Snow Bunting season is upon us again!! At our site in far southern Ontario we began to catch and band them in the middle of December – a month earlier than we’ve ever done so before! Does this tell us something about the nature of the coming Winter or….is it just coincidence? We’ll see. Let’s hope it’s a good season for all of you – and for the birds.
[For future posts, if you have pictures of birds, traps, trap arrays, and people that you could send along with your reports, that would be GREAT.]

Yukon, NWT, and Nunavut

NO REPORTS

Prairie Provinces

December 25, 2016
Best of the Season, Rick.
I wish I had a better present for you, but the situation here is not looking all that good. A snow storm about two weeks ago did bring the Snow Buntings in, and in decent numbers, but they are not staying. A feeding flock of 40-70 (one-time high count of 125 just after the storm) makes brief stops at the bait at sunrise and sunset, with sporadic visits from 10-20 during the day.
Most of the time they are entirely absent, and when they are on site they spend 5-20 minutes roosting in the poplars for every 1-2 minutes on the bait. But when they do want the millet they REALLY want the millet. At sunset yesterday a couple of White-tails kept them off the bait and when repeated “mobbing” didn’t dislodge the deer about fifty landed not twenty feet from the deck to glean under the feeders, which only happens once or twice a year, usually when wind buries the bait in snow.
Oh well, another Colorado low complete with blizzard is supposed to hit us today. Maybe that will change things for the better.

Bill Maciejko,
near Camp Morton, MB

Ontario

December 27, 2016
Hi rick: Many small flocks of snbu here and sightings of hola and lalo intermingled with these flocks the largest flock I have heard of is a flock of 300 coming to corn just outside of Englehart at a birder who has been putting out corn for the past 5 winters. So far a small flock of under 25 birds has found the corn near Kerns Public [school] where we have been banding. Some days there are only 6 birds so we are waiting for the flock to increase in size before we attempt to band with the “school of flock”. Hopefully we will have more to report soon. Very happy to hear about the success of banders in the south.

Bruce Murphy
Hilliardton Marsh Banding Station near
New Liskeard, ON

December 26, 2016
Hello everyone,
We have over 100 Snow Buntings on our property right now, feeding on millet. They have been here for about 2 weeks already.
If anyone is available in our area for banding, please get in touch with me!!
Happy Holidays!

Lise Balthazar
Lanark, Ontario
lbalthazar@xplornet.com
613-278-1230

December 26, 2016
Hi Rick,
Hope you had a very Merry Christmas! Glenn banded around 20 SNBU and 2 HOLA on the 21st. There were none for several days until after todays freezing rain. He checked this morning and banded 10 SNBU but the weather deteriorated too badly to stay out. It has been raining all afternoon.
Cheers,

Theresa McKenzie and Glen Reed
King City, ON

December 27, 2016
Hey Rick,
Jack has spotted some out by the farm where Joanne and I did some banding. Snow buntings were spotted Thursday, Dec. 22nd at 1384 Powerline Rd. West near Copetown. they saw about 20 on Christmas Eve too 🙂 We are hoping to try to get some banding in next week as I’m away but I’m not sure the weather is going to cooperate. We will let you know,

Faye Socholotiuk
Copetown, ON

December 29, 2016
[Rick:]
I have done nearly 1000 Snow Buntings since December 11 .. and 5 Lapland Longspurs and 2 Horned Larks. The weather has been capricious and the snowfall variable .. we have placed 20 transponders on Snow Buntings to be detected by the Motus towers.

David Lamble
Fergus, ON

December 29, 2016
Rick,
I personally counted 180 during the Cedar Creek CBC as we had good snow cover. [This count is close to Essex/Kingville and was conducted on December 17th.] I came down with the ‘flu the day of the Holiday Beach CBC but we had lost our snow cover and they were absent in our zone. [This count was done on the 27th and is close to Amherstburg/LaSalle.]

Bob Hall-Brooks
Holiday Beach, ON

December 31, 2016
Happy New Year Rick and Nancy!
Just a quick update and something you may wish to add to the Blog Rick. As you know, our SNBU post-doc Emily McKinnon has been trying to get out another 20 avian nanotags ASAP given our early winter. We had hoped to deploy them with both David (Lamble) and Nancy. Given Emily’s very tight time constraints in the holidays since she had to fly out from Winnipeg and our short-lived snowy conditions here in SW Ontario, she ultimately deployed all 20 with David on December 23rd. Great news, but sorry we weren’t able to include you this year Nancy, but maybe next year!

I am extremely happy we were able to work with David this year for a number of reasons. First, I pitched this project to him many years ago and I am very happy we were finally able to make it happen with his help. Second, due to Emily’s tight schedule last year, very late snow conditions, barely any birds at banding sites and his banding proximity to BSC headquarters where tags were being activated, Emily ended up partnering with David Okines to deploy the 20 tags we had bought. David L was very happy this year (see attached photo of him deploying with Emily at Fergus) so I am glad we could make it all work out.
Now we wait for the data to roll in.

