Cape Cod Bander

November/End of 2011

2012-01-03T18:35:00.000-08:00

I am very late at posting our last month of banding, but better late than never. With the mild fall weather we were able to band nine days in November with our last day on the 26th. Our first Fox Sparrow came in on the 1st. Some years we miss this species especially if bad weather forces us to shut down early. We banded 3 of them, all HY's.

We were quite surprised to find a Baltimore Oriole in our nets on the 2nd, this is the latest date ever for our site, she stayed around for a few days.

We aged her HY, the molt limit visible in her greater coverts with her 3 inner coverts replaced.

We didn't get out in the field again until the 6th and captured our 3rd Yellow-shafted Flicker for the year.

We conservatively aged him as ASY, but made notes on the molt limits we observed in the primary coverts. The two inner pcovs appeared to be 2nd generation, the 3 inner pcovs looked juvenal, and the remaining outer pcovs replaced this year.

We ended our season banding 71 Swamp Sparrows, all in the fall and 99% HY. As I've said before the majority of our Swampies have yellowish lores, but I've heard from other banders in different areas that they don't observe this in their HY birds. I took a photo of two SWSP's with the typical range we see in the lores of our birds, but some are quite yellow. I'd be interested to hear from other banders if they see the same coloring.

and on the 7th

We banded our 2nd Marsh Wren of the year on November 6th.

Another latest record for us was this female HY Eastern Towhee banded on the 13th.

We also captured our 3rd and final House Sparrow, an unknown male on the same day.

Many years we don't band this species, but I was very happy when Jo-Anna brought back our one and only American Tree Sparrow with it's bi-colored bill from her net run on the 19th.

We banded our remaining two Fox Sparrows also on the 19th, such handsome birds!

A call came in about a possible Rufous Hummingbird so I headed out to Wareham on the 20th to try to entice it into the trap. I typically capture hummingbirds soon after setting up the trap but I waited hours for this one. Little did I know that the homeowner put out another feeder in the front of the house after I set up my trap. Once I was able to convince her that the little one wouldn't starve, she took it down and the bird flew right into the trap.

Her long wing indicated female and while she had some gunk on her bill obscuring my view, it appeared to have some striations beyond the base (indicating HY) but at least 70% of the bill was smooth. Allen's Hummingbird was ruled out because of the wide outer tail feather and shape of the 2nd tail feather. She was missing both central rectrices.

Her orange gorget feathers centered around the midline of the throat.

After all the measurements were taken, the homeowner was delighted to release her.

I know she came back after banding, but I haven't heard if and when she finally left.

Our last day of banding on the island was the 26th. A slow day with only 22 birds, seven of those were Myrtle Warblers making this year's total 501. They sure were late this year!

We also handled 3 recap Black-capped Chickadees, one was first banded in 2008,

another HY Hermit Thrush bringing our year total to 18, our highest number ever,

White-throated Sparrows (below), a Carolina Wren, and 4 Song Sparrows.

We celebrated our last day with homemade goodies and Mimosas when we finished banding. A very enjoyable day! Many thanks to all who helped out in November; Jo-Anna Ghadban, Gretchen Putonen, Becca Miller, Judith Bruce, Carolyn Kennedy, Juliet Lamb, and her boyfriend, Yvan.

All in all, we had a total of 94 banding days compared with 78 last year. Nets were open for a total of 10,630 net-hours. 4,460 birds were netted giving us an average of 42 birds/100 net-hrs. Birds banded totaled 3,015 individuals.

1311 birds were recaptured during the season. The majority were from 2011, but 200 were birds returning from previous years. Three birds were 9 years old or older; a Blue Jay, Gray Catbird, and Black-capped Chickadee. Five birds were 8 years or older; an American Goldfinch, two Common Yellowthroats, a Prairie Warbler, and Song Sparrow. Two American Goldfinches, three Common Yellowthroats, and two Northern Cardinals were at least 7 years old. Two birds were at least 6 years old; a Slate-colored Junco and a Song Sparrow. We had ten birds at least 5 years old, twenty-three at least 4 years old, and twenty-eight were 3 years old or older. The remaining returns were 1 and 2 year old birds.

93 species were banded this year, the highest total since we began banding in 2000. Of those, two species were new for the station, the Wilson’s Storm-Petrels captured out to sea off Chatham, and a Cooper’s Hawk. Our top ten species for 2011 were: Gray Catbird (628), Myrtle Warbler (501), Song Sparrow (246), Common Yellowthroat (189), Black-capped Chickadee (148), American Goldfinch (95), American Robin (94), Blackpoll Warbler (92), Northern Cardinal (79), and Swamp Sparrow (71).

Ticks were collected from birds for the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension during the 2011 season. 735 ticks were removed from 275 birds of 29 species. Larval ticks will be tested for pathogens including Borrelia burgdorferi, the causal agent of Lyme disease, Babesia microti, the causal agent of human babesiosis and Anaplasma phagocytophilum, the causal agent of human granulocytic anaplasmosis.

The banding program wouldn’t run without the help of our volunteers. Huge thanks goes to all who helped out this year: Jo-Anna Ghadban (262 hrs), bander Gretchen Putonen (180 hrs), bander Carolyn Kennedy (87 hrs), Judith Bruce (71.8 hrs), Ornithologist Juliet Lamb (58.5), Jessica Rempel (28 hrs), Becca Miller (26 hrs), and Judy Keller (25 hrs). Thanks also go to the following people who helped out at various times this season; Stew & Margo Goodwin, Sheryl, Lauren and Kristen Johnson, Suzanne Faith, Juliet’s boyfriend Yvan, Judy Fenwick, visiting banders Mike Quinlan, James Junta and his assistant Mike, plus a few others that helped out for a day. A big thank-you to Jan Veneto who made us 150 absolutely beautiful, functional bird bags!

