August 19

On August 19th I set out early in the morning to start the first day of fall migration monitoring at Haldimand Bird Observatory’s Hurkman’s Farm. The morning was cool, hazy and cloudy but there were a few birds to be caught. Mostly local summer residents, but a few migrants at the end.

I noted at least 8 Bobolinks flying over, which gave me hope for my new project that I would be starting the next day to monitor Bobolinks as they migrate south, like some other banding stations have been starting to do.

Cathy from Haldimand Stewardship and George from the Niagara Bee Group visited mid-morning to meet and take a nutritional sample of the Prairie Grasses. They were both exceptionally pleased with the progress made and gave much praise to HBO for our dedicated work for conservation and education.

Banded 14:
2 Least Flycatcher
2 Black-capped Chickadee
2 House Wren
1 Song Sparrow
2 Swamp Sparrow
2 Common Yellowthroat
3 Indigo Bunting

Recaptured 7

August 20

On the 20th of August, the weather was much sunnier, although still chilly in the morning. The strong North winds the night prior pushed a handful of migrants onto the property, a few of which found their way into our nets. Early in the morning we opened the newly placed Bobolink net situated on the path through the prairie grasses, and started a playback that would continue through the morning. Almost instantly we saw a Bobolink fly in, so we quickly left the area with our hopes high of capture.

In terms of the migration nets, the morning was productive for both numbers and species. We were delighted to catch two migrant warbler species – a young Magnolia Warbler and a young Northern Waterthrush – as well as an adult Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, and five hatch-year Rose-breasted Grosbeaks all captured from the same net.

Just at dawn, we were delighted by droves of blackbirds leaving from their roosting area to the east of the property, and we estimated about 1000 of them, mostly Common Grackles. A pair of Sandhill Cranes gave us excellent views as the flew and called over the prairie field mid-morning. We observed 50 species the whole morning which is quite impressive for this time of year.

Back to the Bobolinks! We captured 10 in total for the morning and observed a total of 50, many of which were sitting around the net at the first net check. Ideally, we will add another net with the current one to increase our rate of capture. As they are a species at risk in decline due to habitat loss, monitoring Bobolink migration could be a very valuable program for Haldimand Bird Observatory to facilitate. With any luck, some of the attracted Bobolinks will return in the spring to nest in the prairie field.

Banded 30:
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
1 House Wren
1 Carolina Wren
1 Gray Catbird
1 Song Sparrow
3 Swamp Sparrow
10 Bobolink
1 Baltimore Oriole
1 Northern Waterthrush
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Magnolia Warbler
5 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
2 Indigo Bunting

Recaptured 1

Below, An assortment of Bobolink images by KDC. Notice the very long claws which many grassland birds sport for ease of gripping grasses and navigating uneven ground.

Sarah Sharp

Although we tend to think that there’s still a lot of Summer left, for many birds (and bats and butterflies) it’s almost over and the time to head south is here. Yellow Warblers are a common nesting bird in this area but after August 1st, I’m lucky if I see any and even luckier if I catch and band them. They nest, fledge young, moult, and then off they go. Same with swallows….although many spend some time in the area going to roosts for the night and then spreading out during the day to feed. For the past couple of weeks the Grand River around York and local farmers’ fields have been their daytime haunt. [The marshes around Port Maitland, downriver from Dunnville, are a good spot to search for roosting birds in the evening.]


It’s a magical thing to stand in the middle of the prairie grass field when all you can hear is the wind swishing through the grasses.

Right now there isn’t a lot of observable activity at the Farm. Young birds of the year are dispersing to look for good breeding areas for next Spring and adults are lying low while they go through an extensive moult. Bird song is only intermittent…but they’re around. And soon, when the migration really gets going, they’ll be there in large numbers. We’ll be ready. We’re preparing to put in a full Fall season which we plan to run from the end of August to the middle of November. We’re excited about the possibilities. If you’re interested in volunteering – or just finding out what it’s all about – email me: rludkin@hotmail.com [Put something about “banding” in the subject line.]

