The “star” of the day – Golden-crowned Kinglet. We handled 51 of these lovley little birds today. -J. Mills
The skies slowly cleared as I went around at first light opening nets. A light westerly wind was evident – enough to add to the cold. I figured that there wouldn’t be much bird movement until things began to warm up…but I was wrong. There had been a large influx of Golden-crowned Kinglets during the night and they were throwing themselves into the nets as soon as they could. I mean, why wait around!? ON the day we handled 51: banding 43 with 8 retraps from previous days. But Peter Thoem counted (conservatively he cautions) 62 on his census – so our ET or Estimated Total for this species on the day was 125; i.e., we estimated that there were at least 125 of these little birds moving through the site during the course of the banding period. We’ve never caught that many in a single day before.
The tan tips on the greater secondary coverts indicate that this Hermit Thrush (our 1st for the year) is a young (SY) bird.
It was an interesting day all round: it started with the calling of a Sandhill Crane at first light; we caught and banded the first Hermit Thrush of the Year; Peter picked up another Myrtle Warbler during the census; a Merlin blew through the site (but didn’t stop to sample any feeder birds); and we finished the day having encountered 43 species.
Dorothy Smith with the first Hermit Thrush of the year.
My sense is that the bottleneck created by the rash of bad weather is over and the “flow” of migrants is underway again. This should make for some interesting birding in the next week as migrants rush to get back on schedule and make up for the lost time.
Banded 62:
2 Blue Jays
2 Black-capped Chickadees
43 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Hermit Thrush
1 American Robin
3 Song Sparrows
7 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Common Redpoll (they’re still hanging around!)
2 American Goldfinches
John Mills with a White-throated Sparrow. -Z. Lloyd
Retrapped 43:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Black-capped Chickadee
8 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Eastern Bluebird
1 American Robin
5 American Tree Sparrows
7 Song Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
7 Dark-eyed Juncos
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds
5 Common Redpolls
2 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 43 spp.
Photo Gallery:
A SY male American Goldfinch starting to molt into its alternate or breeding plumage. – J. Mills
Zeny with one of her favourites, an American Goldfinch – we have no shortage of these! -J. Mills
John and Peter closing the nets at the end of the banding day. -Z. Lloyd
Peter Thoem tying down the furled nets to end the day. -J. Mills
Rick