October 10, 2021 – Thanksgiving banding
We had a somewhat slower day today compared to some of the busy days we’ve been having recently, likely due to south winds the last couple nights. However, the weather was beautiful and we still caught some interesting birds. A fair amount of the birds we caught today were recaptures, suggesting that a lot of birds are hanging around the site to forage, instead of attempting to migrate in the unfavorable winds. We also got some very interesting news today: a Northern Saw-whet Owl banded at our site in Lowville in fall of 2020 was recaptured just a few days ago at Prince Edward Point Bird Observatory!
An Eastern Wood-Pewee we caught in the first net round
Nashville Warbler
Sam extracting a Field Sparrow from the net; this is a sparrow we don’t catch too many of.
Rob brought his drone and got this awesome photo of the banding site from above!
Banded at Lowville:
1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
5 Golden-crowned Kinglet
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Nashville Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Field Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrow
Recaps:
6 Black-capped Chickadee
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Gray Catbird
1 Song Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrow
Total 31 (of 11 species)
October 12, 2021
We had a rather slow day at Lowville on the 12th, likely due to South winds the night before. However, we still had a nice diversity of species. Almost half of the birds we caught were recaptures, which makes sense with the unfavorable winds.
Banded:
2 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
2 Song Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrow
1 American Goldfinch
Recaps:
2 Black-capped Chickadee
6 White-throated Sparrow
1 Northern Cardinal
1 American Goldfinch
October 13 & 14, 2021
We did our first night of owl banding on the evening of the 13th. We target Northern Saw-whet Owls; a small forest owl species that migrates through our area (and sometimes winters). We did indeed catch owls! 5 Northern Saw-whet Owls for our first night, and we hope to catch more.
Northern Saw-whet Owl
The morning of the 14th was unseasonably warm, and ended up being one of our biggest days of the season so far with 86 birds caught! A nice variety of species for this time of year, but the large numbers were due to lots of kinglets and sparrows.
First Junco of the year!
Brown Creeper
Banded in Lowville:
2 Downy Woodpecker
3 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Brown Creeper
1 Winter Wren
21 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
8 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Swainson’s Thrush
3 Tennessee Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
3 Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)
3 Swamp Sparrow
10 Song Sparrow
12 White-throated Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)
5 American Goldfinch
Recaps:
1 Blue Jay
2 Black-capped Chickadee
1 American Goldfinch
1 Gray Catbird
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Northern Cardinal
1 American Goldfinch
Total: 86
~Written by Ashley Jensen