Just last week, Wednesday the 8th in fact, we had nice crisp temperatures and a good layer of snow. Although we weren’t seeing really large flocks of Snow Buntings we were seeing medium to small flocks consistently. They would fly into the baited trap area and then were off again. We managed to tap into some of these birds, getting 84 SNBU’s and 10 HOLA’s (Horned Larks). Over the next two days we (Nancy Furber and I) got a few more pushing our Winter totals to 116 Snow Buntings, 88 Horned Larks and 7 Lapland Longspurs….not outstanding, but respectable totals. Further, we had the feeling that the birds that were going to winter in the area were here and we would be catching for the rest of the Winter. But then it warmed up and the rain came, eating up the snow and now there isn’t a bunting to be seen along any of the rural roads in our community (Haldimand County). And from the sounds of things that has been the case across southern Ontario, Quebec, and into New Brunswick (as the following updates will show). I guess the place to be is in the north with Bruce Murphy and Joanne Goddard in Timiskaming Shores. (Although I’ll bet Bill Maciejko in Gimli Manitoba still has lots too……)

This will be a busy post as there’s lots to check out besides updates. Starting off, here’s a link to download the lastest CSBN Newsletter from Christie Macdonald, Newsletter editor:
Rick – in your next CSBN post on the blog, could you include this link to the final version of the newsletter:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/66147125/SNBU%20Newsletter%202014_FINAL.pdf

The most exciting news has surrounded 4 recaptures of previously banded Snow Buntings. I have clumped the emails involving them below so you can see how things played out. There’s both an east-west component and a north-south one.

[Recapture #1]
Hi Rick,
My partner has just this morning captured a SNBU banded elsewhere: 2661-84151, an ASY male. Could you ask the list if anyone recognizes the number as theirs?
Thanks,
Theresa McKenzie
King City

Hey Rick, Theresa and all,
No need to look further, I’ll claim that bird! This AHY-M was banded by subpermittee Liette Fortier at Mirabel, QC on December 21st, 2013 at 09:30. Awesome recapture of this bird obviously still on the move! Wing of 109mm, fat of 2 and weight of 38.3g
Could you tell me exactly the date of the recapture and also the exact location of your site?
Theresa, you can submit the recapture to the Bird banding Lab, our data for 2013 has been submitted.
Keep up banding,
Simon Duval
Coordinator, McGill Bird Observatory

Thanks Rick, and Hi Simon,
Thanks for the fast response Rick that was the last bird to be processed today . I caught 14 birds in the traps on that check i was very confused because our new bands began with the 2661 prefix i just finished the last 2581 this morning and when i came home i was trying to figure it out if it was one of ours thank god for Theresa. The bird weighted 35.5 and fat 0 ,110 wing ,AHY,M ,Back at it tomorrow.
Regards Glenn (Theresa’s partner)

Wow! That is interesting. My husband and banding partner, Glenn, caught it this morning at 11:34 am, the last bird of the day. We’re lucky he didn’t call it quits a few minutes earlier! Fat was 0 and weight was 35.5 g. He measured the wing as 110 mm. We just started banding at this site on December 21, (the same day you banded this individual). The coordinates are :
Latitude – Longitude:
43.933804,-79.500675
and the location is King City, ON
Cheers,
Theresa & Glen

[Recapture #2]
Hi Rick,
Just got news that Liette Fortier recaptured SNBU 1841-80160 at Mirabel this morning. Any chance you could circulate that on the list, the BBL doesn’t have any info on it.
Thanks,
Simon Duval
Coordinator, McGill Bird Observatory

Hi Rick and Simon,
How nice! I banded this HY M SNBU at Sainte-Victoire-de-Sorel two weeks ago (banding location 45° 56,655′ 73° 5,491′, december 26th, 2013). Wing of 110mm and fat of 4 (weight NA).
That’s interesting they cross the St.Lawrence. From my site, I thought they would head south along open corridors in the Richelieu valley. Or maybe at this time they just move around the St.Lawrence lowlands not following any particular route.
Thanks for the info. Keep up with the good work!
Dominique Dufault

Salut Dominique,
Good going! The bird was recaptured on rang Ste-Marie, Mirabel by subpermittee Liette Fortier this morning. Bird had 3 fat, 36.1g
Could you check the coordinates of the site, I think you’re missing a number 73 5x,491.
Lâche pas le baguage!
Simon Duval
Coordinator, McGill Bird Observatory