Can't wait for next season!

They're Back!

2011-10-31T19:56:00.000-07:00

Included in this blog are the last two weeks of October that I've divided separately.

18-23 October
After all the moaning and questioning about our lack of Myrtle Warblers (yellow-rumps), they finally showed up in good numbers on the 18th. I imagine by the end of the season we'll have banded only half of what is typical for us, but it's good to know they didn't abandon us completely. We've noticed them eating the juniper berries and there are plenty of those on the island. So far the 18th was our biggest day with 155 birds captured and 55 of those were yellow-rumps. We handled 23 species including a black-speckled adult male Blackpoll Warbler (92 banded so far),

another Brown Creeper

with it's gorgeous reddish-brown rump,

a hatch year female Black-throated Blue Warbler with a minimal white patch at the base of the primaries,

and another young Swamp Sparrow with it's yellowish wash on the lores.

They have dark centers to their undertail coverts.

We banded two more Yellow-breast Chats, a HY male shown below.

Here is Juliet Lamb, an ornithologist who has been helping out in between jobs, checking the chat for ticks in his ears.

She'll be leaving us soon to study the behavior of Andean Cock-of-the rock birds in South America. Here is a link to these magnificent looking birds! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zbAuRzTko5A&noredirect=1

We're surely going to miss her help!

Juliet and I headed out a bit apprehensively on the 19th as rain showed all around on the radar but not in Brewster. We thought we might have time to get a few hours in before the rain and as the skies darkened we started to close the nets at 9 am. As we furled the last nets rain fell lightly and luckily we were able to get all birds processed and ourselves off the island before the rain really started to come down. We ended up with only 27 birds this day including two Northern Bobwhites that were flushed into a net as I approached.

Rain and family obligations prevented me from getting back out into the field again until Sunday, the 23rd. We had 128 birds of 17 species, a nice assortment consisting of this HY Magnolia Warbler of unknown sex,

a HY female Orange-crowned Warbler,

and Lincoln's Sparrow.

We banded a Common Yellowthroat with either an injury or disease on it's breast

and banded 50 more Yellow-rumped Warblers, one of whom had a deformity to both nares (like nostrils in humans) where they were very large and mishapen.

The last week in October appears below after numbers for this week including our special Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow!

Thanks to the following who helped this week- Juliet Lamb, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Gretchen Putonen, Becca Miller, Jessica Rempel, Carolyn Kennedy, and Judith Bruce.

The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) during this time period.

Total birds: 310 Total species: 52

Total banded species: 28 Birds/100 net-hrs: 71

Great Blue Heron
Brant
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Peregrine Falcon
Northern Bobwhite- 2
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker- 2
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 8
Tufted Titmouse- 1
Brown Creeper- 2
Carolina Wren- 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 7
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 2
Hermit Thrush- 3
American Robin- 7
Gray Catbird- 7
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo- 1
Orange-crowned Warbler- 2
Magnolia Warbler- 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler- 3
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 126
Palm Warbler- 1
Yellow Palm Warbler- 1
Western Palm Warbler- 7
Blackpoll Warbler- 15
Common Yellowthroat- 5
Yellow-breasted Chat- 4
Northern Cardinal- 23
Song Sparrow- 46
Lincoln's Sparrow- 1
Swamp Sparrow- 16
White-throated Sparrow- 9
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
Red-winged Blackbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch- 5
House Sparrow

24-31 October

The 24th started out as a calm day with northwest winds but the wind picked up as they changed over to southwest late morning. We don't capture as many birds on windy days as the nets are easily seen. We still managed to capture 118 birds. The best bird of the day had to be this HY Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow!

This is only our second Gambel's that we have banded at this station. The pale grayish upper lores don't contrast in color with the supercilium and the bill is more orange than pink.

Compare to the HY Eastern White-crowned Sparrow from a couple of weeks ago, with it's dark lores and pinkish bill.

Another sparrow that gave us pause this day was a HY White-throated Sparrow with orange lores instead of yellow. I'm sure the berries it was eating as his feathers were growing played a part in the color.

Among the 53 new Myrtle Warblers banded today was a young bird with pox on it's right leg.

We always band a large number of Northern Cardinals later in the fall and today was no exception. Jo-Anna is using a clothespin that we use to tell what nets the birds are from to keep this gal occupied while she bands her. Better than having your fingers chomped on! Jo-Anna has been studying with me for the past year and is learning how to age and sex birds of many species.

We didn't get many birds on the 25th, the winds were just too high and had to close a number of nets. The following day on the 26th a storm was approaching, but Jo-Anna and I thought we could get a few hours in before we had to close due to weather. I guess the day before was the calm before the storm. As we made our way around the nets during the first round we had so many birds that we had to close all the nets on our second round. Because of the approaching storm we opened only four nets near our banding table and still the birds were coming fast and furious. This definitely would have been over a 200 bird day had we had enough volunteers and no worries of bad weather. As it was, Jo-Anna and I had 121 birds with 100 of those being yellow-rumps. One of those Myrtle Warblers included a very colorful adult male

with very rounded tail feathers.

A Blue-headed Vireo was also banded

and a new species for the year, a HY Marsh Wren

with the typical black feathers on it's back.

