September 17-18

It’s always an adventuresome day when Liam comes out to join me.  Not only is he a fantastic birder, but he is always looking for more spots to put nets.  As you might recall, the last time he visited he convinced me it would be a great idea to set up a net near the 30 some odd beehives and while it has taken a while to produce some more interesting birds, I have no regrets getting a net in there.  When he came this time, he had actually decked himself out in long pants and the plan to head into the ever so tempting and bird rich area of forest which also has a carpet of poison ivy.  Not only is he an amazing birder and bander, but I’m convinced he is determined to fill the world with bird nets! We carefully tromped through the area, watching carefully for poison ivy before finding what we think will actually be a decent spot to catch some birds without catching poison ivy.  There are a few plants of poison ivy I’ll have to dig out and remove, but otherwise I’m excited to see what the area will produce. I think I was only paranoid about every itch for a couple of days before I convinced myself I had come out unscathed.  I haven’t heard from Liam, but I’m assuming he too is poison ivy free.  I also had a visit from Lyn whom I’ve been working with the last 2 years to document breeding birds in my square for the Breeding Bird Atlas. It’s been great to have someone else as interested in the birds I’m seeing and banding and so nice to have her out to join me for a morning.

Birds Banded:
Black-throated Blue Warbler – 1
Common-yellow Throat – 1
Philadelphia Vireo – 2
Red-eyed Vireo – 1
House Finch – 1
Song Sparrow – 4
Hairy Woodpecker – 1
Gray Catbird – 2
American Robin – 1
Least Flycatcher – 1
American Redstart – 1
Field Sparrow – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 1
European Starling – 1
White-throated Sparrow – 1

Recaps
Black-capped Chickadees – 3
Northern Cardinal – 1
Common-yellow Throat – 1
Song Sparrow – 1
American Goldfinch – 1
Downy Woodpecker – 1

Total: 28 (20 Banded, 8 Recaps)

Liam walking through the meadow trying to flush sparrows into our net near the bees.  No bees were harmed during this walk through, they are on the far left out of the picture.

Liam searching for a spot for a net lane that avoids the carpet of poison ivy in one of the most perfect spots for birds.

Liam with his elusive Philadelphia Vireo. He was so excited to find it he slid as if stealing second base as he ran around to the other side of the net to extract it. Maybe he should have a go at baseball next season…

Lyn, head atlaser for the Mount Hope Square came out to join me for a morning. This is her releasing one of the Common-yellow Throats from our meadow area.

First White-throated Sparrow of the season!

Field Sparrow

Lincoln Sparrow

Comparison picture of Sparrows.  This plate is from one of my favourite bird books entitled “Identify Yourself!”.  It’s great not only for birds in the hand but also in the bush 🙂

Glancaster Sept 10-11

There’s nothing like youthful energy as inspiration to put your thoughts and ideas into action.  Liam came out to join me this Saturday, and like all good birders, he’s always looking and watching for great bird spots.  Now I’ve known there are a couple of great spots on my neighbour’s property that are key areas for birds. Unfortunately, both of them present some challenges: one has a literal carpet of poison ivy, the other is home to around 30 beehives.  Since my field nets have been producing very few birds early this fall, I decided it was time to pick my poison and try adding another net.  When I was a child, my dad kept a few bee hives and I have some memories of dressing in a bee suit and going to gather the honeycomb, so while I have great respect for honeybees, I don’t fear them.  There is also a nice path cleared in which a net lane would fit perfectly, so Liam and I set about to put up a new net near the bees.  We debated where it was best to set it up, in a more open area where there was lots of goldenrod and dogwood bushes or behind the aspens which were acting as a throughway for passage of the birds between the marsh area and the forest of evergreens.  We ended up going about half and half and deciding to note where we were getting most of the birds.

After Liam worked with my husband to straighten a couple more crooked poles, we carefully pulled out a net and strung it out, just to find out it had numerous holes and what appeared to be a broken trammel line.  So we gathered the net back up and tried out the last remaining net.  While it has a few large holes, it was otherwise intact so we set it up and waited for the morning.  Liam’s parents had planned to head out for a hike in the morning so I had to enjoy one of the first birds in the net on my own, a Black-throated Blue Warbler!  I quickly sent Liam a photo of the bird and soon got a reply saying he was on his way.  Apparently his parents don’t hike in the rain. There was a bit of drizzle at my place, but it wasn’t very heavy and as I kept checking the weather map, the rain was going to push further south so I left my nets open and luck was on our side.  The rain let up and we enjoyed a number of birds in the net that morning.

