Part of the CBC 4 Kids.
The 2015 Ruthven Park banding season got off to a great start. The birds, sensing that a spate of nasty weather was on its way, hit the feeders in large numbers and some found their way into the few nets we have up – but mostly into the well-baited ground traps around the feeder arrays. By the time we closed up (when the freezing rain started) we had handled 86 birds – 51 banded and 35 retraps.
Peter Scholtens and crew arriving with the goodies – a CBC couldn’t be a CBC without them (the goodies that is).
Conveniently, this avian largesse coincided with a Christmas Bird Count 4 Kids organized by Peter Scholtens of the Hamilton Naturlists’ Club. It’s always a neat experience for us when we can expose young people to the wonders of birds and what better way to do it than to have the kids see them up close.
This young male American Goldfinch has undergone damage to its primary and secondary feathers on both wings. It’s as though the feathers have been chewed off about halfway up.
The “bird of the day” was the American Goldfinch. They seem to be well-recovered from their population crash (at Ruthven) in 2013. That year we only banded 611 (198 in the Fall); well down from the 1,863 we had banded the year before (1,316 in the Fall). My conjecture was that the local population had succumbed to an avian conjunctivitis, a disease that causes House Finch populations to fluctuate (we handled two House Finches today that had conjunctivitis in one eye). The population of goldfinches seems to be rebuilding: this Fall we banded 411.
Goldfinches are so common that we often overlook their dynamics. I used to think of them as an all-year resident as we would see them in all months of the year. But then we began to get feedback on our banding efforts: one was recovered on Long Island NY; another in West Virginia; and another just outside of New Orleans, Louisiana. So there’s a subset that appears to be migratory. The “recaptures” today were interesting – most came out of ground traps and almost 25% of them were adult birds; i.e., in at least their third year of life. These birds’ history showed that they were usually only seen/recaptured in the Fall or Spring – they didn’t appear to be residents. I wonder where they were in-between. And I wonder where these are on their way to. One thing for sure though: they know where to go for a good feed while on their travels.
Banded 51:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Downy Woodpecker
8 American Tree Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
8 House Finches
32 American Goldfinches
Recaptured 35:
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
5 Downy Woodpeckers (1 male was originally banded in 2007 as a SY bird – so it was hatched in 2006 putting it, now, in its 9th year.)
4 Black-capped Chickadees
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 American Tree Sparrow
5 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 House Finch
15 American Godlfinches
Photo Gallery:
Why is a Red-bellied Woodpecker called a “Red-bellied” Woodpecker – you can see why on this handsome male. -C. Scholtens
Budding ornithologist Alessandra with a Red-bellied Woodpecker. -C. Scholtens
We were able to walk Caprice through the banding of this American Goldfinch – the start of a career in ornithology? -L. Hollingshead
Going over the rudiments of aging and sexing birds with Carrie, an up and coming bander. -P. Scholtens
Two male House Finches. The golden hue of the bird on the left suggests that it has been eating honeysuckle.
Carrie and Caprice releasing a junco. -C. Scholtens
Rick