One third through May and into the heart of the Spring migration. It’s such an exciting time! You just don’t know what you might find in the forest or…..nets. Some are just passing through – the majority of warbler species – but some are returning to their “summer home”. We are retrapping a good number of long-distance migrants that we banded several years ago. One notable returnee was a male Baltimore Oriole. It was originally banded on May 10th, 2012. At that time it was “aged” as an after second year bird meaning that it had hatched in 2010 or even earlier. It was recaptured once in 2013 and then not seen for a couple of years, not until 2017. And then again this year. Wouldn’t you like to know where it spends the Winter? And how it gets there and back?
We have been checking migrants out for ticks. When we find any we send them to John Scott at the university of Guelph where he is looking at the possibility that birds might be helping to spread southern tick-borne diseases by transporting the ticks. When Karen was checking out a Wood Thrush this morning she spotted a dark purple orb between the birds eye and the socket. We figured it was a tick but when we removed it found that it was a leech!! I have never seen this before.
Banded 53:
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 Wood Thrush
6 Gray Catbirds
1 Blue-winged Warbler
9 Yellow Warblers
2 Cape May Warblers
1 Myrtle Warbler
1 American Redstart
2 Common Yellowthroats
5 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
3 White-throated Sparrows
2 Baltimore Orioles
17 American Goldfinches
1 House Sparrow
ET’s: 64 spp.
Photos:
Rick
And from Ben Oldfield at Lowville Park on May 9th:
The day started off cool with a lot of activity, looking at NEXRAD radar it was clear migrants were pouring through Ontario last night! In total I banded 25, from 0600-0800. The highlight unfortunately did not fly into the net, but a singing Cerulean Warbler ( a Species at risk) graced the banding area with its song. New arrivals were Magnolia warbler, Ovenbird, Cerulean warbler, Bobolink and Veery.
Banding Total: 25
Blue jay-1
Veery-2
Grey Catbird-1
House wren -2
Magnolia warbler-1
Common Yellowthroat-3
White throated sparrow-6
Lincoln’s sparrow-2
Brown Headed cowbird-4
Rose Breasted Grosbeak-1
Song Sparrow-1
American Goldfinch-1
Ben