Hoping to identify and find out more about the bats in our area, Michelle Karam director of Land Care Niagara brought her team out to the Farm on Saturday evening. It was interesting – and a real learning experience – to see them put up sky nets extending 6 meters high. She tried to find areas that bats would use as “corridors”; e.g., along the laneway and through natural openings between the meadow and the pond. As with banding birds, patience is a virtue. this time, however, it wasn’t rewarded: we didn’t catch any. But there were a few around – their calls were being picked up by receivers. Evidently it is already “late” for them – most have headed south. Next year we’ll try in June and July.

But the night wasn’t a complete loss. I called in an Eastern Screech Owl using my phone. The bird checked out the trees all around us. When it couldn’t find another owl it showed its dismay and disgust at our intrusion by crapping – from well above me – onto my hand. Now that was a surprise! The Screech Owls at the Farm have been using our Wood Duck boxes as nesting sites. This bird was just letting me know that he wasn’t to be trifled with….
Rick

“What!? Snow Buntings in the heat of summer!?” I can hear your exclamations now. But we have some great news. Oliver Love, Christie Macdonald, and I started the Canadian Snow Bunting Network over a dozen years ago to get banders interested in braving cold Winter conditions in order to try and unravel some of the mystery surrounding these wonderful birds that we see for only a couple of months of the year. Not much was known about their breeding biology and about their movement between their Summer nesting grounds (some of them in the VERY high Arctic) and their Winter grounds.

With small passerines you have to band a lot of them to begin to get data on them. It’s always a thrill when of “your” birds is recovered at a far-off location. Several southern Ontario birds (including one of ours) has been recovered on the West coast of Greenland!

The University of Windsor (Oliver Love) has been trying to sort out what happens with these birds in the Arctic. For a couple of years he’s had a team of students chasing them down in Iqaluit and area. I’ve worked with some of the members of that team spending hours wandering the tundra searching for nests and then following their success….or failure. Grad student Samuelle Provencal-Simard (“Sam”) currently heads up that team. Recently she sent out a request for information on a banded bird that had been recaptured at a nest in Iqaluit. It was one of ours!!! Marnie had caught and banded this female in mid-January at her Farm and the recovery was in mid-July. It will be interesting to follow this bird and see how it does….and whether it returns.

One of the goals of the Canadian Snow Bunting Network is to find out the movements of these birds in Winter and sort out their migration routes. I mean, how did Marnie’s bird get from her farm to Iqaluit. Did it take the St. Lawrence River – Labrador coast – Baffin Island route? (Many of the banding recoveries of birds banded in southern Ontario show that this is an important migration corridor for Snow Buntings.) Or…? Bruce Murphy in New Liskeard in northern Ontario has “exchanged” birds with banders in southern Ontario, which suggests a more direct N-S route. Unravelling this question has become one of Sam’s major projects. This past Winter she attached MOTUS tags on a number of Snow Buntings. Some were captured by David Lamble in Fergus. One bird was released there; one was transported to Windsor and released; another was transported to Port Rowan and released.

Another bird was captured by our team at the York Airport and, after radio tagging, released there.

A MOTUS tag emits a radio signal unique to that particular bird. If the bird is relatively close to a receiver it will register and there will be a record of that bird’s travels and timelines. Sam let me know that one of our birds (not the one mapped below) actually travelled 1300 kilometers during its time in southern Ontario, flying from one foraging site to another – evidently over quite a wide area. [A question I have: when a bird finds a rich feeding site, like our airport site, why does it bother to wander over long distances looking for other food sources? For example, there have been a couple of instances where birds banded in “the Triangle” – 3 feeding sites about 10 kilometers from each other (York Airport, Nancy’s Dry Lake Road site, and Marnie’s farm site) – have been recaptured on the same day at two of these sites. Why the extra travel? Predator avoidance? Or…?]

Below are 4 maps showing the movements of 4 MOTUS tagged Snow Buntings.

This gets more and more interesting – and exciting!