The pace here has been just a little frenetic with my eldest son Jeremy getting married on October 2nd so I’ve been remiss in keeping everything up to date but….here we go (I’d sugges you start at the bottom or last entry first):

October 4th – And Then the Skies Opened Up
Well figuratively anyway….
At opening time there was a lot of sparrow “chatter” along the edges – this usually presages a “good day” (which, translated, means a LOT of birds). During the earlier part of the night (at least), it was clear with a full moon. By this morning, it had clouded over and was threatening rain. I think many birds took advantage of the good travelling conditions early on and then were forced down by the incoming bad weather. In bird banding parlance this is known as a “fallout”.
That explains the birds. There was also a bit of a fallout of people. Peter Thoem showed up to do the census and brought Mac student Siobhan Stewart. Siobhan had visited last weekend with her class and was keen to come out again and learn how to do this stuff. And she got lots of opportunity to learn this morning. Then Christine Madliger showed up with boyfriend Chris in tow. She was supposed to be getting everything ready for the talk about snakes this afternoon but got here early enough to do some extracting and banding. (She didn’t have any fresh baking with her though…..strange….) Then George DeFossard and his better half Cornelia arrived to help out. Now sometimes (and I can admit it) people are a pain…it’s just the nature of the beast. But as a meet-the-public banding guy I just have to grin and bear it. But today it was a REALLY good thing as there was lots to do. We had our biggest day of the year so far handling 158 birds (117 banded and 41 retraps). The retraps might have been one bird higher but Peter saw the first Merlin of the year catch an American Goldfinch and devour it – he swears it was sporting a band but he couldn’t see the number…..
On the day we had 4 new species, either for the year or for the Season: Merlin, Blue-headed Vireo, Eastern Towhee and Rusty Blackbird.

Banded 117:
1 Downy Woodpecker
4 Eastern Phoebes
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
3 Eastern Bluebirds
1 American Robin
1 Blue-headed Vireo
1 Philadelphia Vireo
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
3 Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Black-throated Green Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 Eastern Towhee
7 Chipping Sparrows
5 Song Sparrows
12 White-throated Sparrows
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
67 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 41:
2 Eastern Tufted Titmice
1 Blue Jay
5 Black-capped Chickadees
5 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 Brown Creeper
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
2 Eastern Bluebirds
1 Gray Catbird
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
18 American Goldfinches.

ET’s: 46 spp.

Rick

October 3rd – the Day After the Night Before

I must say that it was more than a little difficult to drag myself out of bed this morning after the wedding celebration last night. I had to rationalize it to myself that, somehow, it was good for me…Of course, once I got going it was OK.
The dawn sky was almost completely covered with cloud with just a clear patch in the East. As soon as the sun gained the horizon and lit everything up through this space, a flight of at least 250 Tree Swallows went over. The movement was on a wide front with the birds individually spread out (as opposed to a tight flock) and all were heading south. There were a few light showers while I was doing census and it began to rain more seriously just after we got the nets down. Faye Socholotiuk, the Hamilton pedagogue that I’ve been trying to convince to drop pedagogy and take up banding, and Mike Alkema (you remember Mike – the Mac student from a couple of years ago that earned his 4th year project by feeding the mosquitoes here one Summer in the name of banding birds) both arrived early to help out and, in fact, did all of the banding – which was probably a good thing…..

Banded 50:

1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
2 Blue Jays
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
10 Golden-crowned Kinglets
5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Eastern Bluebird
2 Swainson’s Thrushes
1 Hermit Thrush
3 Gray Catbirds
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
4 Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Black and White Warbler
1 Song Sparrow
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
7 White-throated Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
5 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 19:
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
5 Black-capped Chickadees
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 Gray Catbird
3 Song Sparrows
2 White-throated Sparrows
5 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 47 spp. (including a Peregrine Falcon making a long stoop over the River flats)

Rick

October 1st – Ruthven Banding Lab and Social Club

It was a socially busy place this morning. Audrey Heagy from Bird Studies Canada came out to see how we do things as she will be the Bander-in-Charge over the Thanksgiving Weekend and she doesn’t want to screw up…..Christine Madliger arrived early bearing a HOME-MADE angel-food cake with whipped cream and fresh strawberries. And it wasn’t even my birthday. Mmm, mmm delicious. Semi-regular visitors from Burlington, Elaine Serena and Shirley Klement arrived. This was kind of neat as Elaine was the 999th visitor to the banding lab this year and Shirley was the 1000th – and so won a new field guide. (The picture of her receiving it will be posted as soon as Christine can pull herself out of the kitchen, where she is working on her next culinary masterpiece, and sends it to me.) Then Nancy Furber arrived to help extract and to scan the skies for diurnal migrants. So by the time it was all done all I had to do was sit back in my chair, eat cake and strawberries (and, oh yeah, whipped cream), and watch this busy hive of banding going on all around me. I think I could get by just fine as the drone in a bee hive, thank you very much…..Oh, and did I mention that Elaine ALWAYS brings goodies to keep the banders in top trim?

Banded 56:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Swainson’s Thrush
3 American Robins
1 Gray Catbird
2 Cedar Waxwings
1 Red-eyed Vireo
2 Nashville Warblers
1 Black-throated Green Warbler
1 Chipping Sparrow
7 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
4 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
23 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 26:
1 Mourning Dove
2 Downy Woodpeckers
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
6 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 House Wren
1 Gray Catbird
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Song Sparrow
10 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 47 spp.

Rick

September 30th – The Return of the Native (so to speak)

Loretta Mousseau made a surprise and unheralded visit to the lab on the 30th from her cottage in Georgian Bay to cover for me. She was all by her lonesome (banding-wise) and was pretty busy as 8 members of the Guelph Naturalists arrived and a new walkway to make the lab even more wheelchair accessible was being built (not by the Guelph Naturalists).
American Goldfinches are hitting the feeders like crazy – 51 of the 65 birds she banded were Goldfinches. She did get the first Orange-crowned Warbler of the season however.

Banded 65:
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
3 Common Yellowthroats
1 Song Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
51 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 17:
3 Downy Woodpeckers
4 Black-capped Chickadees
3 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 Eastern Bluebird
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Song Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
3 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 37 spp.

Loretta