Phoenix/Scottsdale Arizona just does it right. There are miles and miles of paved trails that lead everywhere for ardent (and laid back) cyclists, walkers, skateboarders…self-propelled outdoor enthusiasts of all ilks. The trails lead along rivers, washes, lakes, under highways and over city roads. And lots of people use them…which is refreshing in itself. Many of the trails are bordered by wild areas that are home to a range of interesting plants and animals.

And it is in this light, as I was teetering along on my bike, that I thought how sad it was that the youth of today had probably never seen the greatest cartoon show of all: The Rocky and Bullwinkle Show. I used to watch it religiously when I was younger and am a better, nay, a much better, person for it. But when the show wasn’t on I would sometimes settle for the less cerebral but entertaining Roadrunner cartoon show. I don’t know how many times poor old Wile E Coyote just missed dropping an anvil on the speedy roadrunner or blowing him up with copious amounts of TNT.

What brought this train of thought to mind was the sighting of both a coyote and a roadrunner within 20 minutes of each other. The coyote was…well…wiley. Very aware of our presence and emboldened to trot by within just 50 meters but always with a keen eye on us just to make sure we had no evil intent. The roadrunner was even braver, strutting past within 2 meters, certainly not concerned about our presence in the least. And then, about 3 minutes later, it came back carrying a nice big lizard.

And although I saw both coyote and roadrunner close together, I never saw an anvil or a box of TNT….

Further on down the trail there was a string of rock piles covering large pieces of drainage piping – artificial nest structures for Burrowing Owls. We were fortunate to see one!

Rick

The weather has been topsy-turvy over the last four days, going from Summer temps in the high 20’s to cold, raw conditions with wind, rain and the thermometer at just above freezing.

The 16th was hot and ushered out some migrants that had spent the Winter here – specifically American Tree Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos. There were very few around on the 16th and there have been even fewer since then. We’ve retrapped a couple since and they’ve been putting on fat/weight so even they won’t be around much longer. Although they have gone, the sparrows that will take their place as they move through have not shown up yet. And no wonder. There were thunderstorms on the evening/night of the 16th as the temperature plummeted and we got heavy rains. [I was REALLY pleased to see the rain as the many dogwoods that we have replanted looked in need of watering after days of hot weather – they look much better now!] We banded only 8 birds on the 16th. I banded a House Wren, which was the first for the year, and Liam dug up a very early Blue-grey Gnatcatcher, also a first.
Banded 8:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 House Wren
1 Song Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds
1 Northern Cardinal
Species Count: 45

There was no banding on the 17th due to cold, rain and high winds. I did a brief walk around to see what birds I could find. Despite the conditions, it was interesting to watch a loose flock of 66 Tree Swallows work their way up the River.
Species Count: 23

I opened on the 18th for a couple of hours even though the temperature hovered around 2 C. but, as the raw wind began to pick up and the nets began to billow, I closed early.
Banded 15:
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 American Robin
6 American Goldfinches
1 Field Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 Song Sparrow
3 Swamp Sparrows
Species Count: 36

It was cold first thing this morning (19th) with a threatening overcast and a bit of wind. But the sun, when it finally emerged, was a blessing and thoroughly enjoyed by all of us. New species for the year were: Red-breasted Merganser, Caspian Tern, Barn Swallow, Hermit Thrush, all found by promising new bander Mike MacLeod. An interesting sighting was a mink in the pond.

Banded 23:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
6 American Goldfinches
1 American Tree Sparrow
1 Savannah Sparrow
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 Song Sparrows
3 Red-winged blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 Common Grackles
1 Northern Cardinal
Species Count: 45

Odds and Ends
Rick Walford, who works at Veolia Water Technologies and Solutions in Burlington, put up a number of bluebird/tree swallow boxes on the property a few years ago. He reports that he already has a nest with 3 eggs! And Wood Ducks have been checking out the pond.

