The End of a Season and Some Mysteries Solved

Our banding season officially ended this year on 15 November. The 3rd week in November was just too windy and cold to safely open nets, so we took nets down the following Saturday. It is always with mixed feelings when nets come down at the end of the year. I'm sad not to be out spending my days in the woods and fields with birds, but am also grateful for the reprieve of not getting up before dawn and walking  6 miles/day and the consequent exhaustion! By March I'll be itching to get back.

2010 was our best year ever. We actually had a real spring here on cape. Warm, dry days prevailed enabling birds to fledge more young I believe. The fall was windier than usual causing us to lose some banding days but even with that we handled more birds than ever before- 5,347.  This includes new bandings, recaptures, and those released unbanded. 3,475 birds were banded and 1,753 were recaptured. Most recaptures were from the current year, but 176 were birds returning from previous years with our oldest bird being a 9 year old Blue Jay.

We banded 89 species this year and 6 of those were new to the station. New this year were a Kentucky Warbler, who arrived in May, a handsome fellow!

A Least Flycatcher in August,

our unforgettable Swainson's Warbler in early September,

a gorgeous Prothonotary Warbler on October 7th,

a Grasshopper Sparrow on the 19th of October,

and finally that big bruiser, an American Crow in November, who was giving me a piece of his mind in this photo.

Throughout the year I posted some pictures of birds that I had questions about. There was the Gray Catbird with what I thought was fluid under its skin, but was actually air. See

http://capecodbander.blogspot.com/2010/06/migration-comes-to-halt.html

To quote Bob Mulvihill from Powdermill Avian Research Center in Pennsylvania, who is always so helpful and willing to share his vast knowledge, "Your catbird had what is called a pneumo-thorax. The expanded area is actually air-filled, not fluid-filled. This occurs when one or more air sacs ruptures, and the escaped air gets trapped under the skin."

He and others commented on the Downy Woodpecker I banded in late September. See

http://capecodbander.blogspot.com/2010/10/uncooperative-weather.html

It was felt this was an older woodpecker (ATY or After Third Year) due to the presence of three generations of non-juvenal primary coverts. The brown feathers would be much more worn if they were juvenal feathers.

Then there was the Traill's Flycatcher with the strange material stuck to its legs-

I was able to cut the material off and sent it to Karl Johnson. Sheryl and Lauren Johnson help me out in the summer at the banding station and Sheryl thought her husband, who is Professor and Chair of the Biology Department at Haverford College in Pennsylvania and a great microscopist, might be able to figure out what it was. He took the time to look at it under a powerful microscope. Here are his thoughts and some pictures:

"When I examined a sample under the microscope, I found that the material is a tangle of filaments with fragments of other materials. I have attached several images where I have teased things out on an edge (the view is a bit more powerful than you would see through a hand lens). The two lower power images compare transmitted light and darkfield illumination (darkfield really pulls out the fibrous nature of the material); the third is at higher magnification. The sample appears to be a mat of fibers, mostly thin (often twisted in yarn-like bundles) with a few thicker elements, incorporating other materials such as a few pollen grains. Given the fiber-like nature of the material, I compared it to a collapsed cobweb and found them remarkably similar - a few thicker elements of the drag line silk, but predominantly thinner fibers of capture silk. Interestingly, the sticky capture silk in my specimen had even trapped pollen grains in the mat, just as I noted in the material from your bird.

I suspect that your bird had tangled with a large spider web and that the resulting mat was a bit difficult for it (and you) to remove. Spiderweb silk is a remarkably strong, resilient and lasting material. A "catchy" story!"

And lastly there was the Myrtle Warbler in October with the odd toe growths.

Bill Hilton of the Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History in South Carolina felt this was an example of old avian pox. According to Bill, "when it's fresh the tissue is soft and pink or yellow. It hardens over time and sometimes the affected toe falls off." Thanks for your help, Bill!