Hi Simon,
The coordinates are ok. The missing number is a zero in front of 5′ (73 05,491). Or if you prefer N45.94425 W73.09152.
Bonne journée!
Dominique Dufault

[Recapture #3]

Hi Rick,
We got another one today at our King City site, an ASY male SNBU banded Jan 2011 as an SY bird in St. George, ON, ( i.e. south of Cambridge). Do you know whose that would be?
Cheers,
Theresa McKenzie

[Probably Bill Read’s but we’re just trying to reconfirm the number……and yes! It was banded by Bill in 2010.]

[Recapture #4]
See Bruce Murphy’s update below.

Ontario

[January 9th]
We managed to band for 2 hours today as the temperatures finally were bearable! Someone told me today that the temperature reading here, at our local airport, a few days ago, registered -60! which was the coldest spot in all of Canada. Crazy. Anyway we were happy to band 39 SNBU and 1 LALO. So we are back in business!
Talk soon!
Jo Goddard
Kerns Public School
Timiskaming Shores

[January 11th]
Hi Rick. We had a great week at Kerns. We only managed to band 2 days this week due to a “snow day” and other school happenings, but we were happy to band 115 SNBU and 1 LALO. With our totals from December that brings Kern’s kids to 119 SNBU and 25 LALO. It is raining here today (Saturday) but the kids are hopeful that it will turn to snow by morning and we will get out on Sunday morning. The kids have getting birds out of the traps down to a science now, partners are the way to go when hands get too cold!! and some are beginning to show great skill in aging, sexing and banding.
Jo Goddard
Kerns Public School
Timiskaming Shores




Hi rick:
We had a very exciting week in timiskaming. Joanne and her kids had a fantastic week of banding and had a great one day totlal of 74 snow buntings. I have been able to band at our other site “up on the hill” and together the 2 sites contributed 233 new snow buntings banded and 2 lalo. The big excitement for us was the capture of yet another recovery of a bird banded by David Lamble near Arthur Ontario. I captured it today and the banding lab says it was originally banded Feb 1 2013. I believe this is the 4th Lamble bird that has wandered here, pretty much establishing a corridor of some sorts between us. Who knows where “his” birds spend their summers but they spend some of their winters in timiskaming. Of great interest to me was that in the same “trap check” I recovered a bird we had banded at the same site in 2012 it was only the 34th bird we had banded at this site. As well a Christmas present I sent myself in 2012 a bird I banded Christmas day 2012 came back to the trap. People have to appreciate that the banding site is 3 minutes from our house – I am obsessed but not clinical. So you never know….as Aldo Leopold says: putting a band on a bird is our chance at entering the greatest of all lotteries, the chance to find out more about these wonderful birds. I apologize for the slanderous paraphrase but it is just so amazing that these birds find their way back to the same pile of corn from years past. Including our December totals we are now up to 505 snow buntings and 28 lalo. Best of luck everyone hopefully someone else will win the lottery soon.
Bruce Murphy
Timiskaming Shores

Hello Rick:
The birds have left — there have not been any there for the past 3 days and I do not expect any for the rest of the week — hopefully they will return next week. I guess they have headed back north or east, depending the effect warm weather has on them…………………
David Lamble
Fergus

That’s such exciting news! [the recapture] Over here in Lanark, Ontario, we have a small flock of about 20 Snow Buntings feeding on white millet and deer food made up of corn, oats and barley.
Lise Balthazar

Quebec
Salut Marie-Pier,
I`ve got a moment of peace and thought I’d let you know that I haven’t forgotten about you. There are simply NO SNOW BUNTINGS around. I saw one small flock a couple of weeks ago and have seen nothing since….nothing near my place and nothing while riding the roads through prime SNBU country between my place and Sherbrooke. I read somewhere that they “roost” under the snow. I hope not because there would have been huge losses foloowing the ice storm if that is the case. Anyway, I’ll keep you posted.
Cheers,
Carl Bromwich
Eastern Townships

Hi Carl,
Thanks for the update.
I got similar news… I am just back in the townships after a bit of traveling around, but observers at two other baited sites in Sawyerville and North Hatley have emptied out of buntings within the few days following the ice storm.
Have a good day,
Marie-Pier LaPlante
Eastern Townships

