It was a reduced effort day. I had to leave early in order to be home by noon or incur the wrath of my wife who was taking me to the theatre. [To see Oscar Wilde’s An Ideal Husband which is based on my life story….] In order to hit this deadline, I did not open the Net 8 complex or Net 9. Further, I started closing early. In a way this was a shame as there were a lot of birds around – especially American Goldfinches which seemed to be driven to the feeders by the cold weather. It was an ideal day for catching as it was cold, overcast, and there was little wind. Despite the reduced effort, I still managed to band 84 birds – 44 of them goldfinches.

The highlight of the day was spotted by semi-regular visitor Dorothy Smith who was visiting from Hamilton. Peter Thoem and I were busily extracting birds from Net 2 when Dorothy noticed and calmly announced that a Pileated Woodpecker had just flown over. And sure enough the large bird was sitting in a tree not more than 50 m away. Peter and I would have missed it completely. This was the first sighting of this species this year. These striking birds nest back in the slough forests in very small numbers but are rarely seen around the banding area.

In the month of October we have banded 2,758 birds (a new record by 64). We banded on 29 days averaging 95 per day.

Banded 84:
7 Golden-crowned Kinglets
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
5 Hermit Thrushes
1 American Robin
1 Blue-headed Vireo
2 Myrtle Warblers
1 Northern Cardinal
1 American Tree Sparrow
4 Fox Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrows
7 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Purple Finch
3 House Finches
44 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 7:
2 Hermit Thrushes
1 Fox Sparrow
1 Purple Finch
3 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 38 spp.
Rick

It seemed like a very easy day to me. Other than open the nets, do a couple of relaxed (and relaxing) net rounds, and some nice birding, I didn’t do very much. And yet we still banded 101 birds. This was probably due to the fact that we had so many skilled volunteers helping out: Faye Socholotiuk (from Hamilton), Eric Bauer (Woodbridge), Ruth Kinzie (Kitchener), Peter Scholtens and his entourage (Hamilton) and Mike and Allison Furber (Dry Lake). My main task, really, was to get out of the way and to be as inconspicuous as possible, and after yesterday I was more than happy to do so.

Interestingly, the wind really picked up to force 4 out of the SW around 10:30 so I closed the nets early. Despite this we still banded over 100 birds. The very large mixed flocks of blackbirds and starlings weren’t around like yesterday. There were some but not the hordes. We had good numbers of Hermit Thrushes (again) and a nice variety of sparrows (8 species). American Goldfinches continue to show up now in good numbers.

It seems to be getting to be a habit but Mike went down to the nest box below net #2 and pulled out yet another Eastern Screech Owl giving Faye a chance to add to her banding diversity list. This is the third Screech Owl in 3 weeks.

We had 2 interesting birds around: a Gray Catbird and a Blue-headed Vireo.

Banded 101:
1 Eastern Screech Owl
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
2 Black-capped Chickadees
7 Golden-crowned Kinglets
8 Hermit Thrushes
1 American Robins
1 American Robin
5 Myrtle Warblers
4 American Tree Sparrows
3 Field Sparrows
3 Fox Sparrows
7 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
5 White-throated Sparrows
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
13 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Red-winged Blackbird
4 Rusty Blackbirds
1 Purple Finch
30 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 24:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Hermit Thrushes
2 Song Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
8 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 House Finch
8 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 48 spp.
Rick

The 3-day blow we’ve been experiencing continued today but the wind was diminishing. We opened all the nets. It was actually pretty quiet at opening time with only a few sparrow “chips” – no sign, no omen of what was to come…

We had a modest number of birds on the first round. Again, nothing portending later events. But small flocks of blackbirds and starlings began to fly over. And then those flocks joined to form larger ones and then those coalesced to produce really big ones – you could hear the birds’ cacophony a kilometer away. And then the noise came closer. At one point I was extracting birds from Nets 5-7 and a huge mixed grouping landed in the trees all around. The sound was deafening and it felt, strangely, like something from Alfred Hitchcock’s movie, “The Birds”. When the flock moved on the silence seemed almost eerie. But the birds didn’t move far. This large aggregation traveled about the site’s tree-tops all day dropping down occasionally to continue to strip whatever remaining dogwood berries they could find. Most of our nets are set in scrub, dogwood scrub….berry-laden dogwood scrub.

