For me the best part of the banding day is the time between the start of the opening of the nets and the first net round. It is also the transition from night to day: you start opening in the dark, stars high overhead; the first net check is shortly after the sun meets the horizon. The time between is magic. The birds begin to awaken and greet the day with song. This is the opportunity to begin to pick out the various species, especially those that are new, that came in during the night. This morning I got a BIG surprise! I was stumbling along the path between net 4 and 5 when I heard the unmistakable call of a Whip-poor-will coming from the area in front of the Mansion. Over the past 21 years I have come across only one other – it too was calling from the scrub in front of the Mansion.
But this wasn’t the only “new” bird of the day however. Besides the Whip-poor-will we also had American Bittern, Common Tern, Nashville Warbler, Baltimore Oriole, and Orchard Oriole (this last one sporting a band). These had all come in since late yesterday afternoon when I was walking the dog.
There must have been quite a huge movement during the night. For example, our White-throated Sparrow numbers were much lower than they’ve been for the past week. we had been catching quite a few of these birds; almost all that were retraps had been putting on fat and weight, waiting for the right conditions to continue on their journey north. (I can’t recall a time when we’ve had so many fat, heavy White-throats. One bird today weighed over 35 grams! Considering that its fat-free weight is around 22-23 grams, this was a huge bird. In human terms, that would be like me weighing 278 pounds. Now that’s a lot of muffins!) Last night the conditions were right and they moved on.
You’ve got to hand it to Killdeer – they’re persistent. The first nest with one egg got covered with snow and they quite rightly gave up. When the snow melted they started again and got as far as sitting on 4 eggs for several days before the eggs were eaten. I didn’t see them for a couple of days and figured that was the end for this year. But, no, today there were 4 birds chasing each other around the parking lot. There will be another nest……
We got banding information on that female Rose-breasted Grosbeak that we retrapped yesterday. It was originally banded at Dry Lake by Mike Furber. It is at least 6 years old. Today there were at least 2 unbanded females and a brillian ASY male around the feeders.
While we saw 6 new species today and a small number of other long-distance migrants, they were around in only small numbers. Just the beginning of the huge volume to come – the tip of the iceberg.
Banded 27:
1 House Wren
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Brown Thrasher
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
2 Chipping Sparrows
1 Song Sparrow
4 White-throated Sparrows
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Common Grackle
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds
8 American Goldfinches
1 House Sparrow (Some of you may be wondering why we’re banding this species….They’re a real pest and menace to cavity nesting birds. Last year a pair of House Sparrows disrupted our Purple Martin colony resulting in reduced fledging success. Rather than kill them when we catch them (which some people recommend) we transport them to other regions, well away from Ruthven. We put a band on them so we can tell if they return. They don’t seem to…..knock on wood.)
ET’s: 64 spp.
Rick
Fern Hill School – Burlington:
Great diversity at Fern Hill today, but not a lot of activity around the nets. We had our first Yellow Warbler observed and had an American Kestrel zip through the school yard.
Banded 6:
1 Blue Jay
1 Field Sparrow
1 Savannah Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 39 spp.
Janice