[PS: Sorry, here’s the link to our news entry for the work: http://www.oliverlovelab.com/news/]

Best to you both,
Oli Love, University of Windsor, ON

December 31, 2016
On the 14th, I was just finishing off a Caribbean cruise with my wife when Nancy contacted me to say that not only were Snow Buntings in the area but….they were coming to the baited traps! This was a December first for us….we usually don’t start catching until the second half of January. That day she banded 9 SNBU’s, 6 HOLA’s and 1 LALO. For the next two weeks we got just enough snow to cover the ground and this, mixed with cold, windy weather, kept the birds in the area. By the end of December we have banded 124 SNBU, 18 HOLA, and 2 LALO. Interestingly, the Snow Bunting female:male ratio is almost exactly 2:1 – 82:42.

Rick Ludkin & Nancy Furber
Ruthven Park Banding Station, Cayuga, ON

Quebec

December 29, 2016
Hi Rick,
Here in Minganie, there is no Snow Bunting in the villages. We mainly catch in April during the spring migration. I wish to all the teams, good luck in their capture.
Happy Holidays

Yann Rochepault
Minganie, QC

December 29, 2016
Hi Rick,
Happy new year to you too!
There sure were TONS of buntings around Rimouski when I left before Christmas. I hope to start catching when I’m back in early January, although I will have to go hunting for a new capture site.
I’ll stay in touch if I have success,
Marie-Pier LaPlante
Rimouski, QC
P.S The newsletter will be ready at some point during January

December 11, 2016
Hi Rick,
Not sure if you’re in charge of the Snow bunting Network this year, but just wanted to let you know that the first flock of the season showed up in the field next to my house (Barnston-Ouest, Quebec) this morning. I hope it’s the beginning of a long season.
Cheers,

Carl Bromwich
(Barnston-Ouest, Quebec)

Maritimes

NO REPORTS

Newfoundland & Labrador:

December 24th, 2016
Rick, a couple sightings of small flocks in coastal dunes here in Gros Morne National Park on the west coast of Newfoundland this week.

Darroch Whitaker
Gros Morne N.P., NL

U.S.A.

Dear Rick,
I am sorry to say that I will not be able to do Snow buntings this year and possibly not in the future. I had surgery on my thumb which I am recovering from and now found out that I need to have surgery on my shoulder. So I am out for this year’s SNBU season. The woman who did the baiting for me last winter sent me very detailed e-mail observations which I compiled into a Word file. It is long— seven pages and covers her observations from January to early March. If you think it would be helpful to have these observations I can condense it and send it to you.
Sorry my attempts at banding Snow buntings in Wisconsin have not been very successful– but not for lack of trying!
Vicki Piaskowsi Hartland, WI
[Of course I contacted Vick to say just reports on sightings would be great and we would like to get her colleague’s report……]

Louise Laurin at the Banding Office had lots of presents for me in her last notification of recoveries of birds we’d banded recently…..as if 2 Northern Saw-whet Owls weren’t enough!

But this one takes the cake! At an approximate 3,500 kilometers away it is the most distant recovery of a bird we’ve banded at Ruthven Park. (The previous record was held by an American Goldfinch found just outside New Orleans.) The Snow Bunting was found dead in Saattut, a small settlement on a little island off the east coast of Greenland. It had been banded on March 3rd, 2014 and recovered on July 4th, 2015. At the time of banding we had aged it as a male in its second year; i.e., it had hatched in the Summer of 2013. So it would have flown between southern Ontario and Greenland twice in its lifetime – what a feat!!

I would love to know the route. Due to a good number recoveries of banded southern Ontario birds in the Spring by Yann Rochepault and his colleagues in the Magpie/Riviere-St. Jean area of the St. Lawrence’s north shore, I think it is safe to assume that when ‘our’ birds leave in March they head along the St. Lawrence, possibly all the way to the Atlantic at the river’s mouth…..but not necessarily. Perhaps they cross Labrador before that. Once they leave Yann’s area they pretty well fall off the radar.

At some point they have to cross the North Atlantic to get to Greenland. The shortest water crossing would be from Cape Dyer on Baffin Island due east across the Davis Strait to Greenland. That would require going a long way due north and then east. Perhaps they fly diagonally NE from Labrador or northern Newfoundland to get there. Birds trapped in northern Newfoundland in the Spring have weighed over 60 grams – almost double their “fat-free” weight; easily enough energy for a long non-stop flight (in favourable conditions).

Wouldn’t it be neat to fit breeding Snow Buntings in Saattut with geolocators so we can see the exact route they take!?