Hi Rick,
Well unfortunately, we were having a really good winter, and then it rained on Saturday! Temperatures are still above zero right now and are now going to get below freezing before Wednesday. Mirabel is shut down until better weather, the birds are just not coming enough to the bait when it’s warm up there. From Jan 7 to Jan 11, 85 SNBU banded pushing our total to 291 SNBU.
We also have a new site up and running in St-Roch-de-l’Achigan. The buntings were there before the warm weather so hopefully they’ll return after. Here is a photo of them at the new bait site.
How’s the weather down south?
Simon Duval
Mirabel

Maritime Provinces
Hi Rick
Yes we have some; Dorothy caught 15 last week in one session. Weather & schedules have been against us since! About 100 or so were around the Wilson farm.
Cheers
Tony Diamond
(just outside) St. John

As I write this, snow is falling (and has been falling for the past several hours) outisde my back window. Two inches of fresh snow coats the grass and blankets the trees – it will be a White Christmas. But beyond the yard I can see the Grand River and it is wide open. A week ago it was frozen over, something that hadn’t happened here for a couple of years. Forty years ago when we moved to York, a village between Caledonia and Cayuga, the river would freeze over early and solidly – to the point you could ski safely along it to Cayuga, 9 km downstream. But in more recent times you’d be as likely to be water skiing as snow skiing. So when it froze over I started thinking “old time Winter”.

But then the sleet storm hit dropping a mass of water, in various forms, all over southern Ontario. (Our power was out for only 8 hours – there’s still thousands of people in the province without it and might be without it until the weekend!) Two days ago my son, Geoff, and I took the dog for a walk along the River Trail at Ruthven. A solid sheet of ice covered the river. I went to the bank to check out the beaver lodge – beavers are making a comeback in southern Ontario and a pair has built a lodge against the bank and, in so doing, have transformed the river flats ecologically, gnawing down well over a hundred Black Walnuts ranging in diameter from a few centimeters to over 25. They had taken many branches and embedded them into the river bottom by their lodge – a readily available food source on cold Winter days. This food cache was quite extensive, extending at least 5 meters out from shore and was frozen into the ice.

And this is what drew my attention. Just before I reached the bank I heard a loud “crack” upstream. Before my eyes and very slowly, the ice-embedded food cache began to move downstream in an open lead of water that had miraculously appeared in a matter of seconds. The River was on the move!

The next hour was simply awesome as the power of water manifested itself right in front of me. The next sign that something was happening was a big push of ice up the far shore – huge plates of ice, 15-20 cm thick were forced against and up the bank, shattering like thin glass – but scouring the shore. Initially this was all in slow motion but with each minute the speed picked up. At first the action was along the shore but soon the whole mass of ice on the river began to move. This was accompanied by a deep, almost frightening sound; Geoff thought it was the wind picking up (but there was no evidence of any wind) while i likened it to the rumble of a passing train. The cause was a huge push of water forcing its way under and around the ice “obstacle”. Several more loud cracks, some upstream, some downstream, marked the increase in speed. And then there was a helter-skelter movement of ice, pushing up on itself and onto the banks, first on one side then on the other, scouring everything in its way. The beaver lodge was eliminated. Hopefully they were safe in a hole dug into the bank.

Suddenly the ice stopped moving but the water began to climb – over a foot in the matter of just a couple of minutes. And then….BANG!….downstream, whatever had stopped the movement (probably a jam against Slink Island) gave way and the train was underway again. Two hours later the river was ice-free from York down to Cayuga; the river had been swept clean.

It’s rare to witness a spectacle like this as it happens. Humbling actually. But it made me think: many years ago, a friend of mine, Terry Witt, and I lead a training canoe tripping course down the Missinabie and Moose Rivers in the second week of June. The river was a torrent, the ice having gone out only a couple of weeks before. There are big islands on the Moose, which carries the outflow of several large rivers – Missinabie, Mattagami, Abitibi – and many smaller ones. Against some of these islands, standing on end, several stories high, were sheets of ice 2-3 feet thick. I can’t even imagine the forces that did that.

