Two cavalrymen in full regalia.
It’s been a hectic few days despite the season winding down. As well as banding passerines during the day (opening nets before sunrise), we’ve been trying for owls, sometimes until past midnight. It gets wearing. When we started going after Saw-whets, we thought that they might be following the Grand River, which runs north-south at Ruthven. Consequently we set our nets up and put out the sound system close to the river. We had fairly good success but wondered if they might be moving somewhat more inland as well. So we put another sound system up by some of the passerine nets to see if this might be the case. And, sure enough, we got pretty good catches from these. So, this season, we’ve tried to catch owls at Taquanyah Conservation Area, which is about 3.8 kilometers in from the river (and from Ruthven).
The night of the 25th, Nancy had an owl party at Ruthven with a warm structure to entertain in, a great array of goodies by Irene, and lots of enthusiastic company. I had a party of one at Taquanyah, sitting outside in the cold, goodie-less, with only the howling coyotes for company. The Ruthven group caught 5: 4 new ones and a foreign recovery. I got 5 new birds. So it’s beginning to look more and more like the owls head south on a broad front and the Grand River doesn’t really factor into it. [I don’t want to sound like I’m complaining about the Taquanyah gig. Brilliant stars, moonlight dappling the forest floor, and the myriad of sound coming from the marsh. Priceless.]
The night of the 26th I tried for Saw-whets at Fern Hill School. This was a very different experience. The thing that hits you is the noise! The 403 is almost right there and the GO Train tracks are close as well. I turned the sound system on full and was hard put to hear it just 200 meters away and then only when there was a lull in the traffic. I didn’t catch any. Still, the birds need to get around Burlington/Hamilton. It would be interesting to find out how they do it. Maybe on another night…..
The migration is certainly drawing down. Most of the short-distance migrants have passed through; we’re getting only the late ones. Now it’s the “winter residents” – the tree sparrows, juncos and goldfinches – that are showing up in large numbers.
This male goldfinch was hatched in 2008 – 7 years old!!
October 25th:
Banded 40:
1 Brown Creeper
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Fox Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrows
7 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 House Finches
2 House Finches
24 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 43 spp.
River Flats/Bagger Banding: 3 birds
1 Song Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
Alessandra doing some house cleaning – beating several years of dust out of the floor mats.
“Look! I didn’t know it had colours.”
Ben practicing his penmanship – all these years he thought he was writing English but actually it was Chinese….and no one except him could read it.
October 26th
Ruthven; Banded 42:
9 Northern Saw-whet Owls (4 at Ruthven; 5 at Taquanyah)
1 Blue Jay
Michelle with a Blue Jay she just banded.
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
4 American Tree Sparrows
4 Fox Sparrows
Fox Sparrow – we’ve banded 6 at Ruthven in the last 3 days.
1 Song Sparrow
12 Dark-eyed junco
8 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 38 spp.
Fern Hill School:
The birds at Fern Hill today came in like a lion and went out like a lamb. The first few hours of banding were quite busy and then things really slowed down. There were 28 birds handled – mostly comprised of Slate-colored Juncos. Unlike in the nets and traps, observation diversity was pretty high with twenty-six species observed throughout the day.
Banded: 15
1 American Robin
2 Song Sparrows
1 White-crowned Sparrow
11 Slate-colored Juncos
ET’s 26spp.
Janice
October 27th:
Ruthven; Banded 78:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Golden-crowned kinglet
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
8 European Starlings
1 Northern Cardinal
15 American Tree Sparrows
1 Fox Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
29 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 House Finch
15 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 36 spp
Rick
Urbania in the early morning, looking south from Fern Hill School. -J. Chard
Fern Hill School:
Out with the old and in with the new at Fern Hill school today! The high numbers of Slate-colored Juncos that we caught yesterday continued their migration south last night and there were many new (to the area) migrants to take their place. The field station was also under a bit of construction today as the wiring was being put in the lab to give us some electricity. The Young Ornithologists got very excited about two female Northern Cardinals that we caught this morning and a couple of students learned how a bander deals with a cardinal bite…[Editor’s note: I’m assuming that it doesn’t involve cursing….]
Banded: 20
1 Downy Woodpecker
4 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 American Robins
2 Northern Cardinals
1 Fox Sparrow
Our largest Sparrow – Fox Sparrow; a late migrant. -J. Chard
1 Song Sparrow
1 White-crowned Sparrow
2 Slate-colored Juncos
1 Red-winged Blackbird
2 House Finches
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 26 spp.
Janice