Migration Monitoring – September 29th, 2007 – Autumn Treasures Day

A gorgeous Fall day – blue skies, light breezes and a good variety of birds…..and people. The Campanelli Family arrrived early and helped with every net round and took pictures – multiple pictures at times – of just about every bird we handled. Audrey Heagy and Cherl-Anne Miller showed up to help with the many visitors (19+) and do a census (and Cherryl-Anne brought goodies!!!) and even Irene Schmidt joined us – and for her trouble got to hold a couple of her favourites: Eastern Bluebirds. The Campanelli boys, Ezra and Giovanni, had hoped to see a Black-throated Blue Warbler but left disappointed – about 20 minutes before one – a bright male – showed up near the Thompson Cemetery. We had a couple of interesting firsts for the year: a Pileated Woodpecker (that landed in a tree in plain view of the banding lab picnic table) and a Yellow-breasted Chat (reported in the undergrowth near the Thompson Cemetery). There was also a late Yellow-throated Vireo around and a Spotted Sandpiper – the latter down by the river near Slink Island.

One of the reasons for the visitors was the fact that it was Autumn Treasures day – a display by local artists of their work. When I first saw the sign I thought it was referring to me….but evidently not.

[There were a couple of folks taking pictures – so I will pass them on as soon as they send them to me.]

Banded 67:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Blue Jay
1 Black-capped Chickadee
2 House Wrens
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
4 Swainson’s Thrushes
1 Hermit Thrush
4 American Robins
1 Gray Catbird
2 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
9 Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtle Warblers)
1 Western Palm Warbler
5 Chipping Sparrows
2 Field Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrows
20 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 18:
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Eastern Bluebirds
2 Gray Catbirds
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Purple Finch
5 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 51 spp.

Rick

6 thoughts on “Migration Monitoring – September 29th, 2007 – Autumn Treasures Day

  1. My son found an injured yellow rumped warbler on Thanksgiving day this year, and my dad brought it home and cared for it. It is better now, and can fly fine. Will it be able to migrate alone, or do they migrate as a group only. It’s quite youg as it still had some down on it, but has shedded it now. We’re assuming it has never migrated before, and my dad wants to release it this weekend.

  2. Hi Tracey. Releasing the bird will be the best thing to do. The bird should have an innate urge to migrate–it knows what to do. Actually, it is probably experiencing ‘zugunruhe’ (migratory restlessness) right now, assuming that the light cycle it has been experiencing is similar to the light cycle outside (the shorter days in fall let it know when to migrate).

    It may join a flock of other migrating passerines (there are lots of Yellow-rumps around now, as well as other migrants).

    Out of interest, what have you been feeding it? Does it seem to spend much time sleeping?

  3. We just rescued a Black-Throated Blue Warbler from our cat. He seems to have hurt a wing and lost a few primary feathers. We’d like to try to care for it until it can fly again, but I’m not sure what/how to feed it. Maybe the other Tracey (from Oct 16) has some tips to share?

  4. Hi Tracey. Looking after a Black-throated Blue Warbler will be a pretty tough thing to do. They are mainly insectivorous, so, unless you’re great at finding small insects for it to eat, you may have a hard time feeding it. Sometimes warblers will eat suet–something you can get at any department store in the birdfeeding section. I suppose grape jelly may also be worth a try, but I’m not sure it would see that as food. If you’re willing to pay a bunch of money, a vet may try to rehabilitate it.

    Most importantly, I think you can learn from this–if you let your cat roam, it can quite easily kill birds. Don’t let you cat get into a situation where it has that opportunity. Domestic cats are not native to North America, and our birds have not evolved good ways to deal with them. If your cat must go out, put it on a leash and harness, or go with it and don’t let it attack anything. That Black-throated Blue Warbler probably flew from a Caribbean Island, over the Gulf of Mexico, across much of North America, only to be pounced on by a cat that really doesn’t need the food. We really should try to avoid this sort of thing.

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