For a long time now – years, in fact – I’ve been preaching the need for both snow and cold temperatures if you wanted to get Snow Buntings. Well, we’ve certainly been getting these conditions in spades. But yesterday the light snow was accompanied by a strong, biting wind that would have made trapping futile as the traps would have filled very quickly with snow. It just wasn’t worth the aggravation.
This morning though the wind had slowed down (but was still enough to cause a temperature of -18 C. to feel like -27 C). I arrived before the sun got up and there were already 40+ Snow Buntings waiting. A few had dug holes in the wind-packed snow to try to get at the corn hidden below. I set out and baited 5 traps; by the time I got back to the car a flock of about 70 were already checking things out. It was at this time that aspiring Snow Bunting bander Annika arrived. It was great to have help as we caught steadily for the next 3 and a half hours. Things go so much faster when one person (Annika) bands and another (me) scribes and eats home-made cookies.
We would clear traps, band, clear traps, band….the only interruptions were caused by avian predators investigating the traps, alive with buntings. In one instance BOTH a Cooper’s Hawk and a Northern Harrier swooped in at the same time while in another instance just a harrier came by. Both were easily chased off and, unlike American Kestrels which will hang around in the immediate area (tree tops, hydro lines), fly off into the distance. Once they head off the buntings return quickly.
Later in the morning the pace began to drop off. But by this point we had banded 83 Snow Buntings and a Horned Lark and had handled 17 retraps (12 buntings and 5 larks). But not to be dismayed, we thought about heading over to Duncan and Marnie’s farm on Irish Line. My site is good….but Marnie’s is great. This would give us a chance to hit the bunting century mark for the day. Through the morning I had been watching cloud, heavy in the south over the lake, starting to build. Once we got to Cayuga a significant snow was falling and the SW wind had picked up considerably. Annika had a long way to go to get home and made the smart decision to head out. I decided to check out Irish Line (after all, Duncan had gone to a helluva lot of work to clear snow from the long driveway). By the time I got there a heavy squall was going on – I had a hard time even seeing the trees in the forest on the other side of the field. I set out 3 traps and 100+ buntings were immediately investigating them. I left them open for only 20 minutes but in that time they had filled halfway with blowing snow….and 12 Snow Buntings. Mother Nature was telling me it was enough for one day. I banded them and then headed home. It had been a very productive day.
Rick