September 25th-28th

Ruthven’s Arctic Connection – Wednesday, October 1st:

October 1st is the AGM of the Lower Grand River Land Trust – the body that governs Ruthven. Chief Bander Rick Ludkin, who has spent 6 months over the last 5 years in the Arctic working on CWS research projects on birds, will give an illustrated talk about his experiences there and how he came to be involved in this work. This is open to the public, and we encourage you to attend. The meeting will be in the Coach House at Ruthven Park at 7PM.

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September 28th

Finally a day with birds! The weather front that moved through last night brought a number of migrants with it, including scads of Blackpoll Warblers and American Goldfinch. Little waves of birds moved through the area all morning and it is unfortunate that a combination of increasing winds, falling leaves, and booked afternoons caused us to close.

Rick had a very unusual occurrence at Net 4. An entangled Eastern Wood Pewee was fatally stung by a number of vespids – possibly Yellowjackets. A nearby Rose-Breasted Grosbeak was also stung (indeed one of the wasps was trapped in the grosbeak’s plumage while it was being brought back to the lab). It is unknown why the pewee was attacked but it seems plausible that the pewee had eaten/injured one of the Yellowjackets consequently causing it to release its alarm/attack pheromone. This compound causes other Yellowjackets in the area to swarm and attack. Neither Rick nor I have ever seen anything like this before.

Banded: 58
American Goldfinch 15
Northern Parula 1
American Redstart 2
Tennessee Warbler 2
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet 2
Black-Throated Green Warbler 1
Nashville Warbler 1
Chestnut-Sided Warbler 1
Blackpoll Warbler 14
Red-Eyed Vireo 4
Ovenbird 1
Swainson’s Thrush 1
Veery 1
Grey-Cheeked Thrush 1
Eastern Tufted Titmouse 1
White-Breasted Nuthatch 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
Grey Catbird 3
Northern Cardinal 2
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 2
Mourning Dove 1

Retrapped: 12
American Goldfinch 2 (one was banded as an HY in October 2005)
Brown Creeper 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
Black-Capped Chickadee 2
House Wren 1
Red-Eyed Vireo 2
Song Sparrow 1
White-Throated Sparrow 1
Northern Cardinal 1

B

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September 27th

A grey, overcast, promising day. A good thing since students of McMaster University’s Biodiversity Program came to visit to learn about bird banding and careers in which there is very little financial reward.

Unfortunately the birds did not cooperate and very little banding was done. This is especially regrettable since this was to date the best class of Mac students that have been to Ruthven Park. Many could even identify birds such as Black-Capped Chickadee….

There was much distress amongst the poor students over the lack of bird numbers as their prof had decreed that any student who had not banded 100 birds by the end of the day would be immediately expelled and forced to eke out a meager living by washing Ruthven’s dirty bird bags. Some students were so overcome with fear that they fled into the woods to subsist on earthworms and invasive tree species. Happily these same students were lured out of the forest – well, tricked anyway – by the assurance that there was a free beer tent at the Caledonia Fair. They then went merrily on their way.

Ruthven Bird Banding staff would now like to remind these former students that we prefer our bird bags dried on the ‘gentle’ setting.

Banded: 17
American Redstart 2
American Goldfinch 1
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Winter Wren 1
Philadelphia Vireo 1
Black-and-White Warbler 1
Black-Throated Blue Warbler 1
Ovenbird 1
White-Throated Sparrow 1
Swainson’s Thrush 2
Song Sparrow 2
Grey Catbird 1
Mourning Dove 1

Retrapped: 5
Black-Capped Chickadee 2
Eastern Wood Pewee 1
White-Breasted Nuthatch 1
Blue Jay 1

There were 45 species encountered during the day, including the year’s first Blue-Headed Vireo and Winter Wren. Oddly enough we did not see either of them during the spring.

B

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September 26th

A heavy fog blanketed the area at opening. All that could be heard was the hooting of a local Great Horned Owl. As the fog burned off and the sun arose the Great Horned Owl ceased calling -replaced only by the passing traffic on hwy 54. Egad it was quiet.

There was very little around today, much like most of the week. There was the season’s first Golden-Crowned Kinglet however.

On the bright side barometric pressure began to drop as I left so perhaps a front is moving through for the weekend.

Banded: 16
Ruby-Crowned Kinglet 1
American Goldfinch 4
Magnolia Warbler 1
Tennessee Warbler 1
Chipping Sparrow 3
House Wren 1
Red-Eyed Vireo 2
Grey Catbird 3

Retrapped: 5
American Goldfinch 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
House Wren 1
Black-Capped Chickadee 1
Song Sparrow 1

40 spp. encountered

B

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September 25th

It was very foggy until well past the middle of the morning. This was too bad because 4 Eskimo Curlews and a California Condor flew over but I couldn’t see them…..

There were very few migrants around fog or no fog – I encountered only 33 species for the day.

We retrapped an Ovenbird that had put on 6.3 grams since its first capture 8 days ago – that’s ~0.8 g/day – almost as high as the Gray-cheeked Thrush 2 days ago. This affirms that there’s a lot of food around should migrants want to take advantage of it. The dogwoods are heavy with berries (and the Yellow-rumpled Warblers will certainly put a dent in them when they move through) and there’s a ton of wild grapes. And the mild temperatures through the month have resulted in lots of insects as well – the mosquitoes are flying around with looks of confusion on their little faces asking: “This is the end of September….WHAT ARE WE DOING HERE!?” Hmmmm…..I’ve been asking that of them as well……

Banded 19:
2 Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
2 Gray Catbirds
1 Blackburnian Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 Northern Cardinal
4 Chipping Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
6 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 6:
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
1 Ovenbird

ET’s: 33 species

Rick

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