The storm cleared out much of the snow in our area…and with it any chance of banding Snow Buntings. (On the plus side, it did bring a forlorn male Red-winged Blackbird to the backyard feeders.) But, as you will see below, there are places in the this big country where there are buntings….and people catching them (or hoping to).

Cross-country Snow Bunting Check-up

Prairie Provinces

We’re seeing no SNBUs here this last while. Our Christmas bird count also found none in the immediate area. We did see some large flocks earlier in the winter, though.
…no redpolls or Pine Grosbeaks either this year.
Gotta keep hoping for a GGOW irruption to get through winter, I guess!
Harold Fisher
Prince Albert, SK

Hi Rick,
It’s officially sunrise, 0834h, -36.4C and about 250 SNBU are in the field. As every morning, there were over a hundred gleaning in the dark when I restocked the piles at 0715h. Deer clean everything up every night. After the morning feed they will continue to stream in from the woods in groups of 30-150 every few minutes until 1500h when they load up for the night. Conservative counts for this last feed are 600-800 (varies by day). During the day, they come in, grab some food and head back to shelter, then another group comes in, eats and leaves. They completely consume at least 28 quarts of white millet every day (four, almost full 2 1/2 gallon buckets/day). [That’s an amazing investment on your part, Bill!]
Josh is planning to start banding during the dawn feed, January 4th or 5th. I will start conditioning them to the presence of “trap-like” objects tomorrow. Josh will be bringing nets to use if he thinks they will work.
Best of the Season, always,
Bill Maciejko
Gimli, Manitoba

Slow typist: now 350+ feeding Buntings

Ontario

None around Thunder Bay.
John Woodcock
Program Coordinator, Thunder Cape Bird Observatory

Hi rick snow bunting numbers are down but we have been able to get 100 birds coming to corn and yesterday at the height of the storm i managed to catch 16 which is the first i have banded to date. I am going to try again today once we dig out. We got 20 cm of snow while you folks were getting freezing rain. All of the big flocks we were seeing in November seem to have moved on. i just heard from the banding office that one of our snbu has shown up in quebec but i do not know where as I have not submitted my year en report yet. While trying to catch mouring doves yesterday we banded a song sparrow which is unheard of up here at this late date.
Bruce Murphy
Temiskaming Shores

Hi rick
I was able to band 35 snbu today all but 1 were males this brings our total to 57 snbu and 24 lalo so far. There are very few flocks in the area and none are very big we have not been able to attract many to a site that was very productive last year so we will have to be patient I get to band Christmas day this year which is a great present to me and I have high hopes of banding a fair bit over the holidays. thanks for all of the work you do on your blog and on this network all the best and hopefully a banded bunting arrives as a present for the newyear.
All the best [Bruce] Murph and Jo [Goddard]
Temiskaming Shores

Hi Rick – I was just going to make a report! I observed (through blowing snow) a large flock yesterday morning (Dec. 22), in a hayfield and taking grit from the road. And again this morning – over 100. The location is 46.079482 79.234133 (from google earth) 15 Km east of Powassan. I am going to expand my corn scattering area, and see if they find it.
The gentleman from Eau Claire has not had his usual 50 – 100 which he normally feeds for the winter show up yet, just 1-5 individuals. This is now the first snow cover greater than 2 or 3 inches, so perhaps he will be seeing them soon.
South of Powassan, the South River to Bracebridge area, has had greater depths of snow for some time. I cleared my driveway for the first time on Saturday, and the snow is still under 10 inches deep unless drifted.
Not sure if this large flock came with the snow or fled from the freezing rain in the south
Lori Andersen
North Bay

Rick,
In our area, rain has washed away the snow and temps are above freezing.
We had none of the ice storm.
We keep hoping…but…
Bob Hall-Brooks Snow Bunting Bander
Holiday Beach Migration Observatory

Quebec

Hi,
More than 200 SNBU and 2 LALO are feeding on a daily base at my baiting site. I only have time to catch 14 (total for the winter = 14). I will give it a try tomorow morning. I will let you know what is going on here.
À bientôt,
Benoit Gendreau

[And when I got home tonight this was waiting for me:
Hi,
I’m situated at Berthier-sur-Mer, 40 km east of Quebec city on south shore of st-lawrence river.
I have banded 34 today in 1.5 hour alone! Total for the year = 48
There is lot more!
Happy holiday,
Benoit Gendreau]

Hi Rick,
I came close to banding my first buntings today as a small flock of 30 at a baited site in Sawyerville walked on, around and nearly in the trap all morning. No luck. I’ll try again Friday.
Good night,
Marie-Pier LaPlante
Sawyerville QC
[I loved Marie-Pier’s description of bunting “trap shyness”. How often have we seen this frustrating behaviour!?]

