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



Yellow-rumps Galore

11-17 October

Myrtle Warbler numbers increased substantially this week and will probably maintain those numbers for the next two weeks. Species diversity has dropped as most of the warblers have gone through. I was able to band Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Sunday. Winds died down for most of the week, but Friday a front came through. Saturday was just too windy to band with gusts up to 40 mph. Winds lessened a bit on Sunday so we gave it a shot opening our less exposed nets.

The majority of thrushes have already migrated and we band mainly Hermit Thrushes from now through November. We had 2 new captures on Mon and Wed, both hatch years.

Hermit Thrushes have reddish tails contrasting with the browner back.

Adults can have buff tips to the greater coverts especially when the feathers are fresh, but hatch years will have a teardrop or triangle shape with the buffiness traveling a bit up the feather shaft of the retained coverts.

We caught our last towhee on Wednesday and haven't heard them since. Brown Creeper numbers have increased with captures all four days. More study is needed on plumage characteristics to differentiate hatch years from adults at this time and we don't capture enough creepers to look into it. Once the skull has ossified I have to age them as U or unknown age.

 

Another Yellow-breasted Chat was caught on Wednesday as well as this adult Blue Jay. People often assume Blue Jays are aggressive when in actuality they are fairly docile when handling them. The worst part are their feet which clutch on your fingers and their nails are sharp!

Adults have barring on their primary coverts (the duller shorter feathers towards the outside of the wing above the primaries) while hatch years have no barring until their 2nd prebasic molt.

Carolina Wrens were banded both Thursday and Sunday

as well as titmice and this one posed so nicely for the camera.

We've banded more Golden-crowned Kinglets this fall than we ever have in the past ten years. Here is a male with a bit of attitude showing off his crest.

The female was a bit more subdued.

Wednesday also brought in a second Brown Thrasher, a species we rarely band

as well as an Ovenbird.

Many thanks to Mary Bassing, Tom Burgess, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Carolyn Kennedy, and Gretchen Putonen for helping this week.

The following birds were seen, heard, or captured between 11-17 October. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 472                      Total Species: 51
Total Banded Species: 24        Birds/100 net-hours: 97

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
American Black Duck
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
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
Blue Jay- 1
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 40
Tufted Titmouse- 7
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper- 7
Carolina Wren- 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 26
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 7
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush- 4
American Robin
Gray Catbird- 20
Brown Thrasher-1
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo- 2
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 269
Blackpoll Warbler- 6
Common Yellowthroat- 2
Ovenbird- 1
Yellow-breasted Chat- 1
Northern Cardinal- 8
Eastern Towhee- 1
Song Sparrow- 42
Swamp Sparrow- 13
White-throated Sparrow- 2
Dark-eyed Junco- 2
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Purple Finch
American Goldfinch- 6
House Sparrow

Another New Species

7 - 10 October
Rain and high winds still prevailed this week. It wasn't until Thursday that I got back out in the field. All our banding is done outside, so I constantly have the elements to contend with. I took a gamble on Thursday as there was a 50% chance of rain and sure enough it came in at 10 am. Not a heavy rain, so I managed to close down the nets I had open quickly and went back to furl them after processing. A makeshift tarp above the banding table kept the equipment dry.

Was I ever glad I took a chance today and banded. I captured our first Prothonotary Warbler! What a gorgeous bird.  

He was a hatch year bird aged by skulling. The males have more contrast between the yellow crown/nape (with a greenish wash) and the green back than females

and more white in the rectrices. Young females typically have white patches only on the 2 or 3 outer tail feathers.

This bird had a pinkish color to the toenails. Since I've never handled a Prothonotary Warbler before, are the toes normally dark? What causes white or lighter color toenails? I've been trying to find that answer in books and on the net to no avail. I've only read about leucism (a defect in the deposition of melanin in the feathers) describing feathers.  

Speaking of leucism, I banded 3 hatch year (HY) Black-capped Chickadees this week, all sporting leucistic feathers. Same family maybe? In the past I've caught HY chickadees that were noted to be leucistic and upon recapture maybe a year or two later had normal colored feathers. I'm assuming the leucism in those birds was disease or diet related.

A few towhees are still around and this week I banded two females, an adult and hatch year. It is tough to see the molt limit in HY female towhees after their first prebasic molt, the color of the greater and primary coverts is very similar. Other than skulling, here is a good example of eye color being helpful. The adult definitely has a red eye

 and the HY bird has a brown one.

