The weather hasn’t been great for migrating birds this week, but I have started to notice a large influx of White-throated Sparrows.  I am supposed to be at Lowville tomorrow morning, so won’t get a chance to open my nets at home until Sunday, so I thought I’d try a few morning net rounds before work Friday morning.  I’m so glad I did!  On my first net round, I had an Eastern Towhee in one of my nets between 2 hedgerows down at my neighbour’s.  I think he may be the first one I’ve ever banded.  Luckily, Nancy Ferbur and her husband Mike have plenty around their property, so I sent a couple of photos and quick texts to check out the particulars.  I really appreciate technology connecting you to other banders with more experience, especially when you’re the sole bander of your site.  I also had another Brown Thrasher in the other meadow net, this one with a cloacal protuberance which hopefully means he has a partner nearby and they’re nesting.

We had a great time noticing all the details on the EATO with my Grade Ones – strong looking bill, white on the wing, rusty orange colour on the sides. They particularly loved the deep red of the eye and one student wondered out loud if it might be a vampire bird 🙂 So, we looked up what things it ate and insects was one of them. They were quite surprised it would also eat berries.

Banded:

2 – American Goldfinch
1 Swamp Sparrow
3 Slate-coloured Juncos
2 Song Sparrows
1 White-throated sparrow
1 American Robin
1 Eastern Towhee
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Brown Thrasher

Recaps:

1 Song Sparrow

Total: 15 (14 Banded, 1 Recap)

Eastern Towhee – Male

Side-view of Eastern Towhee

Given the big push of birds on Sunday, I was curious to see what would be around this morning… so, I played a bit of Russian Roulette and opened my nets to try a couple rounds before leaving for work.  It was a great morning to try, but boy was I happy/not happy when 5 birds hit my last net at 7:55am!  In the end it was a great couple of rounds and I may try again another morning, but will make sure I start closing my nets by 7:30…

Photos from the day made for some great discussion with my Grade 1’s later that morning.  We talked about the photos of birds, noticing different things about them (bill, eye colour, striping or spots on the breast, colour of the feet (yellow for the palm warbler) overall size) and listening to a few of their songs.  Hopefully they’ll walk away from Grade 1 not only knowing the academics, like reading and writing, but also more aware of the world around them in their own backyards and in the green space that makes up so much of Hamilton.

Banded:

1 – American Goldfinch
1 – Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 – Chipping Sparrow
1 – Field Sparrow
1 – Western Palm Warbler!!!
1 – Red-breasted Nuthatch (these will sometimes stay the summer here, so I’m carefully monitoring for a CP/BP to see if they’ll be staying around this year.  A great bird for the Breeding Bird Atlas).
1 – Swamp Sparrow
2 – White-throated sparrows
1 – Song Sparrow
1 – European Starling (you could see the egg about to come out!)

Recaps:

1 – Slate-coloured Junco
1 – American Robin
1 – Red-breasted Nuthatch

Total: 14 ( 11 Banded, 3 Recaps)

Field Sparrow – we had fun listening to the ‘pingpong ball’ sound of their song in class this morning.

Western Palm Warbler – great view of the back and tail feathers. To me the tail feathers looked very rounded and fresh, indicators of an older bird.

Western Palm Warbler – nice view of the yellow feet. We zoomed in to look at these in class and my students were quite surprised to see the bright yellow colour.

Through the generous donation of banding nets and poles to HBO, I’ve been able to set up a few nets in my neighbourhood. One is a feeder net in my backyard which backs onto a meadow area (where we get American Woodcocks, Eastern Meadowlarks and Bobolinks to mention a few) and the other nets are in a side yard of my neighbour’s, near a marsh. I’ve been delighted to see the variety of species I’ve been able to get in-spite of not being able to place the nets too near wooded areas.  There are also swallow/bluebird houses set up in both areas which allows me to catch a few of these species as they lobby for the best houses on both properties.  This morning as I opened I could hear the first Brown Thrasher of the season singing and sure enough on my first net round he had found his way into one of my nets.  The winds were still strong out of the north so 2 of my 3 nets were affected by the wind, but still a good number of birds for the day.  Hoping to see evidence of more migrants in the nets in the week to come!

Banded:

1- Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 – American Goldfinches
1 – Black-capped Chickadee
5 – Tree Swallows
2 – Swamp Sparrows
1 – Slate-coloured Junco
3 – Brown-headed Cowbirds
1 – Brown Thrasher
1 – American Robin

1 – House Wren (which unfortunately pulled a Houdini and escaped before I could get a band on it!)

Recaps:

1 – American Tree Sparrow
1 – Northern Cardinal
1 – American Robin
1 – American Goldfinch
2 – Song Sparrows (both banded last spring and have returned!)
1 – Tree Sparrow
1 – Brown Headed Cowbird

Total: 26 (17 Banded (1 escapee), 8 Recaps)

The first Ruby-crowned-Kinglet for my feeder net

Tree swallows – easy to catch when they are busy defending nest boxes and not really watching where they are going!

Brown Thrasher – I often saw it in the hedgerows last spring, so I was delighted to see it back again.

Today was my first day back at Lowville since last year.  It’s an incredible site with so many birds around, yet somehow they keep evading the plethora of nets set out.  Liam was on observations for the morning and wracked up 43 species for the morning.  Some highlights included: 2 common loons, 1 osprey, 1 broad-winged hawk, a pileated woodpecker, a raven, 2 pine siskins and a bald eagle which missed being added to the list as we saw it on our hike out (I think Liam had already submitted his list, but maybe he should go back and add it in :)).

Liam, Sam, Maggie and Eila were there to run the station and what impressive skills they have gained over the years I’ve known them. Nets were opened, equipment pulled out and set up, and timely net rounds were done.  In between banding and net rounds there was lots of conversation about everything from traumatic bird experiences to fond memories of the banding lab (apparently it smelled of feathers?) and the heaters that were so wonderful on cold mornings like today.  Although the birds were few, the conversation was plentiful and it was exciting to hear of their plans for the summer (some heading to immersion experiences in Quebec and others to bird banding camps in the states) and for their not so distant futures in university and beyond.

Birds Caught:

4 Black-caped chickadees (all recaps)
5 Ruby-crowned kinglets (mix)
1 American Robin (recap)
2 Slate-coloured juncos (at least 1 recap)
1 White-throated sparrow
1 Palm warbler (new)
1 Northern Cardinal (recap)

Total: 15

I kept a list of the birds we caught, but forgot to separate which were recaps and which were new. Something to think of keeping track of next time 🙂

A white-morph White-throated Sparrow with it’s striking plumage.

Ruby-crown Kinglet

Palm Warbler from Liam’s net.

Eila practicing her extracting skills so she can be of assistance to David Brewer when he is out.

Liam ecstatically celebrating the palm warbler in his net. Unfortunately that’s all it caught today…