East Coast

I have actually seen a few flocks in Gros Morne over the past week – one of
12 at Cow Head and another of 25-30 at Shallow Bay (just a few kms away) on
the Christmas count on Saturday. These were in beach & dune habitat, which
is about the only place I see them in winter here and they are hard to find
here in winter so this may mean that they are here in higher than usual
numbers this December (?).
Darroch Whitaker
Newfoundland

Hi Rick
We haven’t seen any yet, ourselves, but somebody got a flock of ~150 or so nearby on their CBC last weekend, and the farm where we had birds before has a few according to reports (we didn’t see any there on our CBC). However with this bad weather we will likely get more there & will check it out probably next weekend & let you know.
They were 1st reported from the Fredericton area at the beginning of November I believe. Sorry we haven’t been in touch, been crazy-busy indeed. [Tis the season…..]
Cheers
Tony Diamond
(just outside) St. John NB

U.S.A.

Hi Rick,
We’ve had a lot of snow this month—10-12 inches on the ground. (The most we’ve had since Dec. since 2000.) No sightings of SNBU or HOLA so far in any of the farm fields where at least the HOLA are usually seen. Will keep looking and go out searching this weekend. Will also query wisbirdnet for sightings to get an idea if others have been seeing them.
Vicki Piaskowski
Hartland, WI

Last week’s Arctic blast that traversed the country got me thinking about Snow Buntings…and just where they might be. So I put out a call to members of the Canadian Snow Bunting Network to get their observations and here are their responses, which have been trickling in all week. I was particularly struck by Shane Roersma’s comment that his area of Alberta had been the coldest place on the planet for a day or so!

The last couple of days here in southern Ontario have been cold (well….cold for southern Ontario at minus 12) and snow is called for over the weekend. So we just may get lucky…….

Prairie Provinces

Hey Rick,
Up here in Peace River Alberta it has been very cold until today -5c, I have seen a lot of SNBU’s and a few HOLA’s. There is next to no snow cover so I’m having issues attracting birds to come into traps. Wish I had the invasion of SNOW’s this winter like the east, sitting at 10 SNOW’s so far this winter.
Mike Blom
Peace Region Raptor Study

Hi Rick,
We have been hit hard by winter here in southern Alberta – experiencing extreme temperatures, heavy snowfall and windy conditions. We were actually the coldest place on the planet a few days ago! [emphasis by editor] I have yet to spot any flocks of the 3 focal species, but have not had much chance to scout for them. The Christmas break is coming up and we’ll be out looking. Best of luck.
Shane Roersma

Hi Rick,
We have about 18 inches of snow here in east central Saskatchewan. The snow came in late October and has only settled a bit. I am not seeing many SNBU. The small flocks of 20 or less are not consistently in any area so I have not attempted any baiting yet. I will keep you posted if things change. Merry Christmas to all.
Bert Dalziel
Love, Saskatchewan

In Prince Albert, Saskatchewan we have plenty of snow – and bitter cold. There are quite a few SNBUs in the area, but they don’t seem to stay in one place and are just about impossible to lure to a feeding area. This is the 3rd year I’ve tried – still have to capture my first bird.
Harold Fisher
Nisbet Banding Station,
Prince Albert, Saskatchewan
53-17-11N, 105-39-15W

Hi Rick.
Snow almost 2 feet deep in most fields. Snow Buntings have been coming to two piles of millet bait 300-500 at a time for several days. Will attempt to attach 60 second video taken Dec. 8/13, 1600h, -23C, strong N wind. Cold temps supposed to last until Christmas. Will try to contact your bander and set something up during the holiday break.
All the best,
Bill Maciejko
Gimli, Manitoba

Ontario

Hello Rick:
Blowing snowy conditions. Accumulation of about 1 to 2 cm of snow — temperatures between -2 and -7 (wind chill maybe -10). No birds seen at my site since I last reported. Will be going to the site, tomorrow, to lay bait and wander my area looking for birds…………….. take care………….. David ( the lonely Snow Bunting bander, missing his birds)
[David Lamble
Fergus, Ontario]

