Category Archives: Canadian Snow Bunting Network

November 25th – And So It Begins!!

Posted on by
1

David Lamble has officially “kicked” off the Snow Bunting Banding season:

Hello Rick:
Banded my first Snow Buntings today — 14 males and 15 females — all but 3 were birds of the year. Most had fat contents of zero or one — only 2 were as high as a value of 3. Saw one flock of about 200 birds but mostly small flocks of 30 or so. Did not get any Horned Larks or Longspurs. I believe this is the earliest i have ever banded Snow Buntings. So perhaps a good year is in the offing ( hope springs eternal in the heart of a bird bander)……………….. David [Lamble], Fergus, ON.

November 21st – SNBU Checkup & NSWO Report

Posted on by
3

Juvenile peaking out from the nest in a cliff-top crack on Svalbard.


It’s always nice to hear news from the Banding Office when one of “your” birds is recovered a long way away. This notification, which I just received, was particularly pleasing: a female SNBU that we had banded here in far southern Ontario on January 29, 2011 was recaptured about 1600 kilometers away by Yann Rochefault on April 15th, 2012 at Riviere-Saint Jean, QC.

SNBU Sighting Updates:
(November 10th)
Rick
I have heard my first flock fly over my place (Saint-Fabien, Québec) last week end. Only a few birds (<10). Charles Maisonneuve

(November 15th)
Hi Rick,
I saw a flock of about 100 SNBU today just north of Kingston.
Nothing around here though (Fitzroy harbor).
Fergus Nicoll

(November 17th)
I have not seen any Snow Buntings at or near the East Harrow [ON] site yet. However, a lone SNBU was seen (by Robert Cermak of Ottawa) perched on one of the big rocks at the tip at Point Pelee on Wednesday, November 14, 2012.
C.D. Staddon

(November 18th)
Hello Rick:
Just a quick note — a flock of about 100 Snow Buntings showed up at my site today. Seems early, but I will lay down some corn to keep them interested…………… David Lamble, Fergus ON

(November 20th)
Hi Rick:
……we are getting lots of snbu in the area some very large flocks of plus 300 but mostly 12 or so birds but they are getting more frequent and easier to find. We are checking for horned larks in every flock that we can get bis on. loved your blog from the east coast looking forward to you setting some time aside to write a book. Will snbu come to corn when there is no snow??? Nice job with the Nashville.
Bruce Murphy
Temiskaming Shores, ON
[Great question: will SNBU’s come to bait without snow cover? That hasn’t been my experience but what has everyone else found? David Lamble (above) is laying out corn and he doesn’t have any snow….]

Nancy the “owl whisperer”. -B. Fotheringham

Banding Up-Date for the Northern Saw-whet Owl Program
By Nancy Furber, Bander-in-charge

The 2012 Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) banding season was off to an early start with the first owl being banded on September 28th. Last year we didn’t start our season until October 10th, with the first owl being banded on October 16th, 2011. There was the potential to surpass our season best from last year – 58 birds handled. We wouldn’t be disappointed. It was an amazing, successful season!! A total of 100 birds were handled – 88 Northern Saw-whet Owls and 2 Eastern Screech Owls were banded with 10 NSWO retraps (all of them were 2012 Ruthven banded birds).

-B. Fotheringham


Using the same study area and method (see RIVERSONG, Fall 2012. ‘Fall Migration of Northern Saw-whet Owls’, pg 11/12) the nets were opened on 20 nights between September 28th and November 11th. Owls were caught and banded on 18 of the 20 nights with no owls being caught due to the weather with the remaining two nights. The busiest night was October 21/22 when a total of 20 owls were caught and processed (19 NSWO’s banded and 1 retrap)!! During one net check I had seven owls to extract. After seven and half hours, the last net was closed and the final bird was banded. I was exhausted, but exhilarated!

Applying the band. -B. Fotheringham


Of the 88 Northern Saw-whet Owls banded, 59% were sexed as females, 10% were sexed as males, and 30% were unknown. For the age statistics, 84% were aged as hatch year (HY), 6 % were aged as second year (SY), 6% were aged after second year (ASY), and 2% were aged as third year (TY).
The Ruthven Park Banding Lab had a momentous banding season. Many new firsts included the increase of Northern Saw-whet Owls banded (88), the increase in the number of visitors (42), and an increase in the number of volunteers. This was a successful season of growth, with the opportunity to learn more and teach others about the life of an owl. Thanks to the team members – Rick Ludkin, Matt Timpf, Chris Harris, Christine Madliger, Rhiannon Leshyk, and James Furber. Thanks to the many volunteers and visitors who came and made a difference. A special thank you to Irene and Bob Fotheringham. They came on numerous evenings and it always made for a fun night. Irene took good care of us by bringing hazelnut coffee, hot chocolate, and her delicious baked goods and Bob provided us with some great photography and star gazing entertainment. Thanks to both of you for everything!! We will continue this program in the fall of 2013 and volunteers/visitors are always welcome.

