Nancy applying a lock-on band. -J. Fleet
We had a couple of influxes today: birds and students. After yesterday’s dismal showing of only 12 birds banded, I was looking at another beautiful weather day with trepidation. But….the chipping of White-throated Sparrows along the margins gave me reason to hope. And, sure enough, when the dust cleared, it was evident that there had been a sizeable influx of migrants during the night. We caught thrushes, Gray Catbirds, and White-throated Sparrows in bunches: a cumulative total of 30 today vs only 5 yesterday.
Underwing of the hawk. -J. Fleet
The ventral side of the hawk.
Herds of migrating mammals (caribou, wildebeest, etc) have their attendant predators that move with them, culling the weak, the old and the unlucky. And so it is with flocks of migrating birds. In this case the predators are hawks that specialize in taking birds: accipiters and falcons. On one of the first net rounds early this morning, Nancy spotted a Cooper’s Hawk perched on a snag in front of the Mansion. We said to each other that it would be great if we actually caught it but we knew this was highly unlikely (in 20 years we have caught only 1 Cooper’s Hawk).
Young male Cooper’s Hawk.
And here’s where the students come into it. We had an engaged (and engaging) group of bird enthusiasts from the Colin Macdonald School in Hamilton visiting this morning. They got to witness the banding of quite of few of the birds we caught and during the course of the demonstration a couple of them asked: “do we ever catch any hawks?”
“Well, yes we do.”
“What’s the biggest one you ever caught?”
“A Cooper’s Hawk.”
Cooper’s Hawk.
And because they were so engaged, Mother Nature decided to let them see one up close – on the very next net round they accompanied us on we caught a young male Cooper’s Hawk!!
What a treat! For all of us.
There was a light NE wind blowing during the night which probably accounted for the influx of migrants. There’s supposed to be another one tonight…..
Banded: 43:
1 Cooper’s Hawk
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
1 Black-capped Chickadee
3 Gray-cheeked Thrushes
10 Swainson’s Thrushes
8 Gray Catbirds
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Swamp Sparrow
9 White-throated Sparrows
2 House Finches
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 45 spp.
Rick