So…..we’ve had great conditions for Snow Buntings for quite awhile now: cold temperatures and snow (you must be getting tired of listening to my mantra in this regard). I’ve been trying to take full advantage of them. Well….almost full advantage. Not long ago my brain had a conversation with my body and asked: do you really want to go at this hard-core in these conditions? My body responded: well, I think I still could. The real question is do I want to go at this hard-core…in these conditions? After some deliberation the outcome was a compromise: you will go at this hard-core but for only 3 or 4 hours a day (which, you might think, isn’t really hard-core but – hey – let’s not equivocate).

Even at this rate it’s been very productive; today I passed the 1200 Snow Buntings banded mark. Not a world record but…respectable. Over the last few days I’ve been finding that the number of retraps has been increasing. Retraps are birds that I’ve banded previously and then have recaptured. Many of these were banded recently but quite a few date back to January and even December. In fact, there’s been a number from other years going all the way back to 2017! One thing that is clear is that the “York Airport” site is a good place for Horned Larks to spend the Winter. And unlike Snow Buntings, that tend to move around a fairly extensive range, Horned Larks – or, at least, “my” Horned Larks – seem to stay closer to home. I keep catching the same ones.

Today I banded only 24 birds (8 larks, 16 buntings). However, I handled 67 birds, processing 43 retraps; of these 36 (84 %) were Horned Larks and only 5 (12%) were buntings – even though buntings doubled the number of larks banded. For the larks, the airport seems to be their home location. Interestingly, of the 36 lark retraps, 75% of them were males. This is a Winter male hangout for sure. the number of males banded over the course of the season mirrors this as well. Where are the females? Likely further south in less harsh conditions. (Similarly, male Snow Buntings tend to winter further north than females. Again interestingly, while I usually have a female:male sex ratio of buntings of ~3:1 I’m currently sitting with a ratio of 1.9:1. The conditions have been pushing the males down.)

For the first time at this site we’ve caught and banded American Tree Sparrows. They’re not a bird that likes empty, wide-open spaces with no shrubs to escape into with the approach of a predator. But we’ve caught and banded 4 so far and retrapped a couple of these – so some are coming back to take advantage of the nutritious, readily-available food. Along the road behind me on the other side is a thin line of small shrubs and weeds. I think that these birds have probably been working their way along this hedge row gleaning whatever it afforded. They became aware of the busy feeding activity of the larks and buntings about 30-40 meters away and decided to take a chance – and it paid off for them. And that’s the way it works: birds pay close attention to what other birds in their vicinity are doing. And if they’re making feeding actions then it just might be worth a look.

Here’s a recap from the last week or so:
February 9th:
2 Horned Larks
56 Snow Buntings
February 10th:
13 Horned Larks
134 Snow Buntings
3 American Tree Sparrows
February 11th:
9 Horned Larks
42 Snow Buntings
February 12th:
9 Horned Larks
1 Lapland Longspur
3 Snow Buntings
February 13th:
4 Horned Larks
6 Snow Buntings
February 14th:
Valentine’s Day – an internationally-recognized banding holiday…imposed by my wife.
February 15th:
15 Horned Larks
1 Lapland Longspur
36 Snow Buntings
Sarah and Eila banded at Marnie and Duncan’s farm on Irish Line:
29 Snow Buntings
1 American Tree Sparrow
February 16th:
SNOW
February 17th:
It was VERY windy at the airport blowing snow across the open expanses and would have filled the traps and covered the corn almost immediately, so….I stayed home. But, not to be daunted by the conditions, Sarah and Liam banded at M & D’s farm:
49 Snow Buntings
Some photos:



February 18th:
29 Horned Larks
1 Lapland Longspur
40 Snow Buntings
February 19th:
8 Horned Larks
16 Snow Buntings
Rick

Cross-country (SNBU) Check-up is meant to be a “snapshot” of what is going on in this country in regard to Snow Buntings – especially the banding of them. It is hoped that it will bring banders and enthusiasts together in studying this fantastic Arctic-nesting little bird that may be in trouble with the changing climate. Francois Vezina and his team at UQAR have show that cold, stormy conditions aren’t much of a problem for them. It’s heat that may be their undoing. If you’re a bander, I hope this spurs you into activity (or increased activity) in studying them. If you’re an enthusiast, your observations are very valuable, determining when and where they are located. The more information we can put together the better.
Maritimes:

