November 10th is something of an arbitrary pick for the end of the Fall season – but fairly consistent with other Fall seasons. I’m sure we’d continue to catch birds for the next week at least as it seems that American Tree Sparrows are at the height of their migratory return (we’ve banded 84 during these 3 days) and other sparrows, although diminishing in numbers, are still moving through. Still….you have to end sometime and I’ve got other things to do. And it’s been a very successful season…..so…time to move on.

These last 3 days have been very productive although weather has had an impact on them, different on all 3 days: Friday saw increasing gusting winds that caused us to close early as the nets were billowing; Saturday started off quite cold (-2 C) but winds were light and skies clear; today we had a 3 hour “window” before the rains started (knowing this I opened only half the nets). Yet each day produced good numbers of birds (especially sparrows) as well as some interesting ones.
November 8th; banded 40:
3 American Goldfinches
24 American Tree Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
7 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
1 Red-winged blackbird
1 Northern Cardinal
ET’s: 22 spp.

November 9th; Banded 55:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Northern Mockingbird

2 House Finches

5 American Goldfinches
2 Field Sparrows
38 American Tree Sparrows
1 Fox Sparrow

1 White-throated Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows

ET’s: 31 spp.

November 10th; Banded 35:
1 Purple Finch

5 American Goldfinches
22 American Tree Sparrows
5 White-throated Sparrows
2 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
ET’s: 22 spp.
Gallery:

Initial Season Results:
I’ve just started to look at the results for this season.
We banded 2,173 birds of 65 species. This is a new record surpassing last year’s mark of 1,791.
Top Ten: Bold numbers represent a new season high; old record in brackets.
486 Song Sparrows (old mark: 479)
388 Swamp Sparrows (359)
271 White-throated Sparrows (124)
148 American Tree Sparrows
97 Indigo Buntings (16)
88 Bobolinks (0)
78 American Goldfinches (55)
67 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
57 Red-winged Blackbirds (20)
57 Common Yellowthroats (48)
Rick

The weather in November has been all over the place: a couple freezing nights pasting the nets and poles with frost, interspersed with mild nights. And today…temperatures in the low 20’s!? But each day has had gusting winds, usually from the SW which limited the number of nets we could open. A SW wind seems to be the worst one we could get as it billows all but the most protected nets.

Still, we opened what we could and continued to catch and band. Sparrows continue to be the type of bird most encountered and, although not as plentiful as two weeks ago, can still be observed flying about the tall uncut grasses before dropping back down into it.

We’ve had a number of interesting young people come out recently to volunteer and their interest and zeal are not only energizing (for old folks like me) but give hope for the future of the project. Thanks to Amanda, we have established a “conduit” to the University of Waterloo. And this is the nice thing about sparrows…..they’re great birds for new people to learn on: easy to hold and handle and readily identifiable in the hand when you learn what to look for…and that’s easy. So all the new folks got a great opportunity.

November 1st; Banded 16:
3 Eastern Bluebirds

1 House Finch
3 Purple Finches
5 American Goldfinches
4 American Tree Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
ET’s: 21 spp.

November 2nd; Banded 32:
2 American Goldfinches
12 American Tree Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 White-throated Sparrow
13 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
ET’s: 24 spp.

November 3rd; Banded 21:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
3 American Goldfinches
1 Field Sparrow
10 American Tree Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
ET’s: 40 spp.

November 4th; Banded 12:
2 American Goldfinches
1 Field Sparrow
5 American Tree Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
ET’s: 17 spp.

Sarah has been doing some “episodic” Northern Saw-whet Owl banding at Ben Oldfield’s Lowville site. She’s had great success, banding 35 owls so far.
Rick

The past 3 days at the Farm have been busy….and rewarding…as Fall slips away. We are still getting LOTS of sparrows but there is a subtle transition happening as White-throated Sparrows are on the wane, their place being taken by increasing numbers of juncos and, especially, American Tree Sparrows. But Song and Swamp Sparrows continue to hold steady: we’ve banded well over 400 of the former and approaching 400 of the latter.