I also learned something about Liam’s mom’s muffins.  I’m not sure if anyone noticed in the photo Rick posted earlier, but the bags of muffins are nicely labelled and in ziplock bags ready for the freezer.  I noticed one said “pipe-cleaners” and I was challenged to imagine how she added pipe-cleaners to the muffins: did she cut them up and mix them in or twist them into circles so they fit into the muffin tray? Apparently, and disappointingly, it was neither.  Those are the muffins full of all the good stuff to clean out your insides, hence the label “pipe-cleaners”.  I’ll have to keep an eye out for those in the tin next time…

Banded:
American Goldfinch – 4
Warbling Vireo – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler – 1
Common Yellow-throat – 4
Blackpoll – 1
Red-eyed Vireo – 2
Song Sparrow – 1
Grey Catbird – 1
Blue Jay – 2
Northern Cardinal – 3

Recaps:
Song Sparrow – 1
Downy Woodpecker – 2
Black-capped Chickadee – 4

Total 31 (Banded 24, Recaps 7)

Our new net land. Notice the abundance of goldenrod and dogwood at the far end and the stand of aspens at this end. Liam and I debated trying to set up a double net here to capitalize on both spaces. A nice compromise if I can get a hold of another net and pole…

A few of the beehives near our new net lane.

My first visit to our new net lane netted a good number of birds!

Liam using his phishing skills to call some of the birds down into the net. He lucked out with the Cape May and Tennessee warblers that were nearby but did get us a couple of chickadees, red-eyed vireo and goldfinches.  You can see the barrier of vegetation between our net lane to the right and the beehives to the left.  With the cooler weather, they take a while to get out and moving in the morning and we didn’t find they were very concentrated in our net area.

A lovely Black-throated Blue Warbler which brings our species count up to 52.

Lovely male Common Yellow-throat from our new net lane. We had quite a number of these in the net, but this was the only adult male.

Blackpoll warbler. It’s been almost exactly a year since I had one here. The first one I had was Sept 25th of last year.

Liam banding on of 4 Cardinals we had Saturday.

While I’m seeing signs of migration around the area, my nets don’t seem to be telling that story just yet.  What is neat though, are all the young fledglings I’ve been finding which, as I mentioned in a previous post, are great for the Breeding Bird Atlas.  This past week I’ve had young Goldfinch, Red-eyed Vireo, Cedar Waxwing, Robin and Common Yellow-throat.  Most of them are quite appear to be quite young, confirming they have been raised in the area close to my nets. It has been a pretty slow week with heading back to work.  The sun comes up too late for me to open in the mornings and the afternoons have been way too sunny and hot to open after work.  Here’s hoping the weather stays dry over the weekend.

This week I had some visitors out to help with the birds. My niece was up for a few days before heading back to school and says one of her favourite things about visiting is getting to work with the birds. A friend also stopped in for a visit and brought a keen, young birder with her who had his first opportunity to band a couple of birds.

Banded:

Wilson’s Warbler – 1
American Goldfinch – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 1
Common Yellow-throat – 2
Red-eyed Vireo – 1
House Finch – 2
Cedar Waxwing – 1
American Robin – 1
Common Grackle – 1
Northern Cardinal – 1

Recaps:

Downy Woodpecker – 1
Song Sparrow – 1
Black-capped Chickadee – 5
Hairy Woodpecker – 1

Total: 20 (12 Banded, 8 recaps)

Tristan Uchida ready to release the young Common Yellow-throat he banded.

Emily ready to release the Wilson’s Warbler.

Young Red-eyed Vireo

Well, it looks like most of the Baltimore Orioles have pushed past me and headed south.  I did have one at my feeder this morning, but the numbers I had last week are not repeating this week.  My total banded for BAORs this spring/summer was 37 with only one caught away from my feeder net.

Also really neat this past week was the number of young birds I have been catching down in my field nets.  These confirm species I suspected were breeding there seemed to have had success raising at least one brood and it’s nice to see the evidence in hand (also great for the Breeding Bird Atlas, had to put that plug in for Liam).  Young birds this week were the Warbling Vireo, Common Yellowthroat, Swamp Sparrow, Cedar Waxwing, Blue Jay and Indigo Bunting.

Feeding hummingbird after banding.

Katie, seen here holding a Hairy Woodpecker, brought her 3 kids out for an exciting morning of banding.

One thing Liam did NOT learn this summer on his field trips, was how to straighten the poles holding the nets. He has now been schooled in how to do this and is available for hire.

A sure sign Liam has been here…

My first adult CEDW with some brilliant red, waxy tips. They have been feasting on the wild grapes, as you can see from the stains on my hand.

Young Indigo Bunting

Banded:
American Goldfinch – 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch – 1
Warbling Vireo – 1
Common Yellowthroat – 2
Swamp Sparrow – 1
Black-Capped Chickadee – 3
Bay-breasted Warbler – 1
Indigo Bunting – 1
Song Sparrow – 6
Downy Woodpecker – 1
Cedar Waxwing – 1
Baltimore Oriole – 3
Gray Catbird – 3
American Robin – 1
Blue Jay – 6
Common Grackle – 1

Recaps:
Downy Woodpecker –2
Black-capped Chickadee – 7
European Starling – 1
Baltimore Oriole – 1
Hairy Woodpecker – 1

Total: 55 (33 Banded, 12 recaps) with 2 addition Ruby-throated Hummingbirds also banded this week with Nancy. One was a young male, the other a young female.