Author Archives: Ashley Jensen

Early May banding days – Lowville

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May 02, 2022 – Lowville

The day of the White-throated Sparrow

I arrived at the site early in the morning to a deafening chorus of White-throated Sparrows singing their lovely song: “Ohhh sweet canada-canada-canada”. We have been catching them for a couple weeks now, but I have yet to hear or see nearly this many (perhaps 60 at the site today). The weather conditions of the previous night were favorable for migration, and when that happens, you never know what you might catch/see/hear the next morning. In addition, I also had the pleasant surprise of our first Black-and-white Warbler for the season! They’re a unique warbler that forages by creeping along trees; reminiscent of a nuthatch or creeper. By the end of the day, 25 White-throated Sparrows were caught (making up just over half of the day’s catch). What a way to start the month of May! See highlight photos below.

BANDED:
6 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
1 Swamp Sparrow
21 White-throated Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 Black-and-white Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal

RECAPS:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 American Robin
1 American Goldfinch
1 American Tree Sparrow
4 White-throated Sparrow
3 Song Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird

TOTAL: 44 (32 banded, 12 recaps)


Black-and-white Warbler – both the males and females sport this beautiful contrasting plumage, but the males have more crisp contrast (blacker blacks and whiter whites). However, the main giveaway between the two sexes is that the male has a black throat, whereas the female’s is white.

Today’s star!! The White-throated Sparrow. I decided to feature a tan-morph today since the white-morph usually gets most of the attention due to it’s brighter colors.

Swamp Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird – a beautiful male showing a lovely red and yellow wing patch. Did you know that the males of this species are noticeably bigger than females? The males actually take one band size larger than females.

Red trilliums are blooming!

 

 

May 03, 2022 – Lowville

Another beautiful day at the site today, but perhaps not quite as busy as the previous day. It’s possible a lot of the sparrows we had yesterday kept moving last night – hopefully the favorable wind conditions the last couple nights are aiding them in making it safely to the breeding grounds! Although the numbers were slightly lower than the previous day, we actually had a slightly higher diversity of species. Included were a few new species for the year (I’ll mark new spp in the banding list). The highlight was an Orange-crowned Warbler.. quite the uncommon migrant here in the spring!

BANDED:
1 Hairy Woodpecker (new – although they’re resident at our site)
1 Least Flycatcher (new)
8 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Veery (new)
1 Gray Catbird (new)
1 American Goldfinch
3 White-throated Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Nashville Warbler (new)
1 Orange-crowned Warbler (new)

RECAPS:
1 Hermit Thrush
4 White-throated Sparrow
2 Song Sparrow

TOTAL: 26 (19 banded, 7 recaps)

 

Gray Catbird – first of the year! These birds are a common breeder at our site. It’s nice to see them arriving back!

Least Flycatcher – first of the year!


Our first Nashville Warbler of the year. This bird is a male and you can see his fairly large rufous crown patch.

Veery


An exciting catch! An uncommon migrant at our site in the spring, we were thrilled to catch this Orange-crowned Warbler. The orange crown is typically concealed, and was almost completely absent in this young (second-year) bird.

Last day of April – Lowville

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Saturday April 30 – Lowville

Yet another cold morning to finish out the month of April.. the nets were all frosty when we opened them. It has been such a cold spring so far! I think we’re all hoping that this is the last cold day, but we’ll see. Despite it being a cold morning, we still managed to catch some birds. People brought snacks too, so that always helps on a cold day :). I was joined by Aliya and Rob, Liam, Sam, and Renessa. We caught 30 birds for the day, and had a fair number of wrens which was interesting (4 House Wrens, 3 Winter). We have been hearing the beautiful song of the Winter Wren pretty much every day of April, but we don’t catch them very frequently.

BANDED:
5 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 Winter Wren
4 House Wren
3 Hermit Thrush
5 White-throated Sparrow

RECAPS:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Winter Wren
1 American Tree Sparrow
6 White-throated Sparrow
2 Song Sparrow

TOTAL: 30 (19 banded, 11 recaps)

~Ashley

House Wren – see comparison to Winter Wren below

Winter Wren – compared to the more ubiquitous House Wren this tiny bird is smaller and more compact that a House Wren. They also have a darker look overall, more of an obvious eyeline, and a darker patterned breast. Compare to the House Wren above that has clean pale breast.

Winter Wren

Hermit Thrushes

The First Big Push!

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~by Liam Thorne
Sunday, April 24, 2022 – Lowville