The banding program is volunteer run.  Over 1623 hours were donated this year. A big thank-you goes to all volunteers who helped out with this project: Bander Gretchen Putonen (269 hrs), Jessica Rempel (84 hrs), Bander Carolyn Kennedy (76.5 hrs), Jo-Anna Ghadban (72 hrs), Judith Bruce (34 hrs), Peter Brown (26.5 hrs), Judy Keller (23 hrs), Mary Bassing (20 hrs), Jan Bridge (11 hrs). Thanks also go to the following people who helped out at various times this season; Sheryl, Lauren and Kristen Johnson, Tom Burgess, Roger Mongold, Kate Iaquinto, Mo Correll, and Suzanne Moore. Many thanks go to Bill Otis for his work updating and maintaining the website.

Our financial support comes solely from donations and grants. We are eternally grateful to the French Foundation, which has supported us for many years enabling us to buy nets and other equipment we need.
 Donations can be sent it to:
 

Wing Island Bird Banding Station

Cape Cod Museum of Natural History

869 Main Street

Brewster, MA 02631

508-896-3867

This will be my last post until next year. I may post if I do any winter banding teaching new volunteers how to extract birds from mist nets, but otherwise I'll be back in the spring!

 

Started Small and Ended Big

2-15 November

The first week of November was cold and windy preventing me from opening nets until Saturday the 6th. I got a call the previous Saturday about a hummingbird visiting a feeder so on Tuesday the 2nd I traveled to Wareham to check it out. Bonnie Chapin, the homeowner, was very accommodating. I set my trap up near where she had the hummer feeder and placed the feeder inside the trap.

I had to move the Mandevilla Vine so the hummingbird wouldn't choose the flowers over the feeder.

With the rest of the banding equipment set up in the back of my car,  I waited patiently in the front seat for the hummingbird to come in to feed. Invisible fishing line is attached to the door that I close as soon as the bird enters the trap. Fifteen minutes went by and then I heard the sound of its wings. The hummer went right to the spot where the feeder was and then it noticed the feeder in the trap. It hovered on the trap's side and back but didn't get around to the front. Instead it flew up to a nearby burning bush and sat perched on a branch likely pondering what to do next.

The day was very gray so I was unable to get a good picture of him, but I could now see a few gorget feathers. The question was, where they red or purple? When it gets to be late in the season and a hummingbird shows up there is the possibility that it is a vagrant hummingbird, that is a bird from a different area, say the west coast, and not a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. Since I saw no rufous (rusty-red) coloration in the tail I determined it was either a Ruby-throated or Black-chinned Hummingbird, the western counterpart of the ruby-throat. I also determined it was most likely a young male due to the few gorget feathers, although occasionally an older adult female could sport a few of those feathers. The head and back of the black-chinned tend to be a bit grayer-green than illustrious green and the outer primary feather is more club-shaped and less pointed than the ruby-throat.

Normally when I go to band a hummingbird I capture the bird within the first five minutes of setting up the trap. This was a tough little guy though and he would visit the trap but not enter it and then sit back up in the bush for 20 minutes or so. This went on for three hours with him leaving all together every now and then. After the 3rd hour he didn't return so I waited another hour and then left. Bonnie called me the next morning to say he was back to feed at dusk and was there again in the morning. I decided to give it another try. One of my assistants, Jo-Anna, joined me.

I went through the same routine as the day before and while we were at the front door talking with Bonnie  he came back, this time taking a drink at the bird bath. It was a nice sunny day and the light reflected off his red gorget feathers- ruby-throat!  He flew up to the burning bush, sat for a few minutes and then went right into the trap. Now why couldn't he do that yesterday?????

I removed him from the trap and banded him. The bands are very tiny. Here is an example of a band on a hummingbird (not the same bird).

Measurements, shape of his 6th primary feather, striations to the bill, and buffy edging to his body feathers proved him to be a hatch year male. I counted 8 red gorget feathers.

When we were done, Bonnie had the privilege of releasing him. He stayed on her hand for quite awhile reluctant to leave her.

All it took was a slight blow to his feathers, as if you were blowing out a candle, and off he went right back  to the burning bush. The feeder was taken out of the trap and put back just as he liked it. According to Bonnie he was right back at the feeder soon after we left. And as far as I know he is still there! She plans to call me when she no longer sees him.

By Saturday the winds had subsided and while it was still on the cool side we were able to get back to our banding site. We ended up with 58 birds, quite a drop from our 100+ days from the previous weeks. Numerous nets had to be closed early due to the astronomical high tide. Yellow-rump numbers had dropped considerably with only 14 handled. We did manage to get a few kinglets of both species, including this male Ruby-crowned Kinglet.