The 28th was a cold, cloudy, and windy day but we had enough help to get to the nets quickly and handled 76 birds. A HY robin was one of the first birds to be banded

with an easily seen molt limit in the wing. The first two inner greater coverts (longer and grayer without edging traveling up the feather vein) have been replaced and the others are retained.

We also had our 2nd Winter Wren,

also with a molt limit in it's wing similar to the robin above although much less consipicuous. The first two inner greater coverts have been replaced with white tipping and darker, grayish coloration near the base as opposed to the beige tipping of the shorter juvenal feathers .

We didn't get out again until Monday the 31st after the nor'easter. Luckily our nets were in good shape with no trees down on the island. Opening took a while to clean out debris, but otherwise there was no damage. The day was sunny and pleasant, although cool, and birds were abundant. Myrtle Warblers are still here in good numbers with 62 handled today. We also banded 6 Hermit Thrushes.

We've been hearing flocks of Cedar Waxwings most days and found 3 in our nets today, but I was surprised to see them still in juvenal plumage.

Another surprise was this HY female Baltimore Oriole, who we heard vocalizing earlier in the day.

She had replaced her greater coverts, but not the carpal covert, and also a molt limit is seen in the tertials. The last tertial feather (s9) has been replaced, but s7 & 8 are retained.

We banded 2 House Finches, the bird below while looking female had a reddish rump and a partially ossified skull so I'll probably send it in as sex unknown, while the other one was more colorful and a definite male.

By the end of the day we had handled 133 birds of 22 species, a nice variety for the end of October. We banded 1030 birds of 55 species for the month of October.

Thanks to all who helped this week- Jo-Anna Ghadban, Juliet Lamb and her boyfriend Yvan, Becca Miller, and Judith Bruce.

The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) during this time period.

Total birds: 488 Total species: 57
Total banded species: 30 Birds/100 net-hrs: 83

Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Great Egret
Brant
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Common Eider
Black Scoter
Sharp-shinned Hawk- 1 escape!
Cooper's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Great Horned Owl
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker- 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 16
Tufted Titmouse- 1
Brown Creeper- 1
Carolina Wren- 3
Winter Wren- 2
Marsh Wren- 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 11
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 9
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush- 9
American Robin- 7
Gray Catbird- 1
Cedar Waxwing- 3
European Starling
Blue-headed Vireo- 1
Nashville Warbler- 1
Magnolia Warbler- 2
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 303
Western Palm Warbler- 4
Blackpoll Warbler- 5
Common Yellowthroat- 5
Northern Cardinal- 14
Song Sparrow- 33
Swamp Sparrow- 27
White-throated Sparrow- 16
Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow- 1
Slate-colored Junco- 3
Red-winged Blackbird
Baltimore Oriole- 1
House Finch- 2
American Goldfinch- 4
House Sparrow

A New Species!

2011-10-17T19:44:00.000-07:00

10-16 October

Our lack of yellowrumps in the nets continued during the five days of banding this week, but I think I've figured out the problem. The fruit on our bayberry bushes,

a favorite food of Yellow-rumped Warblers, is practically non-existent.

I've scoured the island high and low and can barely find any fruits, normally very abundant in our area. So it bares the question- is this a bad year for bayberries or did the very early release (3 October) of a large number of Northern Bobwhite in our netting area cause the berries to be eaten up before the yellow-rumps migrated through?

We handled 69 birds on Monday, our busiest day and probably nicest weather-wise this week. The majority of HY robins look more like adults so we have to age them now by molt limits in their wing.

Young Northern Cardinals have also finished molting for the most part and look similar to their parents. Many retain some dark coloring on their bill well into fall and that helps us age them as well, as seen in this HY female below.

This was our last day for hearing and seeing Eastern Towhees. This adult male was loaded with fat and I'm sure he left for his wintering grounds on Monday night.

The highlight of the day, however was capturing a Cooper's Hawk, a first for our station!

The yellow eyes and vertical stripes identify this bird as a juvenile.

The upperparts are brown with rufous edging and white mottling.

The measurements identified him as a male. What an awesome bird!

We had a good day on Tuesday with 64 birds of 23 species handled. We had another Blue-headed Vireo, Eastern White-crowned Sparrow, five more Nashville Warblers, two more Northern Parulas, four Myrtle Warblers, Hermit Thrush, Lincoln Sparrow, and a nice male Black-throated Blue Warbler (below).

This young male had a molt limit in his wing easy to see between the replaced darker blue-edged greater coverts and the green-edged retained brownish juvenal feathers.

We also banded another Orange-crowned Warbler

and our first Savannah Sparrow of the year,

a hatch year bird with it's bright yellow lores.

Bird numbers and species continued to decline over the next three days. The winds were high on the 15th and 16th causing us to close our nets early. Our sixth Black-throated Green Warbler was captured on the 16th

along with a bright male Myrtle Warbler,

a HY with an easily seen molt limit in his wing between the alula covert and the lower alula feather.

On our last round we netted a Yellow Palm Warbler

This bird had quite a bit of yellow on it's underparts and larger wing and tail measurements than the Western Palm Warblers we tend to band more often, although we had more Yellows this week.

Many thanks to all who helped during this banding period- Jo-Anna Ghadban, Juliet Lamb, Gretchen Putonen, Carolyn Kennedy, Becca Miller, Judith Bruce, and Jessica Rempel.

The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) this week.