Good morning,
We had our first big snowfall on November 27th (approx. 10 inches) and that snow stayed on the ground for a while; but then the weather got really mild and it almost all melted. Yesterday (Dec. 9), we received about 2-3 inches of snow followed by a brief period of rain. I haven’t seen any Snow Buntings since my first sighting, several weeks ago.
Lise Balthazar
Lanark, Ontario

Hey Rick,
So I have recently moved to Lanark County, west of Ottawa, and am at least an hour from my site I used in past years so I am not currently banding there (just not enough time to get there for regular baiting etc). I have seen a few flocks in the area of Lanark Highlands, but no large numbers. If you guys are aware of anyone in Lanark County that has good flocks of birds but doesn’t band (And is interested in me banding on their property) let me know.
In the meantime I will be searching for flocks and interested parties, and once I get established I expect to be able to focus on the site for many years (since I have no plans on moving in the near future.
Take Care,
Fergus Nicoll

Hello from windy, cold, but practically snowless East Harrow (a Holiday Beach Migration Observatory station).
Currently there is only about 1″ of snow here. No banding has occurred here yet this season. No SNBU, HOLA or LALO around yet (here). Although we did see 1 lone SNBU foraging at the edge of a field about halfway between LaSalle (close to Windsor) and Harrow on Saturday, December 7.
Like everyone else, we are awaiting a good dump of snow which will hopefully bring the birds south to us.
Caroline S., and Bob Hall-Brooks
East Harrow, ON

Hi rick
At Long Point on the weekend, no snow. In Cambridge we got snow on Sunday night possibly 1- 2 inches. It was bare before then. Have not seen any SNBU.
Bill Read

[December 10th]
We had over a foot of snow on the ground before the thunderstorms washed it away last week. Now it is coming back (snow squalls at the moment) but most is in drifts along edges of fields due to high winds.
Thousands of SNBU roving restlessly around the county but never in the same place two days in a row. Corn being harvested has left a lot on the ground everywhere. No LALO or HOLA.
OAT – I have 25 SNBU on my grassland surveys so far, and still have 3 more to do.
Cindy Cartwright
Southampton
Bruce Region

[December 8th]
hi rick
No buntings this weekend it was super sunny and we find that when it is sunny that the birds seem to find food elsewhere do have any theories on that maybe it is just a northern thing. We banded just under 300 sawhets and 18 boreals and yes last year was a peak in both sawwhet and boreal numbers. I will send some photo’s of joannes kids in another post she is hoping to band at her school tomorrow but i know sometimes you do a sunday updates
Bruce Murphy
Temiskaming Shores

[December 9th]
Hi rick
Hopefully we will get the cloud cover and snow predicted for tomorrow and the Kerns kids will have the first buntings of the season. They have a flock of buntings and longspurs that are visiting the corn .The flock seems to be over a hundred but when we went to put out corn the flock was a fraction of that due to the clear sky and bright sun. When we have photo’s of birds we will send them along . All the best to everyone this season.
Bruce Murphy
Temiskaming Shores

[December 10th]
Hi Rick:
Joanne’s [Goddard] class will be sending you a blog tomorrow sometime; they are going to be banding again tomorrow so i am not sure what time it will arive…..but they started today and were able to band 8 lalo and 5 snbu. Interestingly 4 of the snbu were females suggesting that they do arrive first. We often do not get very many females up here and usually start a little later . While there are some big flocks in our area we have only been able to attract a couple of hundred to feed so hopefully with the fresh snow recently arrived we will have more attention to the corn. Thanks rick and all the best to you and banders across the country. Joanne and the awesome kids form Kerns public will have more news tomorrow. Buntings makes winter fun!!!
Bruce Murphy
Temiskaming Shores

