21st/22nd August 2010

The second weekend of the new season kicked off under cloudy skies, light winds, and little humidity. Some heavy showers passed through the area on Saturday afternoon, and well into the evening, but didn't disrupt the banding effort. The mosquitoes positively enjoyed the refreshing rain and were ready and waiting for us by Sunday morning.

Saturday proved to be the busiest day of the year so far, with a respectable total of seventy-two birds banded, of nineteen species. The first push of neotropical warblers are now in the area, although in small numbers so far. Thanks to sound luring, a good number of Baltimore Orioles responded, including a retrap AHY male, originally banded here as a HY on August 23rd 2008.

Sunday was not surprisingly, a little quieter, with the overnight rain halting migration. However, the Orioles, attracted by the tape, ensured a reasonable total for the session. In all, the weekend produced 114 individuals of twenty-two species, broken down as follows:

Tennessee Warbler 4
"Traill's" Flycatcher 4
American Redstart 5
Magnolia Warbler 1
Nashville Warbler 2
Wilson's Warbler 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Black-capped Chickadee 11
Mourning Warbler 2
Warbling Vireo 7
American Goldfinch 1
Red-eyed Vireo 5
Song Sparrow 4
White-breasted Nuthatch 2
Gray Catbird 16
Northern Cardinal 5
Baltimore Oriole 33
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3
American Robin 3
Chestnut-sided Warbler 1
Great-crested Flycatcher 1
Cedar Waxwing 1

This week's image is of a Chestnut-sided Warbler, in winter (basic) plumage.....very different than the Spring edition!

Autumn Banding Season begins.

After a long, hot, humid Summer, the Autumn banding season got underway on Saturday August 14th. It's still quite sunny and very humid, so I ask myself, "self, is it really Autumn?" The birds say yes. In spite of the conditions, there was plenty of activity, and the weekend produced a total of 64 birds banded, representing 20 species. Caught but not banded was a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. The Ospreys appear to have raised one chick to fledging, in this, their second year at the nesting platform. Here's the list.

American Goldfinch 3
American Redstart 4
American Robin 4
Baltimore Oriole 1
Black-capped Chickadee 10
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher 1
Cedar Waxwing 2
Gray Catbird 20
Great-crested Flycatcher 1
Indigo Bunting 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Mourning Warbler 1
Norther Cardinal 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak 1
Song Sparrow 2
"Traill's" Flycatcher 3
Warbling Vireo 3
Willow Flycatcher 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker 2

The image is of a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, as always, courtesy of Georg Hentsch. I will try to update this site weekly as the season progresses.

Spring 2010 Summary

Having finally received the banding log sheets from Brett, it's time to summarize the Spring effort......which at best was disappointing! There are two reasons for this. Firstly, the weather was not conducive to depositing migrants onto the property, it was far too warm and clear, and they just "kept on trucking." The other reason is that I was on holiday from mid May, and Brett was busy padding out his 2010 species list in an attempt to gain an insurmountable lead in our "Big Year" race. I'm lagging at least 100 species behind him, and a good fifty behind Georg and Erika.....but that's o.k. because there's plenty of time left to close the gap.....assuming I can be arsed to do so! Following is the banding totals list, which I'm sure you will agree is not especially impressive, and not in any particular order!

Black-capped Chickadee 4

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher 1

Magnolia Warbler 1

Wilson's Warbler 1

Blackburnian Warbler 1

Yellow Warbler 20

American Goldfinch 11

Warbling Vireo 1

American Redstart 3

Northern Waterthrush 1

Red-eyed Vireo 2

Song Sparrow 1

Cedar Waxwing 7

Orchard Oriole 2

Grey Catbird 4

Baltimore Oriole 1

Brown-headed Cowbird 5

Red-winged Blackbird 15

American Robin 6

Least Flycatcher 1

Myrtle Warbler 2

Swamp Sparrow 1

Hermit Thrush 1

White-throated Sparrow 3

American Tree Sparrow 2

House Wren 1

Northern Cardinal 2

The not so grand total is 101, of 28 species.

Finally, news of some recoveries. Firstly, an American Robin, banded here on October 5th 2008, was found dead in December 2008 in Trenton, Georgia, USA. This Spring, an American Redstart banded as a hatch year bird just east of Port Rowan, Ontario on August 31st 2009, was controlled here on May 23rd, 2010, presumably on its way back to its natal location. A Brown-headed Cowbird banded by my good friend Peter Fearon at a banding demonstration at McGreggor Point Park on June 3rd 2007, was found dead in Columbia City, Indiana, USA on April 21st 2008. Finally, a Pine Siskin we banded at Bannister lake Bird Observatory (a.k.a. Georg's backyard) on February 1st 2009, made its way to Mansfield, Ontario where it presumably lost interest in living and was found dead on May 13th.

May 1st, 2nd

In spite of a dire weather forecast, Saturday proved to be ideal for banding, with overcast skies and light southerly winds.....at least until a thunderstorm struck mid-morning. There was lots of birdsong, and a number of new species were added to my year list. I'm still lagging behind Brett, who is at 180 species for 2010, but I have at least crossed the 100 mark at last. By Sunday, I'd reached a meagre 115. On the other hand, I have a job, so "twitching" for the list is not much of an option!