Total birds: 231 Total species: 60
Total banded species: 32 Birds/100 net-hrs: 35

Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Brant (first appeared 11 Oct)
Canada Goose
Mallard
Common Eider
Turkey Vulture
Cooper's Hawk- 1
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker- 2
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe- 1
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 28
Tufted Titmouse- 5
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper- 5
Carolina Wren- 4
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 3
Hermit Thrush- 2
American Robin- 8
Gray Catbird- 7
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Blue-headed Vireo- 2
Red-eyed Vireo- 4
Orange-crowned Warbler- 1
Nashville Warbler- 7
Northern Parula- 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler- 1
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 44
Black-throated Green Warbler- 1
Western Palm Warbler- 2
Yellow Palm Warbler- 5
Blackpoll Warbler- 11
Common Yellowthroat- 6
Northern Cardinal- 8
Eastern Towhee- 2
Savannah Sparrow- 1
Song Sparrow- 40
Lincoln's Sparrow- 2
Swamp Sparrow- 9
White-throated Sparrow- 13
Eastern White-crowned Sparrow- 1
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch
House Sparrow

Where are the MYWA's?

2011-10-11T15:49:00.000-07:00

3-9 October

It has been a great week species-wise at the banding station. But all I can say is "Where are the MYWA's?" (the sub-species of Yellow-rumped Warblers we band called Myrtle Warblers). We've had a smattering of yellow-rumps but as this is our 11th fall season we've always had huge numbers of MYWA's coming in this week. Typically by now we are banding 150-300/week but 9? What? Rumor has it they didn't do that well on their breeding grounds, so I'm curious if any banders can verify that. On the other hand, as I said last week, Blackpolls did have a good year and we can attest to that with another 29 banded this week.

This past weekend a large covey of Northern Bobwhite were released on the island to try to establish a population of quail. This has been done for the past three years but most have not survived. On Monday as Gracie (our banding dog) and I walked through the field out to our nets on the bluff we ran into the covey and explosion of quail ensued! We've encountered them all week and some have ended up in our nets such as this HY female. Females have buffy coloration on their throats and males have white throats.

We ended up handling 22 species of birds on the 3rd including another American Redstart, 2 more Blue-headed Vireos, pictured below and always a pleasure to handle, although they can be a bit nippy,

12 more Blackpolls,including an adult male with heavier and thicker black streaking on the body than it's HY counterpart

and our first Black-throated Green Warbler of the season.

We banded four more on the 7th. Our 2nd Northern Parula was banded on the 3rd, a HY male this time.

Males have a distinct tawny and slate-colored band across their breast not seen in females, although adult females can have a tawny wash.

Our best bird of the day was a HY male Connecticut Warbler as we only band one or two a year.

Rainy days prevailed both Tuesday and Wednesday so we were unable to band. We did get back out in the field on the 6th although it was a cool and windy day. Surprisingly we handled 105 birds with many of our northern birds showing up this day- Slate-colored Juncos, White-throated Sparrows, Golden-crowned Kinglets (18 in all), a hatch year female shown below,

20 Ruby-crowned Kinglets with a HY male shown below,

four Brown Creepers,

a Hermit Thrush

and a Winter Wren,

a species we haven't handled since 2008. They are such small and adorable birds with their tiny tails.

We also banded a few Myrtle Warblers and a Nashville Warbler. On Friday the 7th we added an adult Red-winged Blackbird to our list

and a HY Eastern White-crowned Sparrow.

The next day we banded an adult Eastern White-crowned Sparrow,

a HY female White-breasted Nuthatch,

and were very pleased to band two more warbler species, a HY Tennessee Warbler with it's very pointy beak, white undertail coverts, green back, dusky eye line and yellowish supercilium,

and an Orange-crowned Warbler with it's indistinctly streaked breast,

yellow undertail coverts,

and concealed orange crown patch present on this young male.

We had a Song Sparrow with an unusual extension of feathers on it's tail shown below growing off the end of a feather the bird was replacing. It was a hatch year with fault bars evident across some of the feathers.

As always, a big thank-you to those helping this week- Jo-Anna Ghadban, Gretchen Putonen, Juliet Lamb, Carolyn Kennedy, Becca Miller, and Judith Bruce.

The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) this week.

Total birds: 399 Total species: 68
Total banded species: 41 Birds/100 net-hrs: 57

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Common Eider
Turkey Vulture
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite- 3 (unbanded)
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker- 1
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe- 2
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 28
Tufted Titmouse- 13
White-breasted Nuthatch- 1
Brown Creeper- 8
Carolina Wren- 4
Winter Wren- 2
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 25
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 25
Hermit Thrush- 1
American Robin- 7
Gray Catbird- 93
Brown Thrasher
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Blue-headed Vireo- 2
Warbling Vireo- 1
Philadelphia Vireo- 1
Red-eyed Vireo- 15
Tennessee Warbler- 1
Orange-crowned Warbler- 1
Nashville Warbler- 6
Northern Parula- 1
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 9
Black-throated Green Warbler- 5
Western Palm Warbler- 4
Yellow Palm Warbler- 3
Blackpoll Warbler- 33
American Redstart- 1
Ovenbird- 1
Connecticut Warbler- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 18
Northern Cardinal- 10
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow- 38
Lincoln's Sparrow -2
Swamp Sparrow- 10
White-throated Sparrow- 13
Eastern White-crowned Sparrow- 2
Slate-colored Junco- 2
Red-winged Blackbird- 1
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch- 4
House Sparrow- 1

Rest of September

2011-10-02T19:00:00.000-07:00

I've been unable to post as often as I would have liked due to taking care of an elderly parent, so I'm posting the last 3 weeks of September here. I'll break it up week by week just as I would if I was posting separately. Our best week was the last week of September when we had many species (39). Rain occured most of the first week and I missed out on most of the second week due to moving my mom out of her apartment and into an assisted living facility.