Photos from Heidi Scarfone:
[slickr-flickr tag=November212012]

November 4th – Cross Country (SNBU) Checkup

Posted on by
2

Sunrise – and rising expectations.


The Snow Bunting “season” will soon be upon us (I hope). I think it will be interesting to follow their movement, and the timing of it, down into their wintering range. Over the past week or so, I gathered news from a couple of sources and also put out a call to Network members so we can begin to track them as they head south. As the following will indicate, they’re definitely on the move….but in small numbers. (I would like to do this weekly, so if you have sightings or hear of them, please let me know. Thanks!)

Hi Rick,
We have begun to see snowbirds (buntings) in our area, North Bay, Ontario. I counted 45 in a flock here on the farm (25 miles SE of North Bay) on Oct. 31. I also saw a small flock (about 12) 5 miles north of North Bay on Oct 27. The 27th is the first sighting for me personally, this fall, although I think others saw them somewhat (a few days) sooner in this area.
I’ll keep watching for them! Lori Anderson

Rick,
No Snow Buntings so far in Essex County (Ontario).
Bob Hall-Brooks

Hi Rick,
I heard my first overhead about a week ago and saw my first on Monday. [near Southampton, ON]
Cindy (Cartwright)

[November 2nd – Ottawa area] Snow Bunting*: Several flocks: (*35*, Pinhey Point, Ottawa River @ 3:00
PM) (*50*, Trail Rd @ 4:50 PM)
Jon Ruddy

[November 3rd = Ottawa area] I was out looking for buntings today near Shirley’s Bay, but seems I didn’t get up early enough (not surprising…). Another birder said he just saw them there, but we saw zero! I’ll keep my eyes out in the farm too. Seems as if they are invading all across southern ON…
Christie Macdonald

Hi Rick,
A few scattered sightings around the Montreal area but that’s it. We’re getting ready for the SNBU season here too but will wait until we get snow to start banding.
Hope you get a good season!
Simon Duvall

I am here 0n the shore of the Bay of Fundy, No birds of late.
Cheers
Stephen Burrows

There have been some reports in Nova Scotia over the past week or two. I just saw a picture of one, I think from today, from nearby Halifax.
Jeff MacLeod

Hi Rick,
I took a 1200+ km loop around eastern Alberta last week and failed to spot even one bunting. Can’t be far behind, given that we’ve had snow falling for 13 of the past 15 days (unprecedented for Calgary at this time of year), but so far I’ve only heard of one report from a couple of hours east of Edmonton. Not a single Snowy Owl reported in the province yet either, as far as I know.
Congratulations on your big season at Ruthven! I’ve enjoyed following the highlights via the daily reports.
Marcel Gahbauer

Hi Rick
So, re SNBUs, I haven’t seen any in our area yet [Essex County, ON]. I am hoping for lots of snow this winter. We HAVE to have more than Last Winter! All we had was one 4″ snowfall and the next day Paul Pratt and I did our only banding of the winter, and had I think 24 birds: 22 SNBU and 2 LALOs.
Caroline Staddon

Hey Rick,
Believe it or not I saw a small group of three yesterday, east of Kemptville [outside of Ottawa]. Just flying over.
Fergus Nicoll

Rick,
I thought I saw a flock on my road, but they were in the distance and I wasn’t 100% positive. I have the bios in the car now if I see them again.
McKay Siding Road, between Truro and Stewiacke in Nova Scotia.
Barb McLaughlin

[from Newfoundland] There were a number of reports on the nf.birds website this week (link below) including Windmill Bight (lots), Cape Race (plenty), Cape Freels (everywhere), and Cape Spear. These sites are headlands spread all along the northeast coast of Newfoundland. No news from St. Anthony or the west coast yet… I’ll try and get out this weekend!
https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!forum/nf.birds
Darroch Whitaker

[Sudbury] I haven’t seen any personally, but I also haven’t been out of town much. I suspect there are some hanging around, but probably no flocks yet.
Darryl Edwards