We caught 18 previously banded chickadees and Yellow-breasted Chat and banded two species of woodpecker, Hairy Woodpecker (top photo) and a Northern or Yellow-shafted Flicker (bottom photo), both first year females.

On Halloween, thirty Northern Bobwhite raised by fifteen-year-old Nicholas Fiore as a licensed project to help the species populate this habitat on the Cape, were released on the island. They seemed to gravitate to our banding table when we were there. Maybe our voices indicated food! Isn't it amazing how their cryptic coloration just blends in so well with the leaf litter?

We tried banding Sunday the 7th, but it was almost pointless as the wind picked up right after opening and we closed early after capturing only 9 birds.

The second week of November was quite rainy and windy so banding was out until November 12th. While the wind had subsided somewhat Jo-Anna and I still had an unproductive day with only 12 birds handled. Gretchen and I had a better day on Saturday the 13th. We caught an American Tree Sparrow, a first for this fall season. You can see the dark spot often present on the breast.

They have bi-colored bills, dark on the top and yellowish on the bottom. 

Gretchen extracted a first year male Sharp-shinned Hawk making two for this fall season.  

We are now capturing hardly any yellow-rumps and both White-throated and Swamp Sparrows have been scarce for us this year. I fear we will also miss banding Orange-crowned Warbler, Fox Sparrow, and Winter Wren, all species we normally capture later in the fall but have eluded our nets thus far. On Sunday the 14th we did manage a few more hatch year Swamp Sparrows

and we recaptured an adult Swamp Sparrow. The gray vs. yellowish supercilium is clearly visible in the two age groups. 

I looked up the history of this adult bird and as often happens with our recaptured birds it showed up either on or near the same date as previous years in the same net. He was a bit late this year!

October 31, 2007 - Net 17- first banded as a HY (hatch year)

October 21, 2008 - Net 17 - recaptured

October 21, 2009 - Net 17-  recaptured

November 14, 2010 - Net 17 - recaptured

Gretchen and I banded again on Monday the 15th. Another slow day. While I was banding a Song Sparrow, a fly flew out from the feathers and landed on my hand. It was a member of the Hippobosidae family, we call them 'hippos', that feed on the blood of birds and mammals. Their common name is Louse Fly or Flat Fly because they can slip through the feathers unnoticed. I see them occasionally on birds.

The highlight of the day had to be at the end of our banding day. We caught a species we had never banded before. As I rounded the shrubs and entered the net lane I was totally surprised to see a crow in the net! These birds are typically far too smart to be captured in a mist net, let alone one of such small mesh. I had never handled a crow before and this was one big bird. He was quite tangled. I had to cradle the bird against my body carefully removing the netting from the feet so I could untangle the netting from the wing. I caught a great whiff of fish. I though to myself, "Fish Crow"? American Crows will of course eat fish too, so I would have to wait to determine species until measurements could be taken. Luckily I had a large bird bag big enough to fit over the head and body and cradled it as if it were an infant on my way back to the banding table. Gretchen and I worked together to take measurements. It had a molt limit in the wing so we aged it as a hatch year. While I was busy attempting a bill measurement it got a hold of my finger and clamped down so hard I shrieked! Gretchen and I carefully pried the bill open to extricate my finger. At one point it  I noticed evidence of avian pox on his eyelid, feet, and he had a good sized tumor on the edge of his right wing. It felt far stronger than any hawks I had handled. The measurements keyed the bird out as an American Crow. As I was taking a few pictures of him he vocalized and sounded like an AMCR too. His vocalizations brought in a whole host of other crows which brought to mind the Alfred Hitchcock thriller, "The Birds". Because of the sheer size and strength of this bird, the pictures didn't come out that great. The red areas on the eyelid and wing I believe are pox tumors. Imagine your finger inside that bill!

