Monthly Archives: November 2024

November 10th – Finish With A Flourish

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Cake made by Keira and Sarah to celebrate the end of the Fall banding season. -DOL


November 10th is something of an arbitrary pick for the end of the Fall season – but fairly consistent with other Fall seasons. I’m sure we’d continue to catch birds for the next week at least as it seems that American Tree Sparrows are at the height of their migratory return (we’ve banded 84 during these 3 days) and other sparrows, although diminishing in numbers, are still moving through. Still….you have to end sometime and I’ve got other things to do. And it’s been a very successful season…..so…time to move on.

The overwhelming opinion is that American Tree Sparrows have the “softest” plumage of all the sparrows. -KDC


These last 3 days have been very productive although weather has had an impact on them, different on all 3 days: Friday saw increasing gusting winds that caused us to close early as the nets were billowing; Saturday started off quite cold (-2 C) but winds were light and skies clear; today we had a 3 hour “window” before the rains started (knowing this I opened only half the nets). Yet each day produced good numbers of birds (especially sparrows) as well as some interesting ones.
November 8th; banded 40:
3 American Goldfinches
24 American Tree Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
7 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
1 Red-winged blackbird
1 Northern Cardinal
ET’s: 22 spp.

November 9th; Banded 55:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Northern Mockingbird

Our first Northern Mockingbird of the year and a nice banding tick for Amanda. -JYL


2 House Finches

Female House Finch. -KDC


5 American Goldfinches
2 Field Sparrows
38 American Tree Sparrows
1 Fox Sparrow

Fox Sparrow…always a treat…especially for Joyce. This was the first one she’d ever seen. and she got to band it. -JYL


1 White-throated Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows

Song Sparrow with a bill anomaly. -DOL


ET’s: 31 spp.

November 10th; Banded 35:
1 Purple Finch

Male Purple Finch. -AN


5 American Goldfinches
22 American Tree Sparrows
5 White-throated Sparrows
2 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
ET’s: 22 spp.
Gallery:

I’m not sure what Joyce was trying to prove here but she was bound and determined to experience the bite of a Northern Cardinal. -AMA


Fortunately the bite didn’t injure her drawing hand – check out these line drawings of a nuthatch and Downy Woodpecker she pulled off while simply doodling. -DOL


Amanda doing her thing…always with a big smile. -DOL


The rain forced inside this morning. From left: Sam, Keira, Sarah, and Andy; a very efficient crew. -DOL


Sam and Sarah with a load. -KDC


Sarah with her 1st banded bird – an American Tree Sparrow…naturally. -KDC


Keira – in her native tongue it means “a bundle of energy”…most appropriate. SVL

Initial Season Results:
I’ve just started to look at the results for this season.
We banded 2,173 birds of 65 species. This is a new record surpassing last year’s mark of 1,791.
Top Ten: Bold numbers represent a new season high; old record in brackets.
486 Song Sparrows (old mark: 479)
388 Swamp Sparrows (359)
271 White-throated Sparrows (124)
148 American Tree Sparrows
97 Indigo Buntings (16)
88 Bobolinks (0)
78 American Goldfinches (55)
67 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
57 Red-winged Blackbirds (20)
57 Common Yellowthroats (48)
Rick

November 4th – Topsy Turvy Start To November

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On Saturday, Joyce banded our 2000th bird of the Fall – an American Tree Sparrow. This is a new record – the old one having been set last year: 1,791. DOL


The weather in November has been all over the place: a couple freezing nights pasting the nets and poles with frost, interspersed with mild nights. And today…temperatures in the low 20’s!? But each day has had gusting winds, usually from the SW which limited the number of nets we could open. A SW wind seems to be the worst one we could get as it billows all but the most protected nets.

Still, we opened what we could and continued to catch and band. Sparrows continue to be the type of bird most encountered and, although not as plentiful as two weeks ago, can still be observed flying about the tall uncut grasses before dropping back down into it.

Amanda (left) and Bev having just helped me relocate a net. -DOL


We’ve had a number of interesting young people come out recently to volunteer and their interest and zeal are not only energizing (for old folks like me) but give hope for the future of the project. Thanks to Amanda, we have established a “conduit” to the University of Waterloo. And this is the nice thing about sparrows…..they’re great birds for new people to learn on: easy to hold and handle and readily identifiable in the hand when you learn what to look for…and that’s easy. So all the new folks got a great opportunity.

Genevieve (the good looking one on the left) came all the way from Quebec to learn about banding. Here she shows off her first banded bird – American tree sparrow. -SGS


Nela with her first banded bird: Song Sparrow. -AMA

November 1st; Banded 16:
3 Eastern Bluebirds

Male Eastern Bluebird. -DOL


Female Eastern Bluebird. -DOL


1 House Finch
3 Purple Finches
5 American Goldfinches
4 American Tree Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
ET’s: 21 spp.

November 2nd; Banded 32:
2 American Goldfinches
12 American Tree Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 White-throated Sparrow
13 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
ET’s: 24 spp.

November 3rd; Banded 21:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
3 American Goldfinches
1 Field Sparrow
10 American Tree Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
ET’s: 40 spp.

November 4th; Banded 12:
2 American Goldfinches
1 Field Sparrow
5 American Tree Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
ET’s: 17 spp.

Northern Saw-whet Owl with an old injury to the right eye. -SGS


Sarah has been doing some “episodic” Northern Saw-whet Owl banding at Ben Oldfield’s Lowville site. She’s had great success, banding 35 owls so far.
Rick