Friday, October 25th: it was a cold night and the resulting frost slowed opening. It’s pretty frustrating when you can hear birds “chipping” all around but the have nets that are frozen shut and iced poles that let them slide shut. However, as soon as the sun cleared the horizon, we were soon in business. One very interesting thing was that the hay field immediately to the east had been very recently mowed and the bales taken. The farmer spread a fresh topping of manure, a natural fertilizer….and also a food source for American Pipits. We counted at least 20 of them working the field over.

I was joined by an old friend, Cathy Badger, who brought along a wonderful photographer from Australia, Jeremy Lund. His concentration on the feeder just outside the banding hut paid off with this remarkable shot:

Banded 65 (and handled 40 retraps):
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Purple Finch
2 House Finches
3 American Goldfinches
3 Field Sparrows
7 American Tree Sparrows
2 Fox Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
8 White-throated Sparrows
19 Song Sparrows
11 Swamp Sparrows
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Myrtle Warbler
2 Northern Cardinals
ET’s: 36 spp.

Saturday, October 26: The night was relatively mild. So while there was no difficulty getting the nets up there just weren’t that many birds around. I’m assuming that there had been a massive flight during the night. The Pipits were still around though…at first anyway. Just after the sun got up a loose flock of at least 50 rose up out of the adjacent field and headed off to the southwest.

Sparrows are a great bird to handle (and learn how to handle) and the relaxed pace allowed some teaching to go on:

Banded 25:
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
4 House Finches
3 American Goldfinches
3 American Tree Sparrows
2 White-throated Sparrows
7 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Northern Cardinal
ET’s: 28 spp.

Sunday, October 27th: I started the day being greeted by a very special old friend – an American Tree Sparrow that I had banded on April 3rd, 2021, making it one of the very first birds banded at the Farm. It was carrying no fat suggesting that it was here for the duration of the Winter…the Farm 9ior its environs) is its Winter home. I’m sure it likes the prairie meadow with its cornucopia of seeds as opposed to the soybean desert that was here when I banded it.

It was cold during the night with a light frost but the nets still opened easily. Birds had moved in during the night as we banded a nice variety and in good numbers.
Banded 69:
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
1 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Cedar Waxwings
6 Purple Finches
6 House Finches
7 American Goldfinches
8 American Tree Sparrows
4 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 White-throated Sparrows
17 Song Sparrows
10 Swamp Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
2 Myrtle Warblers
1 Northern Cardinal
ET’s: 31 spp.
Rick

These very mild nights and hot days – for the end of October – are unsettling. I wonder what their impact will be on the trees. But I don’t think the birds are fooled. The long-distance migrant warblers are long gone; they didn’t stick around to enjoy these unusual conditions. And the overall variety of birds that we’re encountering is slowly going down. Predictions are for a much cooler – and normal – weekend. Hopefully I’ll start to see junco and tree sparrow in larger numbers. But I’m not complaining! The more I get to experience sparrows the more I like them – they’re no longer LBJ’s (Little Brown Jobs); their intricate colours and shading are exquisite, especially when you can see them up close. And we are. Today we handled 6 species. We’re seeing Field Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows in much larger numbers than we have before. And Swamp Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows are approaching last year’s record numbers.

I wasn’t expecting much today as the SW winds, which are the worst for billowing our nets, were gusting up to >40 kilometers per hour. So I opened only about half. But our first round was remarkable as we banded more than 30 birds. Thank goodness Amanda has been making such good progress – she was a big help!

Banded 43:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Swainson’s Thrush
4 Purple Finches

5 American Goldfinches
3 American Tree Sparrows
2 White-crowned Sparrows
14 White-throated Sparrows

6 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
4 Red-winged Blackbirds
2 Northern Cardinals
ET’s: 26 spp.
Rick