Many thanks to Gretchen Putonen and Jo-Anna Ghadban for helping these past two weeks. Birds seen, heard, or captured are between 2-15 November are shown below. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 191                      Total Species: 58
Total Banded Species: 23        Birds/100 net-hours: 28

Common Loon
Northern Gannet
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Brant
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Mallard
Common Eider
Scoter sp.
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-necked Pheasant
Northern Bobwhite
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Ruby-throated Hummingbird- 1
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker- 3
Hairy Woodpecker- 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker- 2
Blue Jay- 2
American Crow- 1
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 50
Tufted Titmouse- 3
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper
Carolina Wren- 9
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 1
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush- 1
American Robin -2
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 23
Yellow-breasted Chat- 4
Northern Cardinal- 9
American Tree Sparrow- 3
Song Sparrow- 38
Swamp Sparrow- 15
White-throated Sparrow- 1
Dark-eyed Junco- 2
American Goldfinch- 10
House Sparrow




 

The End is Getting Near

25-31 October

We are nearing the end of fall banding for this year, a sad time for us! Healthy numbers of yellow-rumps are still around, but I'm sure by next week that will change.

While we have seen an increase in numbers of most birds this year due to high productivity, we have banded less Swamp Sparrows than in previous years.

Six juncos showed up this week including this hatch year female. 

On Friday the 29th we captured this adult male American Goldfinch. Most goldfinches have gone through their yearly molt and are now in basic plumage.

The bright yellow lesser coverts (feathers at the top of the wing) and no buffy tip to the carpal covert indicate adult male. The carpal covert (we call it the CC) sits between the greater and primary coverts and will have a buffy tip in hatch year/second year birds. Adults don't have the buffy tip, although I occasionally see a white tip to the CC in adults.

Two more Eastern White-crowned Sparrows were banded on Friday and Saturday 

and another Red-breasted Nuthatch on Friday, a male this time of unknown age.  

Last week I showed you the female and lack of contrast between the crown and back, but here you can clearly see this contrast in the male. 

It has been hard lately to get good pictures due to lack of decent light. The birds seem to blend into the background! This was the best I could do with the Lincoln's Sparrow (top photo) and Yellow-breasted Chat (bottom) banded on Saturday. 

We banded another chat on Sunday the 31st along with this adult Nashville Warbler 

and a Western Palm Warbler.

When I got home on Sunday, my husband informed me we had a new tenant in one of our birdhouses, an Eastern Screech-Owl! What a nice way to end the week. It was getting dark when I took this picture. I hope it will stick around.

Last year we had a screech-owl occupy the house for only a few days. I don't believe it is the same owl as their facial patterns/colors are different. 

A big thank-you to all who helped this week: Mary Bassing, Peter Brown, Jo-Anna Ghadban, and Gretchen Putonen.

The following birds were seen, heard, or captured between 25-31 October. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 393                       Total Species: 58
Total Banded Species: 24        Birds/100 net-hours: 95

Double-crested Cormorant
Northern Gannet
Great Blue Heron
Brant
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Common Eider
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker- 2
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay- 2
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 56
Tufted Titmouse
Red-breasted Nuthatch- 1
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper- 1
Carolina Wren- 4
Marsh Wren
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 11
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 6
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush- 4
American Robin- 1
Gray Catbird- 1
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Nashville Warbler- 1
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 205
Western Palm Warbler- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 1
Yellow-breasted Chat- 2
Northern Cardinal- 18
Song Sparrow- 33
Lincoln's Sparrow- 1
Swamp Sparrow- 21
White-throated Sparrow- 1
Eastern White-crowned Sparrow- 2
Dark-eyed Junco- 6
American Goldfinch- 12
House Sparrow

Our Fifth New Species for the Year

18-24 October
As I made my way out to Wing Island along the boardwalk this week, I was greeted by clouds of robins ascending from the island to the skies. It certainly seems to be a good roost site, with loads of berries for an early morning breakfast before heading off. Surprisingly we only captured one robin this week among the hundreds that utilize this area.

Banding occured Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, and Sunday. The front that passed through left high winds and cold temps, not a good combination for banding so Friday and Saturday were out. Yellowrumps continue to dominate our nets. Thankfully they have to be the easiest bird to remove. Downright passive about the whole thing. It isn't unusual for all birds found in a net to be yellowrumps at this time of year traveling in large groups. We call them MYWA's, since we go by the subspecies Myrtle Warbler.