I used to think that chickadees were the biggest pain to extract from the nets but my vote now is cast for European Starlings. These birds get their shoulders jammed tightly into the mesh and bunch up the net with their very strong, grasping feet. And they are quite proficient at using their long pointed bills to let you know they’re more than a little perturbed by your intrusion. We banded 27 of them today along with 32 Red-winged Blackbirds and 20 Rusty Blackbirds – great numbers for us but only a very tiny percentage of the birds that were around. We also had good numbers of other species (see list below). All day we had the “banding machine” in continuous operation: 1 person banding; 1 scribing; 1 or 2 people extracting. We finished banding the last bird at 5:18 – we had done 213 of them! Our biggest day of the year. This also pushed our banding total for the whole year to over 6,000 (and this doesn’t include the 1,000+ Snow Buntings, Horned Larks and Lapland Longspurs we did off-site).

[Interestingly, we didn’t see any raptors taking advantage of the flocks of birds that were around today. You’d think a Sharp-shinned or Cooper’s Hawk would be availing itself of this cornucopia.]

Banded 213:
1 Blue Jay
2 Black-capped Chickadees
5 Golden-crowned Kinglets
6 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
3 Eastern Bluebirds
11 Hermit Thrushes
15 American Robins
5 Cedar Waxwings
27 European Starlings
5 Myrtle Warblers
1 Northern Cardinal
1 American Tree Sparrow
1 Chipping Sparrow
5 Fox Sparrows
5 Song Sparrows
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
4 Swamp Sparrows
2 White-throated Sparrows
12 Dark-eyed Juncos
32 Red-winged Blackbirds
20 Rusty Blackbirds
8 Purple Finches
12 House Finches
29 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 23:
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Carolina Wren
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Eastern Bluebird
2 Hermit Thrushes
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
3 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 House Finches
9 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 36 spp.
Rick

Quite frankly, I wasn’t expecting much today. Yesterday’s wind blew through the night. Initially it was out of the SSW at over 15 knots but around 4:00 AM it veered to WSW and increased to 20 knots with gusts to over 25. This was not conducive to bird movement.

At first light, angry-looking clouds scudded across the sky; it felt like it could rain at any time. My only concern was whether we’d be able to catch any birds for the 2 classes that were coming all the way from St. George. There was no point in opening the nets overlooking the river flats (the #8 “complex”) and I left #1 closed as well – the wind would just billow them to the point of uselessness. So, we started off with reduced nets, our ground traps, and….hope.

What I didn’t factor in was the fact that our copious dogwood berry crop had ripened…and the birds knew it. All day flocks (large and small) of American Robins, Rusty Blackbirds, Cedar Waxwings and European Starlings would fly noisily into the tree-tops; reconnoiter; and then drop into the shrubs below to strip them of every berry they possessed. At the same time, Myrtle Warblers and sparrows were moving more furtively lower to the ground, also taking advantage of the fruit. And American Goldfinches have finally arrived and found the feeders, sharing them (somewhat reluctantly) with the nuthatches, chickadees, and House and Purple Finches.

Some of these birds – despite the wind – found their way into the nets. We had more than enough for the students from St. George, who, by the way, were fantastic! By closing time we had banded 77. Now, we were quite aware that we needed 78 to hit the 4,000 mark for the Fall season, so we stayed open until we got it – a House Finch. But when we went to close, we found another 20+ birds in the nets pushing our banding total to 100 for the day. Who would have thunk it given the conditions.

[I’d just like to clarify my stance around “records”. This has been a “record-breaking” Fall and I’ve talked about them a lot. Don’t misconstrue this to think that numbers are our only concern. In fact, the records numbers don’t indicate much and can probably be explained by an increase in banding effort – more nets and more time put in by the banders. But….they are motivating to the people that have to get up each morning well before the sun and put in the 8-10 hours that the banding entails. Although we enjoy it, we don’t necessarily enjoy it when the alarm clock goes off in the wee hours…..let’s simply say that the chance of setting a record is motivating and maintains interest.]

Banded 100:
1 Mourning Dove
5 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
5 American Robins
6 Cedar Waxwings
2 European Starlings
13 Myrtle Warblers
1 Chipping Sparrow
4 Fox Sparrows
1 Song Sparrow
4 White-throated Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
17 Rusty Blackbirds
5 Purple Finches
7 House Finches
26 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 38:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
5 Hermit Thrushes
1 Tennessee Warbler
3 Myrtle Warblers
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
14 Dark-eyed Juncos
6 House Finches
5 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 36 spp..
Rick