birds if unregulated use of pesticides continued. There were no birds singing. It wasn’t until 5:56 (Daylight Savings Time) that a solitary Northern Cardinal started to call…hesitantly. Several long minutes later I heard a distant Blue Jay and shortly after that a feeble Eastern Wood Pewee followed by a Chickadee. But the “dawn chorus” just wasn’t happening. The Summer is over folks….as far as birds are concerned. SoTime to finish moulting and head on out of here.

So I was kind of surprised when I banded 33 birds and retrapped another 14. There didn’t appear to be a lot of activity by birds were slipping by.

Banded 33:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
2 Gray Catbirds
4 Warbling Vireos
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Northern Waterthrush
2 Canada Warblers
2 Song Sparrows
2 Common Grackles (out of a flock of ~100 that just missed the net)
2 Baltimore Orioles
2 Purple Finches (an adult pair)
3 House finches
5 American Goldfinches (all adults – the hordes of juveniles will be here any time…..)

Retrapped 14:
1 Mourning Dove
2 Downy Woodpeckers
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
4 Gray Catbirds
2 Song Sparrows
1 Baltimore Oriole
1 American Goldfinch

Rick

August 14th 

Well…they’re gone.

Looked all morning for any sign of Yellow Warblers and couldn’t find any – they’re on their way to Mexico and Central America. We’ll still get the odd straggler from time to time but the large population of locally-breeding Yellow warblers is gone.

The day started off kind of quiet – a couple of Northern Cardinals and Eastern Wood Peewees calling from time to time but not much else…until the sun was well up and began to heat things up. For the day, there was an interesting mix of birds – 51 Species encountered in total. These included some returning shorebirds: Killdeer, Lesser Yellowlegs, Spotted Sandpipers, Solitary Sandpipers, and a Least Sandpiper. These birds are taking advantage of the drought by feeding on the exposed gravel bars in the river just upstream from Slink Island. There was also a Green-winged Teal there.

Early on there was a good movement of swallows over the river. Most were either too high or too distant to make a positive identification but there must have been at least several hundred in the course of 2 hours. Most were following the river south.

Banded 29:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 House Wren
1 Carolina Wren
1 Veery
2 American Robins
1 Gray Catbird
1 Warbling Vireo
2 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Northern Cardinal
3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Song Sparrow
7 Baltimore Orioles (6 caught within a metre of each other in the same net – an adult with 5 young)
1 American Goldfinch

Retrapped 13:
1 Blue Jay
3 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
1 Warbling Vireo (origninally banded as a HY bird – September 15, 2005)
1 Red-eyed Vireo (originally banded as an AHY bird – June 5, 2005)
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Indigo Bunting (originally banded as an AHY bird – May 31, 2004)
1 Song Sparrow
1 Baltimore Oriole

Rick

August 11th – Cashing In on “Beginners’ Luck”
I’m not sure of the science here but, visitors to Ruthven seem to attract interesting birds. With the “usual personnel” you tend to get the usual birds but bring in a visitor and all hell breaks loose….well, maybe not THAT dramatic but….today was a pretty good day.

The day started off with about-to-be-high school student Alanna Cavers showing up at the crack of dawn with mother Debbie. Alanna has an interest in birds and wanted to see what banding was all about. Debbie…well, maybe not so keen an interest but enough to get her daughter out early (and scribe with exquisite legibility).

The effort certainly paid off as we banded 35 birds of 17 species including some neat ones: an adult Yellow-billed Cuckoo [the colloquial name for this bird is “stinkbird” – I have kept the bird bag it was in so that if you want to find out the derivation of this name….], a young Eastern Tufted Titmouse (with the parent scolding outside the door), an adult female Swainson’s Thrush (the second of the summer – are these birds breeding in the area?), Blue-winged Warbler, Canada Warbler, a young male Scarlet Tanager and a group of 5 mixed adult and young Baltimore Orioles – in the same net. Altogether we encountered 52 species throughout the day.

Banded 35:
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
1 House Wren
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Wood Thrush
2 Gray Catbirds
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Blue-winged Warbler
1 Yellow Warbler (it seems our local birds have moved on)
1 American Redstart
1 Northern Waterthrush
1 Canada Warbler
1 Scarlet Tanager
2 Northern Cardinals
13 Song Sparrows
5 Baltimore Orioles
1 American Goldfinch

Retrapped 9:
3 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Gray Catbird
2 Song Sparrows
2 Baltimore Orioles

Rick

Hot early and, of course, very dry – we’re in the midst of a drought, the worst evidently in about 50 years. Any effect on the local bird population is not readily discernible though. The Yellow Warblers continue to move through in good numbers – we banded 11 today, all young birds. These birds are now beginning to show up with fat loads. So, are these local birds that are just getting ready for the long flight south or are they birds from farther north that are already on their way?

We also recaptured 3 local adults – all males – banded in different years:
Banded as a SY – M May, 2006 (this was the 7th time it had been caught)
Banded as a HY – U (now a Male) July, 2006 (1st recapture)
SY – M May, 2005 (1st recapture)

All of these adults were just finishing off a complete moult – some of their new flight feathers were not quite completely grown in. Same with 3 Baltimore Orioles we banded – one HY bird and 2 adults, both well into a complete moult.

One very intriguing bird was an adult female Swainson’s Thrush with remnants of a brood patch. Now, I am of the understanding (perhaps erroneous) that these birds breed farther north. The Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas notes: “In general, there are almost no records south of the latitude of Lake Simcoe, and few south of Muskoka. There are, however, isolated records in Dufferin and Grey Counties……” In most instances (and I’m pretty sure thrushes are included in these instances), adult birds go through a complete moult in the area they breed in before heading south. If this is the case then this bird must have bred in the vicinity. (Although another option may be that adults of this species, after fledging young, move a short way south and then moult before making the full migration.) Interesting to think about…..

Banded 41:
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Northern Flicker
1 Great Crested Flycatcher (an AHY female with remains of a brood patch)
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 House Wrens
1 Swainson’s Thrush
6 Gray Catbirds
11 Yellow Warblers
1 Common Yellowthroat
2 Scarlet Tanagers (a male and female and both HY’s)
3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
2 Indigo Buntings
1 Chipping Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows
3 Baltimore Orioles
1 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 12:
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
3 Yellow Warblers
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Field Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows

Rick