The Snow Bunting(/Horned Lark) banding season has gotten off to an unusually early start. Looking back over my records I note that we have caught very few buntings in December and never this early. In 2010 we caught 10 on December 21st; 2013 we had 7 caught over two days – December 26th & 27th; 2016 we had 114 starting December 14th. So getting 13 yesterday was unusual. and then I got another 33 today!

It’s not as unusual to get Horned Larks in December, but so far we’ve banded 31 – a very good start as well. And this morning I also caught one of the two Lapland Longspurs that was hanging around with a small flock of buntings.

It wasn’t a particularly cold night (went down to -3 C.) and there was no new snow to add to the 2 centimeters already on the ground. So I wasn’t expecting much this morning. But they fooled me. It was a little like Grand Central Station with small groups of Snow Buntings or Horned Larks or both dropping in, grabbing a snack and then heading off again. Only to be replaced by another flock. I wondered if these were the same flocks simply cycling through but….I don’t think so. Some groups of buntings contained all females; another had a number of young (HY) males; another brought a couple of longspurs. It’s more difficult to judge what was happening with the larks, especially as the two sexes look so much alike at a distance. But even then, I would get a small group (<8), followed by a large one (>35), and sometimes mixed groups of larks and buntings. I ended up banding 58 birds (33 buntings, 24 larks, 1 longspur) but I would estimate that these represented well less than 25% of the birds that dropped in to the trap area.

I wanted to try an experiment as Dick Stauffer, a Snow Bunting colleague in Alberta, has asked a number of times about what would be the best bait for buntings. I have always used cut/cracked corn. But today I thought I would put it to the test. In one of the traps (the top one in the photo above) I baited with an ordinary millet-based bird seed. There was a definite preference for the cut corn. Only 3 birds (5%) were attracted to the typical bird seed mix. Dick has had a frustratingly hard time out West luring birds to his traps. Maybe they don’t like cut corn….
Rick

I have a strategy for catching Snow Buntings: go after Horned Larks. I’ve been waiting for Larks to show up in my banding area at the York Airport since the beginning of December. A couple of days ago I saw half a dozen feeding on some spilled corn kernels at the corner of the gravel pad that farm vehicles use when they’re loading the crop. I use this pad as my base. Big kernels are pretty large for these small birds but they were giving it a try. That day I gave them an alternative – cut corn pieces, the bait I’ve been using for years now. The next day they had switched to this much easier to ingest alternative. And their flock had increased to about 20 birds. Then we got a couple of centimeters of snow and the temperature plunged into the minuses – in fact it went down to -8 last night. Time to try banding!

I arrived early this morning to find a few larks on the corn. I put down 4 traps and refurbished the bait piles. Soon I had a group of about 20 larks around the traps. I was just debating whether to extract the one bird that had entered when I spotted a loose flock of….Snow Buntings! Flying in from the East.

Webster’s dictionary defines “serendipity” as “an apparent aptitude for making fortunate discoveries, accidentally.” This definition suits foraging Snow Buntings to a T. They congregate in these loose flocks as they wing their way over the landscape, always on the look-out for food sources, which often are made evident by other birds feeding. And that’s the way it was this morning. As soon as the buntings saw the larks around the traps they dropped in to check out the possibilities. Now I don’t think these were “resident” buntings; i.e., birds that are going to spend the Winter in the general area. [In our experience, “general area” for buntings would be a circle 25 km in diameter.] Rather, I think they were a migrating group heading further SW. But food is food and they would need it to continue their journey. [As it turned out almost all the buntings caught were not carrying any furcular fat – the furculum is where birds store their fat/energy.]

Initially they were pretty “flighty” – would alight, scamper about the traps, and then take off only to circle around and descend again. Very much like shorebirds. This went on for 5 frustrating minutes or so, but then the moment of decision came and they stormed the traps; I caught 13: 8 females, 5 males. Once banded and released they continued their flight to the SW, most with a crop full of cracked corn. Over the next hour they didn’t reappear; they had continued their journey. But….the Horned Larks returned. I think this is a “captive” flock – birds that will spend the Winter in the near area, close to a reliable, good food source. So it’s important that I keep the spot baited. I was able to trap another 6 larks. And I had hopes of catching the Lapland Longspur that had joined them but it wasn’t to be. Banding came to a very quick halt when an American Kestrel landed on the top of one of the traps (much to the chagrin of the lark inside – which wasn’t harmed). I jumped out of the car and chased it off….but only to a treetop about 100 meters away from where it could keep the traps in view. I wasn’t going to catch any more birds while it was in the area. I packed it in; but what a treat: 13 early Snow Buntings!

Rick

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