The 2017 version of the Ruthven Ringers.
It’s been a hectic two days. Yesterday (the 14th) was both Mother’s Day and the day we chose to do the Great Canadian Birdathon. Our team – the Ruthven Ringers – did very well considering the conditions. I will write about it tomorrow but below you will find some great pictures of the experience taken by Ezra Campanelli.
Matt Timpf held the fort at Ruthven while I participated with the Ringers. He ended up with the biggest banding total so far for the season – 63. (See his write-up below.) We had a reasonably busy time today banding 48 but the exciting thing is that about 90% of the birds banded today were handled by up-and-comers Jaimie and Amy – they’re learning very quickly!
May 14th – Mother’s Day – Ruthven:
It was a busy day of migration monitoring at Ruthven today. Banding was steady. We handled a total of 84 birds, including 63 new ones. They consisted mostly of locally common breeders, but diversity was nice.
Logan brought his mother and here is seen releasing his first banded bird – Warbling Vireo. -M. Timpf
Non-banding highlights included a male Cape May Warbler in the spruce trees in front of the mansion, and up to 8 Chimney Swifts doing courtship displays.
There were 9 visitors today, coming as far away as Toronto. They enjoyed seeing the birds up close and personal, and they helped us out with net runs and releasing the birds. A great experience for them!
The numbers…
Banded birds = 63
Downy Woodpecker – 1
Least Flycatcher – 2
Tufted Titmouse – 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet – 6
Veery – 1 (5 ticks were removed)
Gray Catbird – 6
Warbling Vireo – 1
Blue-winged Warbler – 3
Lawrence’s Warbler – 1
Nashville Warbler – 7
Yellow Warbler – 9
Western Palm Warbler – 1
Ovenbird – 1
Common Yellowthroat – 5
Rose-breasted Grosbeak – 4
White-throated Sparrow – 5
White-crowned Sparrow – 1
Baltimore Oriole – 6
Orchard Oriole – 2
Recaptured birds = 21
Downy Woodpecker -1
Tree Swallow -1
House Wren – 1
Gray Catbird – 3
Blue-winged Warbler – 3
Yellow Warbler – 7
Common Yellowthroat – 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak – 3
American Goldfinch – 1 (originally banded in 2011 as a second-year male – 7 years old)
Census = 44 species
Estimated Species Total = 61 spp.
Matt
Our Purple Martins are putting up a fight – 5 are still trying to make a go of it. (That’s a Tree Swallow in the top left gourd.) -A. Beach
May 15th: Banded 48:
[Interestingly we saw very few long-distance migrant warblers today – only 4 species. The distance migrant warblers that nest here, e.g., Yellow Warbler, we got in good numbers but the ones that nest further north were nowhere even to be seen – even though we saw lots of them while doing the birdathon yesterday at Long Point. During the night they mush have simply flown over.]
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Least Flycatcher
1 Blue Jay
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Veerys
6 Gray Catbirds
12 Yellow Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
3 Song Sparrows
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
6 Baltimore Orioles
3 Orchard Orioles
4 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 54 spp.
Photo Gallery:
Tree Swallows have got their boxes sorted out and have started to build nests busily. -A. Beach
Check out the mottled, brown and black plumage of this second-year Rose-breasted Grosbeak. -F. Smith
A full adult male Rose-breasted Grosbeak for comparison. -M. Timpf
Northern Flicker paying his respects. -S. LaFleur
A nest full of young robins. -Caelyn
And another nest full of VERY young robins. -Caelyn
The oriole feeder makes a perfect perch for this Eastern Phoebe at Fred Smith’s place across the river. -F. Smith
Eastern Phoebe at the nest. -F. Smith
And from the Birdathon:
Female Lawrence’s Warbler – a nice way to start off the Birdathon.
Female Lawrence’s Warbler.
The porter carries the gear and searches for birds while the bwanas saunter on ahead. -EJC
Home of Prothonotary Warblers – Backus Woods. -EJC
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker. -EJC
Black-legged Tick found crawling up my shirt. Yikes! -EJC
The Townsend Sewage Lagoons were a disappointment this year but did turn up this Blue-winged Teal and Short-billed Dowitcher. -EJC
Male Ruddy Duck at Townsend. -EJC
Savannah Sparrow. -EJC
Stunning male Scarlet Tanager. -EJC
Rare (for the East) Summer Tanager at Backus Woods. -EJC
Hunkered down in the cold N wind – an Eastern Wood Pewee. -EJC
Magnolia Warbler – one of several species that were plentiful at Long Point’s Old Cut Banding Station area. -EJC
Tree Swallow getting low out of the wind. -EJC
Alessandra after a long, hard day. -EJC
Rick