Nova Scotia:

Good morning,
Greetings from Nova Scotia! The skies were alive with flocks of snow buntings this past weekend as I set out to search for them in the Annapolis Valley, near Wolfville and Grand Pré. I first encountered a couple of small, loose flocks, mixed with horned larks and a few Lapland longspur, prior to finding a large flock of around 100 snow buntings constantly flitting about in a field. The conditions in Nova Scotia this winter have been favorable for the buntings, with steady snowy conditions to maintain a bit of a blanket over the wind-swept fields. While I have yet to explore very much beyond the Annapolis Valley this season, snow buntings appear to be present throughout the province, with many records on eBird province-wide from November 2024 to current day. I am not aware of any snow bunting banding efforts currently taking place in Nova Scotia, leaving this to be a data deficient area in that regard. However, there is certainly potential for successful snow bunting trapping and banding to take place here, particularly in my area of the province. With guidance and mentoring from Rick, and with the help of a local, experienced bird bander, my goal is to begin this initiative here, and to hopefully add new regional data to the network of snow bunting monitoring across the country.

Cheers!
Kristine Hanifen

Quebec:

Hi Rick,
There are three SNBU banding sites in the Montreal area, all covered by volunteers. One in Mirabel, managed by Liette Fortier; one in St-Roch de l’Achignan, managed by Gilles Cyr and Michel Mongrain; and one in Coteau-du-Lac, managed by a team of four banders: Gayle McDougall Gruner, Rodger Titman, Pascal Berthelot, and Laura Tabbakh. I coordinate the three sites (data and bands management) with the help of Pascal. We go banding with other volunteers, some to whom we teach bird handling and banding through this program.

News from St-Roch de l’Achignan:
418 SNBU banded, which is, I quote, “a lot more than last year”. About 15% are females, which is very high. 1 LALO banded.
A NSHR [Northern Shrike] was present on site for a couple of weeks, which of course reduced SNBU activity.

News from Coteau-du-Lac:
890 SNBU banded and a few LALO. No HOLA seen yet, which is unusual. We catch mostly males, as is the norm. I don’t have all the data entered yet to give you a quick age composition.
Females came very early and are more abundant than usual, as with the two other sites. We’re scratching our heads about that.
So far it seems like it will be a busier season overall than last year, which ended at around 2000 birds at Coteau. Our best day was 121 SNBU banded on Dec 27.

News from Mirabel:
577 SNBU banded so far, already much more than the season totals of the past 6 years and despite three weeks without banding due to insufficient snow cover (weeks of Dec 15, Dec 29, Jan 5). Higher percentage of females (9% vs the usual 5%), same as the two other sites. Also no HOLA seen and only one LALO banded.

For the sake of science, I need to say this banding project is not standardized –i.e. we go banding when we’re available and when snow cover allows it. That’s two factors that make it difficult to compare our numbers year to year.

If you’d like to wait until the end of the season, I can pull a quick and dirty age-sex composition for all three sites if that’s something of interest ?[Yes, that would certainly be something of interest!]
Laura Tabbakh

[Chelsey Paquette, a member of the CSBN who works at the Granby Zoo, lives in the Sherbrooke area.]
January 31, 2025
I have 60 birds at the site today!! I’ll try to capture sunday 🙂 my site is here : 45.3637648, -72.7957578
My friend in gaspesie has no birds at his site yet. They seem to have less snow than normal. [This is at pointe-saint-pierre.[
A site in shebrooke (monts stoke area) did their first captures this week
Chelsey

[Francois Vezina is a professor at the University of Quebec at Rimouski (UQAR) and conducts research in the high Arctic with an onus on bird physiology.]
Hi Rick
One of my students is banding yes. Not sure what do you mean by what are you getting. But for sure he’s catching and banding buntings. He does not need big numbers though. I think he stop at 10 for any given day.
Hope you are doing well. Catching buntings on your side?
François