Eva Luther lives in St. Lewis, Labrador. She monitors the flow of migrating Snow Buntings through the area in the Spring as they head back to the Arctic. Eva actually recovered a bird that I had banded here in southern Ontario many years ago. It was a pleasure to finally meet her (and see St. Lewis) this past March/early April. When I was there visiting she fed me on homemade bread and partridgeberry jam; it’s delicious! When the snow melts many of these tasty and nutritious berries are made available to birds, fueling their migration.

I banded with Vernon Buckle for about a week in Forteau along the south coast of Labrador. This forms part of the Snow Bunting “highway” as birds wing their way back to the Arctic. While I was there, we recapturd 3 birds that had been previously banded somewhere else. One was by David Lamble last year near Fergus Ontario. The data on the other two had not yet been entered but I suspect they were from banding operations in southern Quebec. And just yesterday he was able to photograph this bird with enough resolution to get a full band number (it took about a hundred shots!). It too was a David Lamble bird:

And in Haines Junction in the Yukon, Julie Bauer had a banner year:
Hello all, well our last day of bunting banding was today. It has been an interesting season. Started March 19 for a period of 22 days. Start was slow and then we had busy time around April 1st. High banding count of 272 in our backyard April 3. Only 3 LALO this year handled. Total banding was 1818, our third highest number in 10 years of banding. Year to year recaps were 15 with 2 from 2018.We have just passed 10,000 birds banded. We caught lots of females throughout this season and I believe it will be our highest count of females ever. Will crunch some numbers later.
Cheers Julie and Terry


Rick

We’ve had a string of unusually hot days for this time of year. The bird activity seems to have slowed down but there’s been a small infusion of new birds each day. And while we’ve been catching and banding birds we’ve been trying to continue the work of turning the site into a more bird-friendly habitat: taking down buckthorn and some walnuts and planting dogwoods and a few other trees. If you haven’t seen the site since last year, you wouldn’t recognize it now.

April 13th – Banded 23:
2 American Robins
10 Cedar Waxwings (found a flock of them in Net 1 at closing time)

3 Dark-eyed Juncos
4 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
Species Count: 28

April 14th – Banded 18:
1 Hairy Woodpecker

1 Northern Flicker

1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 American Robin
4 American Goldfinches
1 Field Sparrow (1st of the year)

1 American Tree Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
2 White-throated Sparrows

1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 Common Grackles
Species Count: 40

April 15 – Banded 21:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 American Robin
2 American Goldfinches
3 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Savannah Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows
2 Swamp Sparrows
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds
2 Myrtle Warblers
1 Northern Cardinal

Species Count: 42
Rick

What’s going on!? Summer already? At opening it was already in the mid-teens and by the time I left around 1:00 it was in the mid-twenties. Summer weather….yikes. I even saw the first mosquito of the year as it floated into the banding hut looking for a meal so it could deposit eggs in the nearby wetland. I chose not to be part of this elemental circle of life…and squashed the little sucker, perhaps depriving a future tadpole of a meal but, hey! that’s life.

There wasn’t a lot of action today. The highlight was a female Rusty Blackbird – there have been a few around but this was the first one banded this year. I really like these birds – whose numbers have been dropping precipitously.

There are still a lot of American Tree Sparrows around – we banded 6 but retrapped 16 and estimated that there were at least 40 around the site. Very few of these birds are carrying significant fat loads which would lead you to believe that it will be awhile before they head north. Let me clarify that: they’re not carrying a lot of furcular fat. But some birds were showing good weights so when we checked we saw that although fat deposits might be reduced in the furculum they still had significant build-ups of fat on the belly – “belly pads”. Enough easily to take them a good ways north if needed. With the 6 banded today, our Tree Sparrow number is 65 which represents almost half (48%) of the 135 birds banded so far.
Banded 18:
1 Eastern Bluebird
2 American Robins
1 House finch
1 American Goldfinch
6 American Tree Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 Song Sparrow
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Rusty Blackbird
1 Northern Cardinal

Observed Species: 34

Rick