[Note: all images were downloaded from Googe Images. I highly recommend that you take a few minutes to check out maps and pictures of Saattut on Google – to see where ‘our’ birds spend their Summers.]
Rick

Temiskaming, ON – Joanne Goddard

We are having an interesting banding season here at Kerns’ (Temiskaming). The weather conditions seem to be perfect, mild temperatures (-1 to -15) lots of snow, but surprisingly few SNBU. The flock at school has only been as large as 200 birds all winter and they are proving to be difficult to catch. In fact driving around Temiskaming it is difficult to find any snow bunting flocks at all!! Since I have a grade 5/6 class this year I have only been able to band a few hours a week, and we have managed to band 230 birds so far (only 8 females). We have however had about 8 retraps from our past 4 years of banding. This has been super significant for my students because they have been able look back in our journals to see who the original banders were- many of which were the older siblings of my current students. Also of interest was a Shrike that we caught, banded, and relocated way back in 2013 found its way back to our site this year. Luckily we were able to catch it without any issues. On a side note, our Kerns’ location has also been chosen as a banding site by the Canadian Wildlife Service to take part in a winter finch colour banding survey. I have attached a few pictures of this as well. We were able to show some of our primary students some of our banding as well which was super exciting for them. Thank you to Bruce Murphy who has been helping us band this winter!

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Lanark, ON – Lise Balthazar

My name is Lise Balthazar and I live in Lanark Highlands. I have been in contact with your network for a few years. I get Snow Buntings every year and I feed them white millet.

This year, I have about 120 to 125 birds. I am sending pictures which were taken by my husband, Nat Capitanio.

Lise Balthazar
Sheridan Rapids
Lanark, Ontario

P.S. I also have been looking for bird bander in my area for several years. I have the perfect site for it!

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McGill Bird Observatory – Simon Duval

The number of birds seem to be increasing, but the snow cover is melting, with the forecasted rain and high temperatures over the next couple of days, who knows where the season is going!

Mirabel

From Jan 20 to 29, 60 SNBU were banded in seven mornings. The flock is still fairly small and not coming to the traps often.

Mirabel Season total: 193 SNBU, 1 LALO, 1 HOLA

St-Roch

From Jan 20 to 29, seven mornings of banding produced 172 SNBU and 1 HLALO. The flock grew to between 50 and 100 daily. The peak was on the 25th and 26th, when we banded 46 and 44 SNBU respectively. Interesting recaptures during the period included:
-1 SNBU banded in winter 2014-15 at St-Roch
-1 SNBU banded in winter 2013-14 at Mirabel

St-Roch Season total: 278 SNBU, 5 LALO, 5 HOLA.

Coteau-du-lac

Since the beginning of the winter, Coteau has been our most productive site, and the period covered by this report wasn’t any different. From Jan 21 to 29, eight mornings produced 208 SNBU and 11 LALO. The flock is on average around 60 birds, sometimes reaching highs over 100.

Coteau-du-lac Season total: 367 SNBU, 13 LALO, 39 HOLA.

Southern Quebec Teams’ total is 838 SNBU banded, we’re picking up the pace a bit, we’re only about 1000 birds behind last year’s total now.

Simon Duval
The Migration Research Foundation

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Rimouski, QC – Marie-Pier Laplante

Things are slowly picking up here. I have been out banding in Bic, 30km West of Rimouski, a couple of times in the last week, and banded 40 birds. A prof from school baits the field behind his house daily. It does not come as a big surprise that he and his family are falling for Snow Buntings now! His daughter got to band her first bunting this week, it was a nice moment.

I think this site will work great for the rest of the winter!

Cheers.
Marie-Pier

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Berthier-sur-mer, QC – Benoit

Here news from Berthier-sur-mer just 50km east of Quebec city.

I just start baiting last week-end. A few days later, more than 150 SNBU where feeding at my site. Wednesday, I have banded 13 bird for a school activity. I will put more time in snow bunting banding in the next week.

Total for the year: 13 (only male)

à bientôt,

Benoit
www.migrationdesoies.ca

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King City, ON – Glenn & Theresa

Sorry but nothing happening here in King City – no snow buntings since the last post, and no snow either.

Hope someone, somewhere, is doing well with them this year!!

Glenn & Theresa

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Hartland, WI – Vicki Piakowski

Our new banding area in Belgium, WI has had hundreds of Snow buntings the past week, devouring the bait within hours and keeping the baiters busy! Unfortunately, we are losing some of the snow cover that we had and today they were not staying in the area of the bait. We’ll try our first trapping and banding on Saturday. Snow is forecast for next week so that may help.
Thanks,
Vicki

Vicki Piaskowski
Hartland, WI

Here is the 5th Annual Snow Bunting Report, edited by Marie-Pier Laplante. The report is written by Marie-Pier and other members of the Canadian Snow Bunting Network. Click the image above or link below to download the report.

5th Annual Snow Bunting Report