If I was monitoring early-nesting birds, I’d be a little worried about the effects of today’s weather and it’s continuation over the next 24 hours. There was frost on my windshield this morning even though the temperature gauge was reading 2 degrees but it was the wind that was the killer, cutting right into you. I never saw an insect all day. Aerial insectivores were having a very hard time. There was a large group of swallows (including our first Bank Swallows) hunting low over the river, searching for emerging insects. They stuck pretty closely to the far west side in order to get some shelter in the lee of the steep bank overhung with willows. I counted only 12 Purple Martins at the boxes this morning (as opposed to the 18-20 we’ve been seeing lately) but I didn’t try to rouse them either to get a better count. Just let them stay hunkered down out of the wind.

I want you to try to picture a loose group/flock of Rose-breasted Grosbeaks winging their way north. For well over a month they have been on the move from their Winter home in Central America. The 15 or so members of this group survived the Winter in the same area and set out and remained together throughout the flight. Just before dusk last night, in southern Pennsylvania, they got ready for the last stage of their long journey and when it got dark, took off. Quickly they climbed to around 300 m and used the southerly winds to take some of the strain off their wings. Sometime during the night, they picked up cues that let them know that they were approaching home. Was it the river, the Mansion with the outbuilding lights as guides, something else? Whatever it was, they dropped into the vegetation at Ruthven and slept/rested until the sun broke the horizon. Famished from the long flight and the blustery cold conditions, the “experienced” ones found the feeders they had left last September and lead the others to them. Soon I had a collection of grosbeaks in the traps and some in the nets. In total, we handled 15 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks today – most taken from the traps, laced with sunflower seeds. 8 were “new” birds but the other 7 were retraps. Interestingly, 6 of these were just back, this was their first recapture of the year. Here’s the original banding records for these 6:
AHY-F banded Sept. 4, 2012 [making it 2+ years old]
ASY-M banded May 23, 2012 (3+]
SY-M banded May 11, 2012 [2]
AHY-F banded May 10, 2012 [2+]
HY-F banded July 15, 2011 [2]
ASY-M banded May 9, 2009 [6+]
All the birds had either no fat or next to no fat. The retraps are obviously “our” birds but I will be interested to see if we recapture the freshly banded birds in the days and weeks to come to see if Ruthven was their target destination too.

We also had 3 other new arrivals: our first Ruby-throated Hummingbird came to check out the feeders (thanks Nancy for having them ready!); several Bank Swallows joined the insect search over the river; and we recaptured a male Indigo Bunting which originally had been banded as a ASY-M on May 13, 2011 making it at least 4+ years old.

Banded 27:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Tree Swallow
2 Blue Jays
1 American Robin
1 Gray Catbird
1 Yellow Warbler
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
8 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
1 Baltimore Oriole
5 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 34:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Tree Swallow
1 Black-capped Chickadee
2 American Robins
1 Blue-winged Warbler
4 Yellow Warblers
7 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
3 Chipping Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
3 Song Sparrows
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds
2 Baltimore Orioles
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 49 spp.

Rick