After watching the radar and checking BirdCast for the previous few nights, I was convinced that Sunday would be the first decent sized push of our classic April migrants. As soon as I stepped out of the car, I realized I was right. You know when you can just feel that it will be a good day? Well, I felt that, and I was thrilled!
I met Sarah in the driveway and we walked in to open the nets. The calls of White-throated Sparrows and constant harsh chatter of Ruby-crowned Kinglets filled our ears. We found Sam had beat us there and was just starting to open nets. After flushing a grouse from under net #5, we finished and headed back to the tent, where we found David, who was the BIC for the day, and Aliya.
The first net round wasn’t anything special. A couple White-throats here, a junco there, etc. However, after processing those birds, I attempted to track down a mysterious trill, and found net 0L had a nice little hit of four Ruby-crowned Kinglets! This could be promising…. I thought, especially as I had taken ownership of “my net”, hehe. (For context, this is the replacement of 0, which was put up last fall near the bridge because I saw a Connecticut Warbler close by. It turned out to be pretty productive, second only to the meadow nets. We’ve been debating whether the “L” stands for Liam or Loser….after the 23-24 weekend, I think Liam. Anyways….. I digress)
After banding those males, all of which were new, we decided to do another net round. And BAM! The floodgates opened. I don’t remember the specific species or numbers, but for the next 30-45 minutes, all Sam and I were doing was extracting birds, mainly from nets 1-5, but a couple from the quadruple nets as well. At one point, I was extracting a swamp Sparrow from 3 and Sam was doing another one at 4. I got mine out and went over to see how he was doing. We bagged them then noticed a nice large mixed flock moving through. Loads of kinglets down low in the scrub, some Yellow-rumped Warblers higher up, and the first Blue-headed Vireo of the year for the site just missed the net. Satisfied, we turned to go, and were shocked to see that the nets we had just emptied were full again with 5 RCKIs, 3 WTSPs, and a BHVI!
After that rush, things kind of slowed down to only 3-5 birds per round, but still at a steady pace. By the end of the day, we had 26 RCKIs banded! See the full banding list below:

 

Banded:
26 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Winter Wren
1 Blue-headed Vireo
3 Swamp Sparrow
14 White-throated Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
TOTAL: 46  (0 recaps)

 

Oh yeah! Dave Maida also found the Great Horned Owl nest in the back forest! Straight up the track from where the aerial net will be…..but shhh.
eBird list for the day: https://ebird.org/checklist/S107917065
Liam

Blue-headed Vireo ~ always an exciting catch but particularly so today since it is the first one for the year! Photo – LET

Great-horned Owl nest. You can just see the top of the adult’s head sticking up. Photo – LET

Garter snake – LET

The trilliums are starting to bud. Photo – LET

 

 

 

Monday April 25 – Lowville

It started out as a very warm overcast morning.. some of the first warm weather we’ve had this spring.. and I thought maybe it will be a busy day. Aliya joined me since she didn’t have school (PA day), and we had a busy first net run with 12 birds, mainly kinglets. After that it slowed down precipitously with 0-1 birds on most net runs for the rest of the day. We ended up having half of the day’s birds in that first run! It just goes to show you can never be sure what to expect!
Still a beautiful day to be outside and we ended up with a respectable list of birds banded:

BANDED:
2 Golden-crowned Kinglet
11 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Slate-colored Junco
5 White-throated Sparrow
1 Northern Cardinal

RECAPS:
1 Slate-colored Junco
2 Black-capped Chickadee

TOTAL: 24 (21 banded, 3 recaps)

-AMJ

Mid-April Banding in Lowville

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April 15

The day started out with a wind warning from Environment Canada, but we are lucky to be pretty sheltered from the wind because of the topography of the banding site and surrounding area. Thankfully we were able to band, although the wind was starting to get very intense right as we finished up. Overall it was fairly productive for being a windy early-season day (banding list below). We have had a lot of unseasonably cold and windy weather lately, which has likely been putting a hold on migration to some extent. However, we have still been enjoying catching some early season migrants, as well as recapturing some resident birds from previous years. It’s always nice to see that our resident birds made it through the winter and are getting ready for another breeding season. We have a pair of Eastern Phoebes currently working on building a nest under the bridge at the site. It will be interesting to watch their nest progress.

Slate-colored Junco

Beautiful ‘White morph’ White-throated Sparrow

 

1st Myrtle Warbler banded for the season!

Banded:
2 Golden-crowned Kinglet
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Myrtle Warbler
2 Slate-colored Junco
2 White-throated Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 Blue Jay
1 American Robin

Recaps:
4 Black-capped Chickadee
1 American Tree Sparrow
2 Slate-colored Junco
1 Blue Jay
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow

TOTAL: 25 (15 banded, 10 recaps)

 

 

 

April 22

The weather seems like maybe it is finally starting to warm up a little. Today was sunny and calm… a beautiful day to spend at the banding site. As we arrived at the site in the morning, we were greeted by the sound of our resident male Ruffed Grouse doing his drumming display, and an energetic flock of kinglets hanging out near the banding station. We did end up catching a few of these kinglets later in the morning (see full banding list below).

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Male American Goldfinch, so close to being completely molted into his bright yellow and black breeding plumage!

American Tree Sparrow. Notice the unique looking bi-colored bill which is a useful ID feature for this species.

Banded:
3 Golden-crowned Kinglet
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 American Goldfinch
3 Slate-colored Junco
1 American Tree Sparrow

Recaps:
3 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Carolina Wren
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 White-throated Sparrow
1 American Tree Sparrow
2 Slate-colored Junco
1 Northern Cardinal

TOTAL: 23 (12 banded, 11 recaps)

Although we didn’t catch a high diversity of species, the number of species we’re observing each time we go out seems to be rising, which is a sign that spring migration will soon be in full swing. Another sign that perhaps spring is finally here to stay, is the first ephemeral spring wildflowers are beginning to bloom. Only a few are blooming right now, but soon they will be covering the forest floor. I love watching the forest begin to come alive again in spring!

Trout Lily (Erythronium americanum)

Bloodroot (Sanguinaria canadensis)

Early Blue Cohosh (Caulophyllum giganteum) – it is not technically a true ephemeral wildflower but it is still among the earliest flowers and a favorite of native bees.