I'm still finding many ticks on our birds, mainly in the ears. I've also been noticing bright orange bugs in the ears and have been investigating what they might be. The only thing I can come up with are harvest mites (the larval stage of chiggers) but please enlighten me if that is incorrect. From what I understand they feed on skin cells, cause intense itching, and leave red areas where they feed, which was the case on all the birds infested with these creatures. Here is the adult towhee with them in her ears.

Thursday ended up being a very slow day for this time of year with only 23 new birds banded and 9 recaptures. I guess the excitement for the day was another extremely high tide that Jan Bridge and I were caught in as we crossed the island. Jan, being a new helper, was a real trooper though, and while being a bit apprehensive, understandably not wanting to fall in while carrying camera and cell phone, managed to cross over the board walk through thigh-high water. We had a good laugh as I  helped  take her boots off. Her feet where sucked into her boot and I almost fell on my behind trying to pull them off!

 

Friday the 8th was a busier day with 51 new birds, 14 recaptures and 1 Black-throated Blue Warbler escapee (darn it!). We did band another Black-throated Blue, HY male, so I didn't feel so bad.

Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler numbers finally increased today. Usually by now we have banded more than 10x the number we have so far this year, probably due to the windy, rainy days when I couldn't band. It seemed to be the week for gross bugs. I thought I saw a tick on the chin of this yellow-rump and when I tried to take it off with my tweezers the bug got away from me and pulled itself into a hole in this poor bird's chin, which was oozing blood. Could this be Bot-fly larvae that had burrowed into the skin? It went in so far that I could no longer see it. Incredibly I recaptured this same bird on Sunday and was going to try to sneak in and grab it, but there was no longer any evidence of the insect and the wound had completely healed over.

I also captured a Gray Catbird with a noticably thicker right leg than left and a long hair-like projection a good centimeter long coming out of the leg, which I removed. Guess with my medical background I'm fascinated with all this! Back to "normal" birds-

Kinglets arrived in good numbers this week, with 16 new Golden-crowns and 13 new Ruby-crowns banded. Most of the Golden-crowns were males sporting colorful head plumage.

Numerous Palm Warblers were banded and surprisingly we had greater numbers of Yellow Palms than Western, which we usually band more of in the fall. This colorful Palm was easy to identify with the very yellow breast and belly, not contrasting with the yellow undertail coverts. More often than not they tend to be more subdued and we use tail and wing measurements as an aid to identification too.

We had a busy day on Saturday with 112 birds of 24 species, half of those being yellowrumps (and just when I thought they had by-passed us). We banded our first Eastern White-crowned Sparrow for the fall, a hatch year bird.

Here is what this bird will look like in the spring after going through a pre-alternate molt.  

Our first Marsh Wren showed up too, caught in our salt marsh nets specifically put up in the fall for sparrows (and occasionally rails).

They have a beautiful mixture of brown, black, and white plumage coloration on their back, head, and tail.

Another new fall species today was a hatch year male Red-breasted Nuthatch. We have certainly heard them constantly in the surrounding trees but like the White-breasted rarely capture them in the nets.

Our goldfinch numbers are down for the fall with almost all birds being hatch years. They have a browner appearance than adults (also lighting was bad the day I took this picture)

and we sex them by the wing color, black in males

and more dusky in females

I received a banding report from the Bird Banding Lab that a HY Gray Catbird we banded on July 30th of this year was sadly found dead in Silver Spring, Maryland on September 26th as it made its way south for the winter.

As usual, many thanks to all who helped this week- Mary Bassing, Jan Bridge, Jo-Anna Ghadban, and Gretchen Putonen.

The following birds were seen, heard, or captured between 7-10 October. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 305                          Total Species: 53

Total Banded Species: 32            Birds/100 net-hours: 71

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Turkey Vulture
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker- 2
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe- 2
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay- 1
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 24
Tufted Titmouse- 4
Red-breasted Nuthatch- 1
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper- 4
Carolina Wren
Marsh Wren- 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 18
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 15
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush- 1
American Robin- 2
Gray Catbird- 26
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Black-throated Blue Warbler- 1 (and 1 escapee)
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 114
Prairie Warbler- 1
Western Palm Warbler- 3
Yellow Palm Warbler- 6
Blackpoll Warbler- 14
American Redstart- 1
Prothonotary Warbler- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 3
Yellow-breasted Chat- 3
Northern Cardinal- 5
Eastern Towhee- 4
Song Sparrow- 19
Swamp Sparrow- 12
White-throated Sparrow- 2
Eastern White-crowned Sparrow- 1
Dark-eyed Junco- 2
Purple Finch- 2
American Goldfinch- 9
House Sparrow