Hi,
I have heard of a few SNBU being seen in the Rimouski area, but no big
numbers yet. For my part, I still haven’t seen any yet.
Alex Anctil

Snow buntings have been appearing in increasing numbers in the Pickle Lake area [NW ONtario] over the last few days. You can find them along the highway, in cutovers or on the forest edge.
The weather forecast is calling for snow as these harbingers confirm.
Happy birding.
Tim McKillop

Hi Rick
This from my colleague Paul Martin who was out birding this past week:
16 Snow Buntings on Thursday, and 54 Friday in the Sandbanks Prov Park area [north shore of Lake Ontario]. All were in small flocks along the shoreline (a few single birds).
Bob Montgomerie

Hi Rick and all
We have been seeing a couple of small flocks of a dozen or less SNBU since mid October here at Love, Saskatchewan. The ground is frozen here now with about 3 to 4 inches of snow. I was unable to catch any SNBU last year and unfortunately it looks even harder this year. The SNBU feed a lot on harvested canola fields here and this fall during harvest we had some strong winds that piled lots of unharvested canola against tree lines, fences and in ditches. I have already observed the Redpolls feeding on these piles, and assume the SNBU will do the same. Lots of luck to everyone and we will try our best to lure some in.
Bert Dalziel

There were a few in parking lot at the Horicon Marsh International Education Center north of Horicon yesterday morning. [Wisconsin]
Noel Cutright

[From Ontbirds] At 11:15am today Sat Nov3 had over 100 Horned Larks on the road in front of
my car…Conc5 Clearview Twp..go out west end of Creemore [Ontario] heading south up
the big hill…at the very top..Bryce Hunter

[From Ontbirds] Large flock (easily hundreds) of Snow Bunting with horned lark in the same place that Bryce posted yesterday…..Conc5 Clearview Twp..go out west end of Creemore heading south up
the big hill…at the very top.
Michael Agueci

November 1st – Winding Down….Winding Up

Posted on by
1

Today’s “census team” – census by concensus as it were.

It was another wet, cold, overcast day. Felt almost like November…..We opened the nets right after the rain stopped and ran them until 1:00. But we weren’t catching much. Even the Pine Siskins were in short supply. (Of course, this wasn’t much of a surprise as the birds we were catching over the past couple of days were carrying bigfat loads, suggesting further migration.) The Winter residents continue to move in – Dark-eyed Juncos and American Tree Sparrows. But the warblers have all but gone – we saw only one (a Myrtle Warbler) through the morning.

Eastern Bluebird – we have been seeing lots of these over the past week.

I would like to know what the Eastern Bluebirds are doing. We have been seeing large numbers of them for the past couple of days. Some will overwinter here (we had 5 spend last Winter in the valley behind net 2) but most will be shifting south. Just how far south will be hard to say. But they would appear to be on the move now.

Dorothy Smith and a female Eastern Bluebird.

But as things wind down…we can begin to anticipate the arrival of Snow Buntings!!

Male Snow Bunting. -G. Hentsch

There are reports of them from the Peace River area of NW Alberta.

There are reports, going back to October 20, of small flocks in the Ottawa area.

Darroch Whitaker in Newfoundland writes:
There were a number of reports on the nf.birds website this week (link below) including Windmill Bight (lots), Cape Race (plenty), Cape Freels (everywhere), and Cape Spear. These sites are headlands spread all along the northeast coast of Newfoundland. No news from St. Anthony or the west coast yet… I’ll try and get out this weekend!
Darroch

https://groups.google.com/forum/?hl=en&fromgroups=#!forum/nf.birds

Alex Anctil in Rimouski, Quebec writes:
I have heard of a few SNBU being seen in the Rimouski area, but no big
numbers yet. For my part, I still haven’t seen any yet.

So, slowly, they are beginning to show up. It will be interesting to see what this Winter brings. Two years ago, in a “typical” Winter, we banded 2,800+. Last Winter (if you can call it that) we banded 40. They need cold temperatures and snow. Hopefully we’ll band a lot….and I’ll get to go skiing!

Trapping Snow Buntings on a cold Winter morning – there’s nothing like it!

Banded 20:
1 Brown Creeper
2 Eastern Bluebirds
4 American Tree Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
4 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 House Finch
2 Pine Siskins
5 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 41 spp.
Fall Banding Total: 4,709
Year-to-Date Banding Total: 7,294

Photo Gallery:
(if the gallery is not visible, you can view the photos by clicking here to visit our Flickr page)

[slickr-flickr tag=”november12012″]

Rick