Whew! It’s been a busy few days. There have been some interesting developments involving the banding program and interesting birds within the banding program. First the interesting birds for the past 2 days:

September 4th – A Great Place To Be
A good day banding with a nice mix of warblers and vireo’s. Yellow-throated Vireo’s and Eastern Wood-Pewee’s were calling throughout the morning in different areas of the park. We miss the morning chorus of different birds that were part of the spring season but are now long gone on their migration route. One species that we missed is the Purple Martins and their morning chatter.

Banded 42
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Eastern Wood-Pewee
2 Least Flycatcher
1 Black-capped Chickadee
3 House Wren
1 Veery
5 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
2 Warbling Vireo
11 Red-eyed Vireo
2 Yellow-throated Vireo
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
1 Blackburnian Warbler
3 Bay-breasted Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Field Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s :51
Nancy

September 5th – Lords of the Rings
We had a good first round – the 2nd Golden-winged Warbler of the year, the 1st Yellow-billed Cuckoo and Gray=cheeked Thrush of the year. But the numbers of birds dwindled in direct relation to the height of the sun and the temperature it was stoking. So….the young people (of which there were 6) began work on a new project – BAGend Banding Program that I will describe below.

Banded 29:
1 Yellow-billed Cuckoo
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Golden-winged Warbler
3 Tennessee Warblers
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Blackburnian Warbler
5 Bay-breasted Warblers
1 Blackpoll Warbler
2 Ovenbirds
1 Mourning Warbler
3 Common Yellowthroats
1 Wilson’s Warbler
2 Scarlet Tanagers
2 Song Sparrows

ET’s: 55 spp.

There are two new directions that the banding program is moving in. The first one involves Fern Hill School. Joanne Fleet, the wonderful environmental studies educator there, decided to leave teaching (and hopefully do more banding at Ruthven….like the old days). The administration at the school has asked us to help them with the banding/bird studies aspect of the program and we’re going to take that on. Right now it’s a bit of a logistical headache – we will have to rotate the banding position between myself, Nancy and Janice Chard – but we’re working it out.

The exciting thing about this development is that we will be able to compare results between this small urban site north of Lake Ontario with our rural site south of it. As well as banding, we will be doing a census and keeping tack of any birds encountered while running the banding program. At the end of the day we will then be able to generate a Daily Estimated Total for the site.

We will be there Monday to Friday until the end of the migration season. I was there Thursday and Friday. Two things struck me right off the bat: the noise (from nearby highway traffic and trains) and the amount of light (streetlights, buildings, Skyway Bridge). It underscores the gauntlet that these small birds must run to make it to their wintering grounds. It also emphasizes the importance of small green “islands” – like Fern Hill – that birds need to find along the way. As you can see below, the birds I was catching at FHS were quite different from what was being caught at Ruthven – note the lack of warblers and other long-distance migrants.

The other development has been a long-standing dream of mine: to start up a banding/birding program specifically for young people. Over the years we have had a number of birding “keeners” taking part in our banding. Some have been with us for way more years than I’d like to admit. And others have joined the ranks in recent years. So….I figured it was time (especially as they have been pushing me to do so). Thus the beginning of the BAGend Banding Program. Some of you (probably most of you) will recognize the reference to Tolkien’s Lord of the Rings. I thought the naming sort of appropriate – the beginning of a lifelong quest involving rings somehow seemed to fit. BAGend (it was Bilbo’s home in the story) is named after three of the most ardent (and most regularly attending) young folks: Ben, Alessandra, and Giovanni. There’s about 16 years of banding/birding experience right there. Other “Baggers” you might meet are: Samuel, Tessa, Caleb and Hannah (if they ever get back from vacation), Ethan and Claire. BAGend, the banding site, will be 50 meters away from the banding lab in the old Buttery – so they can feel like they’re “independent” but will be close enough to ask for help or for us to ensure quality control. They have set up 7 new net lanes in the river flats. Their results will not be included in our migration monitoring data. But it will give us a better picture of what birds are using the flats and their numbers will be added onto our overall totals for the site. It’s an exciting development.

Gallery:
Confusing Fall Warblers from the 4th:

From Fern Hill:



Faces from today (5th):










Miscellaneous Banding Results:
Fern Hill (September 3rd) – banded 28:
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 House Wren
13 Gray Catbirds (all juveniles)
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Common Yellowthroat
3 Northern Cardinals
5 Song Sparrows
2 American Goldfinches

Fern Hill (Sept. 4th) – banded 17:
3 Black-capped Chickadees
1 House Wren
8 Gray Catbirds (all juveniles)
2 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 House Finch
1 American Goldfinch

BAGend Banding Station (Sept. 5th) – banded 10:
1 Veery
2 Swainson’s Thrushes
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Ovenbird
2 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
2 Song Sparrows

Rick