Ontario:

[Bruce Murphy is the head of the Hilliardton Marsh Center and has been banding SNBU’s for many years now. When you think about it….his station is about halfway between the Arctic and southern Ontario…]
Hilliardton Marsh research and Education Center snow bunting report
Our site in located about 5 hours north of Toronto and is a mere 15 km from the Quebec border [and about 5 km NE of New Liskeard]. After an unseasonably warm Christmas when we lost most of the little snow we had we have rebounded with some good snowfalls and lots of roving flocks of snow buntings in the area some flocks of over 800 birds while most people report seeing several groups of 200 birds in their travels across the area. Our region is known as the little claybelt and is characterized by a thriving agricultural area with lots of open fields which provides excellent habitat for snow buntings.
To the good stuff after waiting for a 5 day cold snap to end we have had some very productive days and are up to 350 banded birds and have over 20 returning birds from past years and one foreign recapture from David Lamble near Guelph in southern Ontario. We are above average for January and I am buoyed for much more to come as we our retrap numbers are very low compared to new birds banded each day. We are only banding at one site and have not seen more than 200 birds at any one time suggesting that the flock we are witnessing at the traps is made of “a mixing bowl’ of the many flocks we see in the area.
Good luck to everyone across the country; hope your traps are full and that the winds and temperatures are kind to your fingers and faces as you persevere in this fun and exciting work. It is literally time to check the traps hopefully to find a bunting banded by you. All the best Bruce Murphy

[Darryl Edwards teaches at Cambrian College and lives in Sudbury]
Hi
I don’t always get these reports but I did this year so I thought I would share. I am usually not around to actually do the count up here. I am mostly just sharing so you can see the SNBU…fairly big area and a bunch of km covered but a relatively small number of SNBU picked up. I ask around and generally people say that a group of less than 10 pops up for a bit and then moves on. There are likely more in the valley but in the past I have only seen flocks of around 20.

Darryl Edwards

[Lise Balthazar, in Lanark County, is a keen observer and long-time contributor of her SNBU observations to the Check-up]

[January 29th] 5 SNOW BUNTINGS – Lanark highlands
I’m afraid that’s it!! At least for now.
This is the first year that we have almost no buntings…….We used to have flocks of about 200 birds a few years ago. Disappointing and very scary.
They look like males to me. Are they?
How many have you been getting?
Lise

(February 3rd)
We had a beautiful snowfall today and it brought more Buntings!
I counted 22.
Lise

[David Lamble, who is the pre-eminent SNBU bander in the country, bands outside Fergus Ontario. In response to my query about a couple of retraps not banded by me, he writes:]
Sorry … not mine …. banding is ok but the latest strong winds will make further banding difficult … aound 1100 done so far … no Laplands and only 2 Horned Larks … a few nice foreign retraps … one from 2020
………. hope your group does well……….
David Lamble

[And now to the Cayuga area.]
Hi All:
I am taking advantage of most days that we have both snow (even paltry amounts which has largely been the case) and cold temperatures to sit in my freezing car after setting out the traps. The conditions became “right” starting in the middle of December, and have continued off and on through January and (so far) in February. My strategy of attracting Horned Larks at the beginning of the season so that “feeding birds attract other passing birds that want to feed (i.e., Snow buntings)” has been working very well….for both species: so far I’ve banded 249 Horned Larks, 21 Lapland Longspurs, and 837 Snow Buntings. The sex ratio for the buntings is 2.5 females to every male; usually the ratio is about 3:1…so more males for some reason. I have been working my site (“York Airport”) for a number of years now and have been getting some interesting returns: one Horned Lark was banded in December of 2017! The site is close to a relatively busy rural road which tends to keep incoming birds “skittish” – so it isn’t their favourite eating spot – but groups of 20-50 are seen regularly and flocks of up to 200 are seen occasionally.

In our area (south of Cayuga), the big numbers are seen at a farm on Irish line, 13.5 km south, as the bunting flies, from my site. There Marnie Gibson has been attracting large numbers for a couple of years now. While I see 10’s of buntings, she gets 100’s of them. Sadly, she has to work and, so, after putting out bait piles, must leave them to go into the city. Still, on just a few days of effort, she has banded 437 Snow Buntings. Her site is in the middle of a very large, cropped field and away from the little-used country road beside the farm, so traffic isn’t the same issue it is for me. Interestingly, she gets no Horned Larks – doesn’t even seen them.