9-11 September

The second week of September was still rather quiet for this time of year migrant-wise. A meager 22 birds were handled on the 9th, but the highlight of the day were two Yellow-bellied Flycatchers.

A SY Song Sparrow was recaptured that still had a brood patch. She hadn’t yet begun to molt and her feathers were so worn she appeared to have abnormal black feathers when in reality it was the wear that gave the odd appearance. The pictures I took didn't demonstrate this well but you get the idea.

Another HY Song Sparrow was replacing half of it’s tail, giving a good example of the difference between thinner and more pointed outer tail feather compared to the rounder outer adult tail feather on the right.

Finally our numbers increased substantially on the 10th capturing 88 birds, one being a HY Eastern Phoebe that had finished it’s first prebasic molt,

replacing the inner greater coverts, but retained the outer two smaller, buff-edged outer greater coverts.

This HY male American Redstart had more yellow streaking on his breast than I’ve seen before.

Our first Western Palm Warbler, with it’s shorter tail, beige supercilium and breast came in on the 10th too.

The highlight of the day was a Mourning Warbler.

On Sunday 11 September a banding demonstration was held for the public. Approximately 41 people attended. We handled 65 birds of 17 species of birds including Yellow-breasted Chat, always an impressive bird, Baltimore Orioles, Ovenbird, Prairie Warbler,

Hairy and Downy Woodpecker, Red-eyed Vireo, chickadees and titmice, goldfinches, Common Yellowthroats, Eastern Towhee, Carolina Wren, House Finch, Song Sparrow, of course MANY Gray Catbirds, and our earliest ever Brown Creeper!

One of the Gray Catbirds recaptured this day turned out to be originally banded as an After Second Year from the Punkhorn in 2009 during one of our MAPS banding days, making it at least 4 years old . We've recaptured numerous birds on Wing Island originally banded in the Punkhorn.

Julie O'Neil who works at the museum, took this picture of our 'band' of merry men (or should I say women!). Pictured left to right- Jessica Remple, Gretchen Putonen, Sue Finnegan, Carolyn Kennedy, Judy Keller, and Judith Bruce. Another one of our 'regulars' Jo-Anna Ghadban couldn't make it.

Many thanks to those above for helping this week, also Judy Fenwick.

The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) this week.

Total birds: 176 Total species: 50
Total banded species: 24 Birds/100 net-hrs: 50

Common Loon
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Osprey
Cooper's Hawk
Merlin
Least Sandpiper
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker- 3
Hairy Woodpecker- 3
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher- 2
Eastern Phoebe- 1
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 11
Tufted Titmouse- 6
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper- 1
Carolina Wren- 6
House Wren
American Robin
Gray Catbird- 88
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo- 6
Prairie Warbler- 1
Western Palm Warbler- 1
American Redstart- 1
Ovenbird- 1
Mourning Warbler- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 12
Yellow-breasted Chat- 2
Northern Cardinal- 1
Eastern Towhee- 2
Song Sparrow- 12
Baltimore Oriole- 2
House Finch- 1
American Goldfinch- 11
House Sparrow- 1

17-21 September

We got out 5 days this week. Two more Warbling Vireos were banded on the 17th

another Mourning Warbler (19^th),

and we had our first Black-and-white Warbler of the fall grace us with her presence on the 17th. She was a HY with a pale buffy face

and a molt limit in the alula feathers. Her second alula feather showed only a trace of white edging, which would show white on both sides of the feather in an adult.

Our first Wilson’s Warbler came in on the 20th,

a first year male sporting an extensive black cap but with green edging indicative of first year birds.

We also captured a female adult Eastern Towhee with her brilliant red eye.

Compare it to a brown-eyed first year towhee. By the spring her eye will be red too.

Another first of the fall season for us was a Lincoln’s Sparrow on the 21st with it’s delicate streaking on both the breast and throat.

I certainly was expecting more in the way of migrants this week adding only 3 new species since the week before. It could be the northeast winds at the beginning of the week pushed the migrants further inland and few migrants come through on south winds we experienced at the end of the week. The last of the Ruby-throated Hummingbirds was captured on the 19th and I don’t expect to band anymore on Wing Island this year. Capture rates of all species were low too for this time of year with an average of 33 birds per 100 net-hours.

Thanks to all who helped with the banding sessions during the five days: Jo-Anna Ghadban, Gretchen Putonen, Carolyn Kennedy, Arthur Driscoll, and Mike Quinlan, a visiting bander from Maryland.

The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) this week.

Total birds: 213 Total species: 52
Total banded species: 24 Birds/100 net-hrs: 33

Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Cooper's Hawk
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo
Ruby-throated Hummingbird-2
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker- 2
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe- 1
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 21
Tufted Titmouse- 11
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren- 8
House Wren- 3
American Robin- 1
Gray Catbird- 105
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Warbling Vireo- 2
Red-eyed Vireo- 5
Pine Warbler
Western Palm Warbler- 1
Blackpoll Warbler- 11
Black-and-white Warbler- 1
American Redstart- 1
Mourning Warbler- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 6
Wilson's Warbler- 1
Yellow-breasted Chat-2
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Towhee-11
Song Sparrow-7
Lincoln's Sparrow-1
Swamp Sparrow-4
Red-winged Blackbird
American Goldfinch-5
House Sparrow

25-28 September

Finally! The nets were hopping this week. We had a nice variety of birds with northwest winds most of the days pushing migrants through our area. Rainy days prevailed between the 22nd -24th and I fully anticipated getting skunked on the 25th too and had cancelled banding the night before, but was pleasantly surprised when the rain had blown out and we could get out. The best day for numbers was on the 25th with 105 birds captured, but we had the most species variety on the 26th – 26 banded species for the day.

