December 21st – Did You Feel It!?

Did you feel the cosmic shudder at 4:21 AM? It was the sun getting ready to rise earlier and earlier, making the days longer and the nights shorter. The Winter Solstice…my very favourite day of the year. The marking of the sun’s return bringing light and warmth, waking a frozen earth, and inducing birds to take on their monumental migrations.

A female Horned Lark, one of 25 larks caught this morning. =SGS


A small group of us celebrated this momentous event at the York Airport with a flighty group of Horned Larks and Snow Buntings. Forty to fifty of the former and about 10 of the latter at any one time. The lingering question: when a group flies in to the bait area, are they the same birds simply returning after a short fly-around? Or are they “new” birds coming in for their first feed of the day? The outcome? A resounding “well maybe some of them are new and some, I think, are just returnees”. An incisive answer for sure.

We could certainly use more snow – 2-3 cm won’t last long despite the -10 C. temperatures. But it was enough this morning to allow us to capture and band 25 Horned Larks and a solo Snow Bunting.

Our neighbourhood American Kestrel paid a visit. All the larks and buntings scattered and didn’t return for about half an hour – shortly after the predator flew off. -SGS


Rick

December 18th – A New Home

A view of the front of the new HBO banding “hut”. Picture yourself sitting on the porch, having that first drink of coffee, and eating a muffin while the birds flit and sing overhead. -DOL


Elaine and Dave Gosnell set up a trust fund and their first project was to purchase a new home for our banding program!! What a greatly-appreciated treat! It will be delivered sometime in the new year once the ground is frozen.

As you can see, there will be more than ample space inside. -DOL


There is a great deal of internal space and we’ll have to have a think tank about how best to use it. Some ideas that have already been thrown around: banding area in the front; wall off the back portion which can be used for….??…sleeping over was one suggestion (which would make it much easier for people coming from afar to participate); insulate the walls for cold weather conditions; run a narrow table outside along the front for outdoor banding….What a wonderful way to kick off more intense studies of the ecology of the site.
Rick

December 7th – An Unusual Start

Traps were being well used this morning! -DOL


The Snow Bunting(/Horned Lark) banding season has gotten off to an unusually early start. Looking back over my records I note that we have caught very few buntings in December and never this early. In 2010 we caught 10 on December 21st; 2013 we had 7 caught over two days – December 26th & 27th; 2016 we had 114 starting December 14th. So getting 13 yesterday was unusual. and then I got another 33 today!

It’s not as unusual to get Horned Larks in December, but so far we’ve banded 31 – a very good start as well. And this morning I also caught one of the two Lapland Longspurs that was hanging around with a small flock of buntings.

A young (HY) male Lapland Longspur; one of two that were around this morning. -DOL


It wasn’t a particularly cold night (went down to -3 C.) and there was no new snow to add to the 2 centimeters already on the ground. So I wasn’t expecting much this morning. But they fooled me. It was a little like Grand Central Station with small groups of Snow Buntings or Horned Larks or both dropping in, grabbing a snack and then heading off again. Only to be replaced by another flock. I wondered if these were the same flocks simply cycling through but….I don’t think so. Some groups of buntings contained all females; another had a number of young (HY) males; another brought a couple of longspurs. It’s more difficult to judge what was happening with the larks, especially as the two sexes look so much alike at a distance. But even then, I would get a small group (<8), followed by a large one (>35), and sometimes mixed groups of larks and buntings. I ended up banding 58 birds (33 buntings, 24 larks, 1 longspur) but I would estimate that these represented well less than 25% of the birds that dropped in to the trap area.

I wanted to try an experiment as Dick Stauffer, a Snow Bunting colleague in Alberta, has asked a number of times about what would be the best bait for buntings. I have always used cut/cracked corn. But today I thought I would put it to the test. In one of the traps (the top one in the photo above) I baited with an ordinary millet-based bird seed. There was a definite preference for the cut corn. Only 3 birds (5%) were attracted to the typical bird seed mix. Dick has had a frustratingly hard time out West luring birds to his traps. Maybe they don’t like cut corn….
Rick

December 7th – Serendipity

An early Christmas present: young male Snow Bunting! Note the extensive white wing patch that identifies this as a male – even at a good distance. -DOL


I have a strategy for catching Snow Buntings: go after Horned Larks. I’ve been waiting for Larks to show up in my banding area at the York Airport since the beginning of December. A couple of days ago I saw half a dozen feeding on some spilled corn kernels at the corner of the gravel pad that farm vehicles use when they’re loading the crop. I use this pad as my base. Big kernels are pretty large for these small birds but they were giving it a try. That day I gave them an alternative – cut corn pieces, the bait I’ve been using for years now. The next day they had switched to this much easier to ingest alternative. And their flock had increased to about 20 birds. Then we got a couple of centimeters of snow and the temperature plunged into the minuses – in fact it went down to -8 last night. Time to try banding!

Male Horned Lark. Note the extensive black areas contrasting with yellow chin and face. -DOL


I arrived early this morning to find a few larks on the corn. I put down 4 traps and refurbished the bait piles. Soon I had a group of about 20 larks around the traps. I was just debating whether to extract the one bird that had entered when I spotted a loose flock of….Snow Buntings! Flying in from the East.

Webster’s dictionary defines “serendipity” as “an apparent aptitude for making fortunate discoveries, accidentally.” This definition suits foraging Snow Buntings to a T. They congregate in these loose flocks as they wing their way over the landscape, always on the look-out for food sources, which often are made evident by other birds feeding. And that’s the way it was this morning. As soon as the buntings saw the larks around the traps they dropped in to check out the possibilities. Now I don’t think these were “resident” buntings; i.e., birds that are going to spend the Winter in the general area. [In our experience, “general area” for buntings would be a circle 25 km in diameter.] Rather, I think they were a migrating group heading further SW. But food is food and they would need it to continue their journey. [As it turned out almost all the buntings caught were not carrying any furcular fat – the furculum is where birds store their fat/energy.]

Female Snow Bunting. Note the much drabber wing. -DOL


Initially they were pretty “flighty” – would alight, scamper about the traps, and then take off only to circle around and descend again. Very much like shorebirds. This went on for 5 frustrating minutes or so, but then the moment of decision came and they stormed the traps; I caught 13: 8 females, 5 males. Once banded and released they continued their flight to the SW, most with a crop full of cracked corn. Over the next hour they didn’t reappear; they had continued their journey. But….the Horned Larks returned. I think this is a “captive” flock – birds that will spend the Winter in the near area, close to a reliable, good food source. So it’s important that I keep the spot baited. I was able to trap another 6 larks. And I had hopes of catching the Lapland Longspur that had joined them but it wasn’t to be. Banding came to a very quick halt when an American Kestrel landed on the top of one of the traps (much to the chagrin of the lark inside – which wasn’t harmed). I jumped out of the car and chased it off….but only to a treetop about 100 meters away from where it could keep the traps in view. I wasn’t going to catch any more birds while it was in the area. I packed it in; but what a treat: 13 early Snow Buntings!

Female Horned Lark – washed out colouring compared to the male. -DOL


Rick