Marnie was responsible for a very interesting recovery: one of her birds, banded last January, was recovered as a nesting female by Oliver Love’s SNBU team in Iqaluit this past Summer!! I found this really interesting in that almost all the recoveries of our birds down here are made along the St. Lawrence River, in Labrador, and even as far east as Nuuk in Greenland. I would love to know the route this bird takes between southern Ontario and Iqaluit. Does it, perhaps, skip through Bruce Murphy’s site at Hilliardton Marsh?
Rick Ludkin

[Dr.Oliver Love, co-founder of the Canadian Snow Bunting Network, teaches at the University of Windsor and has been running research featuring SNBU’s in the Arctic for many years.]
Morning Rick,
The CSBN Newsletters have now been posted on our FB page [Canadian Snow Bunting Network]. Thanks so much Chelsey [Paquette] for all your help.

In terms of buntings all the way down here in Essex county, there’s unfortunately not too much to report (yet). Despite some of the first birds here being spotted at Point Pelee in early November, plus the good winter weather we’ve been getting (which is often rare here), we haven’t yet been able to band a bird. We attracted a small flock of 20-30 in the third week of January, but unfortunately our baiting areas have been inundated by hundreds and sometimes thousands of Brown-headed cowbirds and Common grackles. Given their size, numbers and overall activity, the buntings seemed to find it too hard to compete and dispersed within a few days. With the upcoming snow expected over the next two weeks we hope to attract a decent flock of buntings, horned larks and longspurs and get banding. Stay tuned.
All my best,
Oli

PS We also have a new FB page for our ongoing work in Iqaluit if you’re interested in joining: https://www.facebook.com/groups/7825080470942162

Prairies:

Manitoba:

Hi Rick,

Retirement is good, specially when it’s -30 with a strong wind, blowing snow and icy roads. I retired on my 67th birthday, so it will be eight years this spring.
The Snow Bunting disappearance is a mystery to me, too. We’ve had some warm winters with reduced snow (near droughts for several years), but still well within expected range for Snow Buntings: the “over 6 inch snow rule” has never been in jeopardy, even in a warm period. The proportion of hay land and pastures is still about the same, so I don’t know what’s going on.
Take care, and keep blogging.
All the best,
Bill

[Hi Bill,
Wonderful to hear from you! I must say that I find the drop in the numbers you’re seeing very surprising. What have the weather conditions been like. I remember it being cold with lots of snow. Have those conditions changed? And well I remember those BIG flocks you were seeing!
I’m glad you’re liking retirement? You’re probably busier than ever doing the things you like to do…especially photography.
Cheers,
Rick]

Saskatchewan:
[One would think that the prairies would be a hotbed of SNBU studies and banding. But….it’s not. I’m pretty confident that Snow buntings evolved to take advantage of the grasses that the prairies provide. And where do all the SNBU’s that pour through Julie Bauer’s site in the Yukon come from if not from the prairies!? Fortunately, Jared Clarke has taken up the slack. And he was rewarded this season with probably the resighting of the year: Follow along below:]

[Early in January]

Happy New Year!
Thought I would give you a quick update as I am excited today. As you likely inferred the 2023/2024 winter was a bust here in the prairies. We didn’t have snow for most of the season. I was able to attract a small group of 8 buntings to my grain pile from 2022/2023 for a couple of weeks when we did get some snow but then the snow melted and they disappeared. I chose not to try to catch them in hopes they would attract more buntings. That didn’t work out.
Fast forward to this Dec – snow buntings were surprisingly scarce although we do have a decent amount of snow. I have been baiting two locations for about a month including the site from 2022/23. Only this Tuesday did I finally see buntings at the bait despite them being in the area for a couple of weeks!
Then yesterday we did the Balgonie CBC and found over 200 buntings in the area that day.
So this morning, I set up at the second bait station and what do you know, caught some buntings!!! 13! Which is about a third of what I caught in 2022/2023. So we are back in the game this year! The biggest flock that stopped in this morning contained about 75 birds.
Of the birds I caught all 13 were males, with 7 of them being ASY males.
I’m off to Panama now tomorrow for 12 days… for a birding tour (almost regretting this now that I have buntings to band), but have someone refreshing the bait piles while I am gone and I will be back at it when I return.
Hope things are going okay out your way.
Jared Clarke