On the 25th we captured all three of those confusing fall warblers often mistaken for one another; Bay-breasted,

with grayish legs and a hint of rust coloration on the flanks,

a HY male Pine Warbler

with its unstreaked back,

and numerous Blackpoll Warblers, a HY male shown here with black feathering on his face, throat, and breast.

Our first Myrtle Warblers came in this day too (3 of the hundreds I anticipate will show up in our nets this year), all first year birds.

Blackpoll Warblers appear to be having a good year. By the end of this week we had already banded 38 birds and expect to band more in October. Our average number of Blackpolls over the past 10 years is only 18 birds/year so I’ll be curious to see how many we actually get when our season is over. Another regular in our nets this fall are Yellow-breasted Chats with 10 banded birds so far.

An additional first for fall on the 25th were 2 White-throated Sparrows.

What a great day the 26th was! We had a foggy start but that soon burned off and the day turned out to be lovely. It proved to be a good migration day. It was a hard call to pick our best bird of the day. Was it the Blue-headed Vireo with his beautiful plumage and white spectacles?

Or maybe it’s cousin, the more subdued Philadelphia Vireo, a species we don’t band that often?

Notice the almost non-existent last primary feather (p10) on the outer edge of the primary coverts, a good key to differentiate it from a Warbling Vireo. Occasionally we get very bright Warbling Vireos and dull Philis.

But then again the best bird could have been the Gray-cheeked Thrush!

Although for me I think I’ll give it to the Yellow-billed Cuckoo, only the 3rd one we’ve ever banded at this site, a handsome HY bird growing in new tail feathers.

We had many nice birds this day but those that had their pictures taken included our first of the season Indigo Bunting, a HY female with just a hint of greenish-blue color in her wing,

a HY male Nashville Warbler,

our first of fall HY Magnolia Warbler

and another young male Wilson’s Warbler.

On the 27th we banded a young female Wilson’s Warbler, lacking a black cap,

a HY female Northern Parula,

and a Swainson’s Thrush with its buffy eye ring compared to the Gray-cheeked from the previous day.

We had two unfortunate young birds with pox on their mandibles causing deformities. A Gray Catbird missing part of it’s lower mandible on the 26th,

and a male Common Yellowthroat missing part of it’s upper mandible.

Numbers of birds lessened a bit on the 28th, but we did capture another Black-and-white Warbler, Yellow Palm Warbler, more Myrtles and Blackpolls and our 3rd Mourning Warbler, a HY male.

Thanks to Jo-Anna Ghadban and Gretchen Putonen for helping this week. Due to a weekend getaway I won’t be able to get out into the field again until October 3rd provided the rain holds off.

Total birds: 344 Total species: 63
Total banded species: 39 Birds/100 net-hrs: 54

Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo- 1
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker- 2
Hairy Woodpecker- 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe- 4
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay- 2
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 19
Tufted Titmouse- 11
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren- 5
House Wren- 2
Eastern Bluebird
Gray-cheeked Thrush- 1
Swainson's Thrush- 1
American Robin
Gray Catbird- 141
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Blue-headed Vireo- 1
Philadelphia Vireo- 1
Red-eyed Vireo- 20
Nashville Warbler- 1
Northern Parula- 1
Magnolia Warbler- 2
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 17
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler- 3
Prairie Warbler
Western Palm Warbler- 2
Yellow Palm Warbler-3
Bay-breasted Warbler- 1
Blackpoll Warbler- 29
Black-and-white Warbler- 1
American Redstart- 1
Ovenbird- 1
Mourning Warbler- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 7
Wilson's Warbler- 3
Yellow-breasted Chat 3
Northern Cardinal- 1
Indigo Bunting- 1
Eastern Towhee- 6
Song Sparrow- 26
Lincoln's Sparrow- 4
Swamp Sparrow- 9
White-throated Sparrow- 4
Common Grackle
American Goldfinch- 5
House Sparrow

Effects of Hurricanes & Storms

2011-09-14T18:43:00.000-07:00

8/30/11- 9/5/11

Tropical Storm Irene hit Cape Cod on Sunday 28 August. I was hoping to band the next day possibly capturing a species not typically found in our area, but instead spent four hours alone that morning resetting nets and cleaning up debris. We set our nets low the day before the storm hoping they wouldn’t get blown around too much. Luckily the nets were in good shape but it took forever to clean out the small bits of debris out of them and pick up branches cluttering the net lanes.

The week produced few migrants for September. I imagine the 3 storms- Irene, Katia, and Lee had some influence keeping them away from our little spot on the cape. Our first Pine Warbler for the fall season, most likely born on the island, came in on the 30th. I didn’t have my camera that day so Jo-Anna graciously forwarded her picture of the Pine to me, a HY female.

We handled 73 birds that day, including another Yellow-breasted Chat , Red-eyed Vireos, and Yellow Warblers, plus our usual suspects, more than half being Gray Catbirds.

Our fourth Northern Waterthrush was banded on 1 September.

This bird had a nice example of rusty tertial edges (those three feathers closest to the body) evident on juveniles.

Our first Warbling Vireo for the year arrived too. They have a less distinct facial pattern compared to Philadelphia Vireos

and the contrast of color between the head and back is duller.

For good measure we checked the outermost primary feather (p10) and sure enough it was approximately the same length as the primary coverts, which is barely visible in the Philadelphia Vireo.