[December 10th]
Hi Rick,
I know I was supposed to have a student send you a blog today to go with the pictures Murph sent yesterday, but my day went a little sideways so it didn’t happen. Sorry!
Basically on Friday last week a few of the kids took the traps out to the site so they would be ready to start banding on Monday. We had been watching a flock of birds slowly grow over the past week and a group of about 100 birds seemed to be fairly committed to the corn we had been leaving. We noticed quite a large percentage of the flock were LALO so that was exciting. Over the weekend it was cold and very sunny and the birds seemed very scarce at all our banding locations so I was encouraged when I awoke to a mild snowy Monday morning. We noticed last year that our best banding days were usually the snowy ones.
The class was only able to do a couple of trap checks on Monday morning but in the end we were able to band five snow buntings, four of which were female, and eight HY Lapland longspurs, six males and two females. Today was a much colder day and to quote David, one of my veteran birders, “it was so cold my snot froze in a snotcicle!” Despite the clear -18 morning, we had a decent flock of mostly LALO visit the trap. Unfortunately a Northern Shrike became very interested in our operation and we had to close up for the day after banding only nine LALO, this time all males, and not a one SNBU, although there were lots hanging around. We are hopeful the Shrike will move on so we can resume banding soon. We plan to get out with a group of students on Saturday, hopefully we will have some big numbers for you soon. The Kerns kids were able to band 900 birds last season and although their real goal is to beat David Lamble, they will realistically be happy with banding 1000!
Joanne Goddard and the Kerns Crew
Temiskaming Shores

Quebec

Hi Rick,
Two weeks ago here in the Richelieu river valley, 2 flocks of 30-40 SNBU were seen repeatedly at the bait for a couple days. The weather got mild and none have been seen since then. Now, there is a 15-20 snow cover and the temperature will drop below -15C this week-end. I did not have the time to get the pliers out yet, but considering the weather system that is building up, I will probably give it a try on saturday or sunday.
Cheers
Dominique Dufault

Hi Rick
In the Rimouski area, the first snow almost melted down last week with a rainy period. Now it has been snowing for the last 2 days and the fields are finally getting whiter.
Scattered snow bunting flocks can be seen occasionally around my place.
I still will have the same problem, i.e. having only week-ends to work on SNBU banding during daylight… And it seems I may not be able to retire that soon.
Charles Maisonneuve
Rimouski

Hi,
At Berthier-sur-Mer, 40 km east of Quebec city on the south shore of St-Lawrence river, I have seen a lots of SNBU during the fall (october and november). When the snow cover appear, the number of SNBU have decreased throughout december. I have seen a few SNBU and HOLA this morning but nothing to put the trap outside. They are localised where they can find food (place without snow cover)
If the SNBU start showing up rapidly at the bait, I will start banding in few days.
à bientôt,
Benoit Gendreau
Biologiste, chargé de projet à la CDEMM

Hi Rick,
Here in southern Quebec we didn’t get much weather. I saw a flock a couple of weeks ago and counted one individual at my feederwatch site the weekend before last. In the meantime, we lost all our snow and then regained a scant couple of centimetres yesterday. I’m keeping my eyes open!
Carl Bromwich
Near the Vermont border, south of Sherbrooke….the beautiful Eastern Townships. Barnston-Ouest to be exact.

Maritime Provinces

[December 10th]
Snow just started today on the shores of the bay of Fundy, no birds of yet.
Stephen Burrows

Hi Rick,
Dorothy Diamond here in NB. We have had a week or more of snow, but then heavy rain took that away, and now it is cold again with a few cm of snow on the ground. The SNBUs are at the local farm in very small numbers, and I have not yet started to band. I think I saw a flock of 10 in my back field about 2 weeks ago, feeding on weed seeds. I’ll let you know when we start banding. Christmas Bird Count in our area is Dec. 14th.
Dorothy Diamond
New Brunswick

[Hi:]
I did see a flock of about 10 here in Gros Morne [Natinal Park] on the weekend, but
they’re always pretty hard to come by here until spring migration.
Attaching a nice picture of a Juvenile I took at Cirque Mountain in Torngat
Mountains National Park this summer.
darroch whitaker
Newfoundland

U.S.A
Hi Rick:
No Snow buntings here yet, but we just had a lot of snow so hopefully they’ll show up soon.
Thank you,
Vicki Piaskowski
Hartland, WI

Hi Rick:
Conditions here in Hartland, WI are cold with about 5-6 inches of snow on the ground. The forecast for the upcoming week is continued below average temperatures and snow on most days. So far I haven’t seen any birds, but will continue looking, as these conditions will hopefully bring them in.
Thanks,
Vicki Piaskowski
Hartland, WI