[January 24th]
Hey gents,
I had my best bunting day ever this morning. Caught 20 buntings! I’m now sitting at 52 buntings for the winter now!
Wanted to highlight two birds with shrunken upper mandibles. I banded them back to back. Photos are below. What are your thoughts?
Also fascinating is I have only caught 2 HY females. All 50 other birds have been males.
Lastly Oliver, I was looking for the data I sent you from 2023 and I couldn’t find it. Did I not send you my banding data from 2 years ago?
Jared

[January 29th]
I’m just outside of Edenwold, Sk, which is 20 kms NE of Regina.
I’ve got two bait sites set up. This is the one I had in the 2022/2023 winter and this winter.
50.65912° N, 104.27222° W
And this second site I started baiting this winter and I have caught more birds here. But it is right beside a highway which is annoying.
50.59318° N, 104.26717° W
I’m up to 108 buntings this winter now. Caught 37 on Saturday! My head is exploding. [Haha….emphasis mine.]
Jared

[February 1st]
Good morning gents!
It’s 50 km/hr winds here this morning so too windy to band, as the traps just fill with snow instantly.
So I went and stocked my bait piles this morning and decided to just sit in my car beside the pile near my house. The buntings come right in and feed at the bait despite me being only 25 feet away.
You can imagine my surprise as I am watching through my binoculars when a bird with 3 colour bands on its legs pops into view!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
ASY male
Left left: lower band dark blue, upper band whiteRight left: lower band bright pink, upper band metal
Where did this bird come from Oliver?!?!??!!!!!!!
Coordinates are 50.65912° N, 104.27222° W
I got terrible photos with my cell phone and binoculars.

[From Dr. Oliver Love at the university of Windsor:]
HOLY SMOKES!!!!! This is a breeding male from our long term site at East bay island banded as a breeder in 2023!!!! [East Bay Island is at the NE end of Southampton Island at the north end of Hudson Bay.] Way to go Jared! Worth reporting to the BBL please. We know the EBI birds winter in Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta based on our geolocator work (paper available by contacting Oliver), but for you to actually see one is absolutely amazing. Looking forward to more updates. ??
Where there’s one there might be more, so be sure to keep your eyes peeled Jared. All EBI banded birds should have three colour bands – 2 on one leg, one on the other above or below the federal band. The colours can be: pink, red, orange, yellow, dark green, lime green, dark blue.

We have also been tracking our Iqaluit-banded birds using geolocators and two returns of females so far show they winter in exactly the same place as our EBI birds. The only difference is that for their spring migration they use the Eastern shoreline of Hudson bay to get back to their Arctic breeding grounds, whereas EBI birds use the Western area of HB for both Fall and Spring migration.
Regardless, with 200+ banded in Iqaluit in 2024 alone (same types of colour band combos) you might actually have a much higher chance of seeing more banded birds soon. ?
Good luck and looking forward to any and all updates.
Oliver

[February 3:]
I saw him again this morning before I headed to work. So three days in a row. I am away now for the next three days so won’t be looking for him.
I tried to get some better photos of Hans today. He sort of cooperated by showing up but the wind was wicked and the buntings were fluffed up to the max.
In this photo you can see 2 of the 3 colour bands. It’s a bit better quality. Feel free to use if you like.
He’s easy to pick out in the group as his head is very white already.
No other bird had colour bands.

….I have switched over to a millet based food, instead of cracked corn. I think that may be part of why I am having better success this year.