Normally I'm banding MYWA's very quickly. Ageing and sexing them is fairly easy and are probably out of my hands in 20 seconds. The bird pictured above gave me pause however, when I noticed an abnormality on its hallux, or rear toe.

The entire toenail was encased in this hard substance. I don't know if it was an abnormality in the keratin of the nail or some kind of parasite. Then I noticed it was present on the left hallux also.

Any ideas? Seemed different than a pox or scaly leg. I didn't try to remove it for fear of causing bleeding.

Next to MYWA's, we've  had abnormally high numbers of Golden-crowned Kinglets and chickadees this week. Over the past 10 years our average number of banded golden-crowns is 13. We have already banded 77 this year and our season still has another month to go. Ruby-crowned Kinglets (below) aren't as numerous this year and while we've banded quite a few (27), numbers are comparable with past years.

Chickadees are another story! Ten chickadees in this net, ten in the next net, has been the norm this week as we silently curse under our breath. Don't get me wrong, we love our chickadees, but they are the opposite of MYWA's removing from a net. They bite and clench with their feet making it a lot harder on themselves. Some of these chickadees must be migratory. I'm finding many loading up with fat. Nothing beats the weekend in Oct, 2001 at Braddock Bay Observatory in New York. I was there for 3 days being examined for my Bander Certification test. Occasionally they experience a huge migration of chickadees making their way over Lake Ontario.  And that's just what happened. We banded over 300 chickadees one day and over 400 the next. Thank goodness there were lots of us there to process these birds. And thankfully I passed my test! Here's a chickadee about to give me a final bite before being released.

Hopefully this bird is not one migrating elsewhere since the tail was so worn many feathers were half the size. It may have experienced some nutritional difficulties while the tail was growing in producing feathers of poor quality. The one good feather (r4 on the left side) was probably replaced.

We captured only 2 Blackpoll Warblers on Monday and Tuesday, most have gone through. Considered one of our confusing fall warblers, Blackpolls can resemble Bay-breasted and Pine Warblers in the fall.

Unlike Bay-breasted Warblers who have black feet, Blackpolls feet are yellow.

Pine Warblers have clean backs, while the backs of Blackpolls are streaked.

Our first Blue-headed Vireo of the fall season arrived on Tuesday

along with a new species for our station, a Grasshopper Sparrow!

Notice the bold, heavy white eye ring and the yellow feathers at the bend of the wing.

 I thought the feather combination on the back was so beautiful.

On Sunday, we had our biggest day all year with 225 birds captured, the majority being MYWA's of course. In the mix was a rather late hatch year Common Yellowthroat of unknown sex 

and this female Red-breasted Nuthatch.

I was unable to age her, but sexing was easy as the grayish-blue crown blended in nicely with the same back color. Males have black crowns.

I stayed later on Sunday than the others opting to keep a few nets open. As I did the last round I was rewarded with the best bird of the day, a hatch year male Sharp-shinned Hawk, our first for this fall season. They rarely bite, but we must make sure we always have control of their talons. It can be quite painful if they get a hold of you with their feet.

He kept a close eye on me turning his head almost all the way around as I took a picture of his back.  

As always, thanks very much to following people for assisting me at the banding station this week: Mary Bassing, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Judy Keller, and Carolyn Kennedy.

 

The following birds were seen, heard, or captured between 18-24 October. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 601                    Total Species: 51
Total Banded Species: 23      Birds/100 net-hours: 138

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Brant
Turkey Vulture
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Black-bellied Plover
Killdeer
Greater Yellowlegs
American Woodcock
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 93
Tufted Titmouse- 4
Red-breasted Nuthatch- 1
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper- 1
Carolina Wren- 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 44
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 6
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush- 3
American Robin- 1
Gray Catbird- 4
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Blue-headed Vireo- 1
Red-eyed Vireo- 1
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 369
Blackpoll Warbler- 2
Common Yellowthroat- 1
Northern Cardinal- 8
Grasshopper Sparrow- 1
Song Sparrow- 43
Swamp Sparrow- 9
White-throated Sparrow- 1
Dark-eyed Junco- 3
Red-winged Blackbird
American Goldfinch- 2
House Sparrow