There was rain and even thunderstorms during the night. It was just tapering off when I drove in to Ruthven. As I whipped around opening nets I could hear multiple White-throated Sparrows calling and chipping from the edges….a sure sign that there had been movement during the night. In the first hour we caught and banded 32 birds. And then the rains came, a drenching downpour which, with the cold NE wind, made for hypothermia conditions for both birds and banders. So we hustled around and collapsed the nets. After an hour the rain petered out but it was followed by a chilling drizzle. We kept the ground traps going but didn’t reopen the nets. The ground traps accounted for another 15 ‘new’ birds and 28 recaptures.
This influx of birds seems to have been experienced throughout the area. White-throated Sparrows were reported in large numbers all around the end of Lake Ontario. Fred and Betsy Smith had a Baltimore Oriole show up at their place just across the river – “right on time”. And Mike Furber, who was doing our census, reported our first Western Palm Warbler.
One interesting catch was an adult (ASY) male Purple Martin. It’s quite rare that we catch them in our mist nets. I can’t be sure but I think this one might have been chased into the net by a pursuing Merlin. The falcon was close to the martin in the net and was sitting on a perch only a couple of meters away (probably thinking how to get at this delectable morsel). I arrived just in time to scare it off. But it didn’t go far – just up into a tree top to keep an eye on things.
With some regularity we catch birds that have a deformity. As you can see this Chipping Sparrow has a badly deformed leg and foot. In every other way it was fine and it’s muscle and fat scores indicated that physiologically it was in quite good health. I would love to know what causes these abnormalities.
Banded 47:
2 Mourning Doves
1 Purple Martin
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
2 Hermit Thrushes
1 American Robin
11 Chipping Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows
16 White-throated Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
4 Brown-headed Cowbirds [Lauren carted off 48 to Western this afternoon.]
1 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 43 spp.
Rick