Three Baltimore Orioles were banded on the 2nd, a beautiful adult male

and 2 juvenile males. After their first prebasic molts, young males have orange-edged lesser and median coverts seen in the photo below.

This male had also molted its inner greater coverts, retaining the outer four along with molting the uppermost tertial feather (s9).

This young male was trying his darnedest to pry open my fingers holding his legs.

An Eastern Phoebes was captured this week, still in full juvenal plumage with none of the buff-edged greater coverts replaced.

We picked up a young male Hairy Woodpecker going through his first prebasic molt. Red feathers were still present on top of his head, but a few new red body feathers were emerging on the back of his head.

He was busy replacing his primaries, but like other woodpeckers during their first prebasic molt, his primary coverts were retained with the outermost primary (p10) extending well beyond the primary coverts.

A Downy Woodpecker was also captured, this time a SY (second year) male going through his molt. He was replacing his primaries and his outer primary coverts,

plus his secondaries (with a browner middle secondary retained).

His inner primary coverts will be replaced during his molt the following year, with an occasional primary covert or two possibly retained then.

This unfortunate Gray Catbird was born with a deformed bill.

The upper mandible was askew making it difficult for the young bird to eat although the weight was within normal limits.

Many of the primaries were also either broken off or malformed while growing.

3 September brought in our first Blackpoll Warbler, an adult female.

A first year House Wren, still in full juvenal plumage was almost as wriggly in the hand as it’s cousin the Carolina Wren.

The barring on the wing lining up in neat rows is an easy indicator that it had yet to begin it’s molt.

Another Traill’s Flycatcher was captured on the 5th

and we are starting to get numerous HY American Goldfinch with the first one banded on 30 Aug.

Thanks to Judith Bruce, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Gretchen Putonen, and Jessica Rempel for helping this week. We were also lucky enough to have visiting banders James Junta and Mike help us out on the 5th.

The following birds were captured (with numbers), seen, or heard during this past week.

Total Birds: 250 Total Species: 51
Total Banded Species: 23 Birds/100 net-hrs: 37

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Cooper's Hawk
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Common Tern
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker- 2
Hairy Woodpecker- 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Traill's Flycatcher- 1
Eastern Phoebe- 4
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 22
Tufted Titmouse- 1
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren- 11
House Wren- 1
American Robin- 1
Gray Catbird- 123
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Warbling Vireo- 1
Red-eyed Vireo- 6
Yellow Warbler- 3
Pine Warbler- 1
Prairie Warbler- 2
Blackpoll Warbler- 1
Northern Waterthrush- 2
Common Yellowthroat- 25
Yellow-breasted Chat- 4
Northern Cardinal
Eastern Towhee- 10
Saltmarsh Sparrow
Song Sparrow- 20
Baltimore Oriole- 3
American Goldfinch- 5
House Sparrow

End of July and Fall migration

2011-08-28T19:01:00.000-07:00

27 July- 27 Aug

The last week in July was busy with fledged birds. We handled 153 birds of 22 species in just two days as we sampled birds for ticks. Our first Orchard Oriole for the year was banded on 25 July, a hatch year of unknown sex.

The bird was captured with a group of Baltimore Orioles. Orchard Orioles are smaller than Baltimore's and are more yellow than orange. This bird presented with a nicely lined-up growth bar in it's tail, a key that can help us age juveniles.

Another new species not handled yet this year was a House Sparrow. While many birders cringe at the thought of House Sparrows, there is no denying this youngster is high on the 'cute' scale.

A young catbird was captured on 25 July with an extended upper mandible, a phenomenon we occasionally see on HY birds.

It appears the tip was broken off at some point and then grew back.

Fall migration monitoring began this year on 3 August. Phoebe's nest every year under the eaves of the museum's outbuildings and it wouldn't surprise me if this wasn't one of the fledged young still in full juvenal plumage.

On our last net round a Nothern Mockingbird showed up , an adult female with a brood patch that was drying up,

as well as our first HY female Ruby-throated Hummingbird, with her clean white throat.

Notice the buff feather edges on the top of the bird's head, indicating a young bird.

Two days later we caught our first HY male ruby-throat

Young males have streaked throats and eventually develop red gorget feathers.

On the 6th an adult male cardinal was showing signs of molt and possibly a case of head mites!

Adult cardinals can pack a powerful bite so I tried to distract him with a stick for this photo.

This same day a HY American Redstart was captured and unlike the cardinal above was quite cooperative as I took his picture!

Northern Waterthrushes usually show up in our nets in August and our first one arrived on 12 August. They look similar to Lousiana Waterthrushes, but Northern Waterthrushes have more extensive streaking on their breast, and Louisiana's have a more extensive, white supercilium.

We hear flocks of Cedar Waxwings almost every time we band on the island and it was only a matter of time before the young showed up in our nets.

The young have streaking on the breast and this bird still had a very short bill.

Young Towhees, of which we've had many this year, are progressing in their molt and are starting to resemble their parents. This young male below has almost finished his first prebasic molt.

We were delighted to capture a Chestnut-sided Warbler on the 18th, a rarity in our nets.

This young male had slight chestnut streaking to his flanks, not quite visible in this photo.

A surprise on 19 August was a Mourning Dove. These large birds typically bounce out of the net.

This male had a long tail, bluish nape and pinkish feathers on the throat and breast.

We haven't had many flycatchers this month but did capture a Traill's Flycatcher also on the 19th.

