May 17th – A Bouquet of Warblers & The Saga of Tim

Faye Socholotiuk, a teacher in the Hamilton Board, is a long-time (almost) regular volunteer on Saturday mornings. Besides being a good birder and bander she is also a fount of trivial information. Did you know that a group of warblers can be called a “bouquet”, “wrench” or “confusion”? Well….now I do. Wrench I just can’t see at all. Confusion would be fitting for the Fall. Bouquet is most fitting for the wonderful Spring colours. We continued to get bouquets, especially early. The best, from my perspective, was a pair of Northern Parulas caught at the same time in the same net in the same panel. I wondered if this male/female pairing had been travelling together. I think so: she had that look in the net that said, “I told you to check the map”.

We have been having some very interesting experiences with Brown-headed Cowbirds. We have been collecting them and shipping them to the University of Western since mid-April. Researchers there house them in large aviaries and are studying various aspects of their behaviour. This Spring we sent over 100. But they only needed a certain number of each sex. We reached our quota for males by May 4th and had 8 extra. But we had them take all of them and colour-band the 8 and set them free. Four of them (maybe more – we only recaptured 4) were back at Ruthven within 4 days (one within a day and a half).

Green-banded "Tim" has made the 160+ kilometer trip from the University of Western twice in the past two weeks. — Green-banded “Tim” has made the 160+ kilometer trip from the University of Western twice in the past two weeks.

On the 15th we sent another group of about 19 males and 10 females to Western. This included “Tim” a green-banded bird from the first batch who had been adopted by Grade 4 student Alex from Fern Hill. These birds were all colour-banded and released 160+ kilometers away in the late afternoon of the 15th. This morning, we recaptured Tim and two other colour-banded birds. This would have been Tim’s second return trip to Ruthven from Western – each trip taking less than two days.

Margaret, grooviest of the Groovy Girls, releasing a Tim. -E. Campanelli — Margaret, grooviest of the Groovy Girls, releasing a cowbird. -E. Campanelli

We had a busy morning with lots of interested visitors. It was a treat to entertain the “Groovy Girls” who make the May long Weekend an excuse to get together. And the grooviest of all was Margaret who, at 92, still hiked the banding trails with gusto and released as many birds as she could get her hands on.

The Three Amigos. Their sober demeanours underscore the seriousness with which these keen young birders take on the Quest of a Big Day....starting tomorrow evening....call it the Fellowship of the Ringers if you will. Stay tuned for their results. — The Three Amigos. Their sober demeanours underscore the seriousness with which these keen young birders take on the Quest of a Big Day….starting tomorrow evening….call it the Fellowship of the Ringers if you will. Stay tuned for their results.

We also had the pleasure of a visit from 3 previous Ross Thompson Award winners: Ezra and Giovanni Campanelli and Caleb Scholtens – the Three Amigos. They are undertaking a Big Day in the Hamilton area starting tomorrow evening at around 5 PM. They will send me their results ASAP….stay tuned.

Banded 34:
2 House Wrens
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Wood Thrush
4 Gray Catbirds
3 Tennessee Warblers
1 Nashville Warbler
2 Northern Parulas
4 Yellow Warblers
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
1 Myrtle Warbler
1 Northern Waterthrush
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Song Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
1 Baltimore Oriole
6 American Goldfinches