Jared

Alberta
[I “met” Dick Stauffer (via email) a number of years ago when I was looking for a Canadian manufacturer of good banding pliers…and he was referred to me by a colleague who had just purchased a pair. He makes great pliers and I have purchased a number in various sizes since then. I highly recommend them! I was able to get him interested in catching and banding Snow Buntings because a) he’s an obvious aficionado and b) there’s no one banding them in Alberta. I don’t know of anyone that has gone through the trials and tribulations that Dick has trying to catch them. He’s tried just about everything: various traps, different locations, all kinds of bait, audio lures, and decoys – with no luck…until this year when he got a (wait for it!) Horned Lark! It’s been several years, but I’m sure his day will come. If not, it won’t be because of a lack of trying. He puts out a weekly summary of his efforts which, at times, is painful but certainly attests to his tenacity….below is an example.]

Year 3 of the pursuit of Snow Buntings
I always start the season with great optimism with only two real fears.
1. I don’t catch any birds.
2. The trap is full 20-50 birds and I am by myself!
I have lived with the agony of # 1 for the two previous years, but optimistic that this year will be rewarding!
An acquaintance of mine feeds his herd of 70-90 cows in the winter by spreading out hay feed every morning in an ever-extending field. I had question him if he had ever seen any birds at the site. He said would contact me when he saw the birds. A couple of day later he said the birds were in the field when he was feeding, so I visited the site, got excited when I saw the site because everything in my mind was perfect for Snow Bunting & Horned Larks.
I distributed bait in 2-3 areas (which turned out to be the wrong area) and visited this everyday over the next few days. The area had 6-7 inches of snow cover and temperatures of -20°C….perfect conditions for Buntings.
After deploying traps & bait pre-dawn in locations where I thought the bunting might feed, I gave up on that idea & decided to deploy & bait where the bunting actual decided to feed. I had noticed that the buntings would feed in a location, take wing then return to the location. This observation allowed me to set traps where the bird were!!!!
Previously at this location I had birds walk into the traps & promptly walk out. To prevent this, I had to modify my traps. (Thanks, Rick, for this tip)
Set traps & wait …50-100 Buntings in & around the trap….none walked in!!! I had another trap in a another location at the site….a Horned Lark walked into the trap. Quickly recovered & processed the bird…THIS IS THE FIRST BIRD I CAUGHT IN OVER 2 YEARS…WOW, WOW
Two more Horned larks were trapped & processed. The snow buntings left the site so I called it a successful day.
Footnote: the weather has turned horribly warm (above freezing) and the birds are feeding elsewhere as the snow is disappearing. I have been baiting and checking on the bait regularly at the site and have located another site where several hundred bunting have been feeding…..regularly bait & check this site also.
Weather update: January 30, 2025, Possible snow in forecast and -20C to -30C for the first week of February …. PERFECT CONDITIONS

Cheers
Dick

[And then I got this message yesterday (the 5th):]

SY Male?

EUREKA….GOLD AT LAST!!
Congratulations Dick!! You’re a living testament to patience and perseverance.

Rick Ludkin

Hello folks, the Haldimand Bird Observatory AGM is happening on Saturday, February 8th. Join us for a free lunch and interesting presentations on prairie birds, Snow Buntings, and Arctic seabirds. See the schedule below.

Also, please consider joining the Haldimand Bird Observatory membership. Membership fees are tax-deductible and contribute to the expenses of running our bird monitoring efforts. Our activities are volunteer-based and additional volunteers are welcomed and trained. Click here to become a member.

 

 

I was able to get some information on one of the Horned Larks that we retrapped at the York Airport yesterday – it had been banded December 17, 2017 making it at least 7.5 years old!! Just think of the thousands of kilometers it’s flown between nesting ground and its Winter home at the Airport over the years!

Today was another busy one split into two parts. Liam and I started off early at the York Airport and we were busy initially: banded 63 birds: 57 Snow Buntings, 5 Horned Larks, and another Lapland Longspur. We’re now pushing 500 buntings for the 2024-25 Winter season. By mid-morning though they were beginning to tail off, the situation not helped at all by a photographer who felt compelled to get out of his car and stand at roadside to get some shots with a massive lens. Oh well.

So we decided to head to Marnie’s site on Irish Line. We didn’t have a lot of time but in the hour the traps were set we banded another 62 Snow Buntings.
Rick