The first Yellow Warblers of the season made their appearance, with seven new ones banded, and three retraps from prior years, two from May 24th 2008, and one fom May 30th 2009. The weather again caused early closing on Sunday, with the arrival of rain showers around 9:30am, just as things looked like they could get interesting. All in all, a little disappointing numbers wise, but clearly, migration is now underway in this area, with both numbers and species diversity increasing. The final weekend total was 27 birds of 12 species:

American Goldfinch 2
American Robin 1
Black-capped Chickadee 1
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Hermit Thrush 1
House Wren 1
Myrtle Warbler 2
Red-winged Blackbird 6
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Swamp Sparrow 1
White-throated Sparrow 3
Yellow Warbler 7

This week's picture is in honour of my good friend Peter Fearon. Between us, we came up with many corrupted bird names, just for the fun of it. Many, wellactually most, cannot be repeated here, but Peter, here's a "Helmet Thrush" just for old time's sake. Thanks once more to Georg Hentsch for photographs (and post banding beer!!).

There will be one more update after this weekend, before Grace and I disappear on our holidays, visting Poland, Spain and England.....volcano permitting!

2010 Spring banding season.

The 2010 edition of Spring banding began on a cold and windy April 17th. Frankly, I should have stayed at home and watched the football matches on the Setanta sports channel. Sunday saw a slight improvement in the weather, but the migrants were not impressed and chose to stay well south of here! The final total for the weekend was four, comprising American Robin (2), American Goldfinch (1) and in keeping with the American theme, American Tree Sparrow (1).

The weekend of 24th/25th April saw an improvement on the Saturday, and a toal washout on Sunday, when banding was not possible, owing to high winds and lots and lots of rain. A total of tweleve birds were caught, as follows:

American Tree Sparrow 1
American Goldfinch 2
American Robin 1
Black-capped Chickadee 3
Brown-headed Cowbird 1
Northern Cardinal 2
Red-winged Blackbird 2

The coming weekend would normally be expected to be the real start of migration, but the forecast is for windy conditions, with rain on Sunday. A bit of a bugger really, but we'll see what happens......

The picture is another one of last Autumn's Connecticut Warbler. Nothing of interest has been caught yet in 20110, so I'm resorting to last year's stock of pictures to entertain you!

Autumn 2009 Summary

Having run out of steam by October of 2009, it seems appropriate to summarize our final results for the Autumn season.

The last day of banding was Sunday November 1st. All of the nets and poles were removed from the Springbank Farm location on a sunny, but frosty morning, and began the long winter hibernation at Bannister Lake Bird Observatory, a.k.a. Georg's place!

The final total was 1,239 of 70 species and sub-species. Number one on the list was the Song Sparrow, with 234 individuals banded, closely followed by American Goldfinch at 233. Other highlights (for me, which is what counts most, as I'm the one writing this!) were Myrtle Warbler 90, Savannah Sparrow 58, and Red-eyed Vireo 35. New for the location were American Pipit, Blue-headed Vireo, Chipping Sparrow, Connecticut Warbler,Eastern Bluebird, Eastern Kingbird, Eastern Wood Peewee, Grasshopper Sparrow, Great-crested Flycatcher, Pine Warbler and Vesper Sparrow.
There are reports, although I've yet to see the actual details, of recoveries of an American Robin in northern Georgia (that's the good ole U S of A, not the strife torn home of Stalin and former Soviet republic), and a Brown-headed Cowbird in Indiana. If I ever get the details from he who shall remain nameless, I'll post them here.
Once again, I'd like to thank Georg and Erika Hentsch, and Brett Fried for all of their time and effort banding birds. Thanks also to the "rare" organization for the use of their land and financial support with banding equipment needs, and to Bill Wilson and Josh Shea for organizing the daily trail monitoring and record keeping. Thanks too to all of the volunteers and monitors for your dedication and participation in the project.
Let's hope that 2010 is even more successful.....

Last weekend in September

The season advances inexorably to its conclusion (for us at any rate) at the end of October. August seems so long ago, as the temperatures fall, the leaves turn red and gold, and the water droplets freeze the nets shut!! As might be expected, the mix of species changes by the week, as the later migrants begin to appear in numbers.
This weekend saw our largest catch yet, although the impromptu session on Thursday certainly helped boost the numbers. 74 birds were captured on Thursday, with a further 181 on Saturday and Sunday, bringing the Autumn total to 923, of 60 species. New additions were an Eastern Wood Peewee and Blue-headed Vireo, as well as the first Orange-crowned Warbler of the season. Other arrivals included White-crowned and White-throated Sparrows, and we also noted a significant increase in American Goldfinches. Fifteen Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers were a suprise at the Farm location.
It looks like things are slowing down at the river location, even the Ospreys have lost interest and moved to warmer climes, so this coming weekend will probably be our last there, as we move everything to the farm for the final three weekends of the 2009 Fall season.
Photos of Orange-crowned Warbler, Peewee and Blue-headed Vireo courtesy of my good friend, the ever dependable Georg Hentsch!