Using measurements and calculations this is a probable Willow Flycatcher, but I will send it in to the Bird Banding Lab as a Traill's. Regardless it is always a pleasure to handle these birds.

We've been capturing numerous chickadees for the past week with pinkish breasts and very sticky feet!

It appears they are munching on choke cherries that are found abundantly on the island.

Another warbler we don't often capture, maybe once/year showed up on 23 August, a HY female Canada Warbler. The eye ring is striking!

The indistinct streaking on the breast and very short wing chord (58 mm) led us to sexing her as a female.

More migrants arrived the following day, our first Yellow-breasted Chat for the year,

another HY male American Redstart,

and a HY female Black-throated Blue Warbler.

The white patch at the base of the primaries on this bird is an easy identification mark for Black-throated Blues.

We attempted to band on the 27th, the day before the storm, but rain was fast approaching and the nets needed to be well secured in anticipation of the hurricane, so we closed by 8:30. We did end up with 45 birds, mostly catbirds and a few other species but we also captured our first HY Red-eyed Vireo for our fall migration season.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post more often as fall migration progresses. Many family obligations have gotten in the way this year! And we'll keep our fingers crossed that we will survive the impending hurricane without too much damage. Many thanks as always to the following for volunteering at the banding station during this time period: Judith Bruce, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Judy Keller, Carolyn Kennedy, Gretchen Putonen, and the Johnson family- Sheryl, Lauren, and Kristen.

For those interested, the following is a list of birds seen, heard, or captured (with numbers) from the past month. Robins appear to be doing very well this year. We've had more numbers of them this year than any year previously (58 in all so far).

Total birds: 796 Total banded species: 37
Total species: 65 Birds/100 net-hrs: 52

Great Blue Heron

Green Heron
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Osprey
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
Spotted Sandpiper
Least Sandpiper
American Woodcock
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Common Tern
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Ruby-throated Hummingbird- 30
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker- 8
Hairy Woodpecker- 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker- 3
Traill's Flycatcher- 1
Eastern Kingbird- 4
Eastern Phoebe- 6
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay- 1
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 63
Tufted Titmouse- 12
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren- 21
House Wren- 1
Eastern Bluebird
American Robin- 45
Gray Catbird- 280
Northern Mockingbird- 1
Cedar Waxwing- 8
European Starling- 5
Red-eyed Vireo- 1
Yellow Warbler- 13
Chestnut-sided Warbler- 1
Black-throated Blue Warbler- 1
Prairie Warbler- 6
American Redstart- 2
Ovenbird- 3
Northern Waterthrush- 2
Common Yellowthroat- 116
Canada Warbler- 1
Yellow-breasted Chat- 1
Northern Cardinal- 6
Eastern Towhee- 21
Song Sparrow- 93
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Orchard Oriole- 2
Baltimore Oriole- 21
House Finch- 8
American Goldfinch- 5
House Sparrow- 2

Banding Wilson's Storm-Petrels

2011-07-24T16:17:00.000-07:00

It was at least 8 years ago when Bill Elrick, a fellow bander, got me thinking about banding Wilson Storm-Petrels. (Photos below by Peter Trull and Sue Finnegan).

Bill enjoyed banding European Storm-Petrels in Scotland on their breeding grounds and suggested I try to band Wilson's on their summering grounds (from now on I'll use their species code WISP). WISP's breed in the southern hemisphere in cavities they excavate. Bill and others captured European Storm-Petrels in mist nets using vocalizations in the night and felt it would work for WISP's too.One idea was to set up nets on the beach during the night and call them in with tapes. He thought it might be best in a rocky area which we don't have on Cape Cod.

A year later, Bill forwarded an email to me from the Frontiers of Field Identification, a listserv with a discussion on molt of WISP's and the lack of knowledge in how first year birds molt. Bingo! We had a reason to go for them. But how?

I got talking with Peter Trull, a teacher, naturalist, and author of numerous books. Peter had experience banding Common and Roseate Terns with Ian Nisbet in the past. Peter felt they could easily be caught by using chum off a boat and a long handled net. It took many years of occasionally talking about it but we finally got our act together, wrote a grant and received one from the Nutthall Ornithological Club, and set out this year to get the job done.

We hired a local hook fisherman out of Chatham, Teddy Ligenza, who agreed to take us out on his fishing boat, the Riena Marie. We would do our research while he fished.

We had enough money to go out twice. Our first successful attempt was 7 July, but we had to abort the second try a week later due to very dangerous conditions from a sandbar that had developed overnight. Most of the fishermen knew not to cross it, but a large boat belonging to the Chatham Bars Inn had a group of tourists and they tried it anyway. Unfortunately for them the windshield got blown out as they attempted to cross the bar and had to turn around. Never under estimate the power of the sea! We had another successful day on 22 July but fog was dense again with 3-5 ft seas. It was a challenge collecting measurements and taking pictures of the birds as I was tossed around.

The night before our first day on 7 July I tossed and turned anticipating this new adventure. I couldn't wait to get out there and see if we would be successful. It was still dark when I left my house at 4:15 am to meet Peter and Teddy at the Chatham Fish Pier. The sun was just starting to rise when we left the dock with fog as thick as pea soup.

It didn't take long to get a few miles off of Chatham where Teddy fishes. He prepared his hooks with bait

and dogfish were biting as soon as he threw out his lines.

They are called dogfish for the barking sounds they make. It took Peter and I awhile to get in the swing of things but soon we had a momentum going. Thankfully Peter (and not me!) retrieved the livers from the fish, which we used as chum to attract the birds.

Chum was spread out on the water.

WISP's showed up in minutes, along with Great, Sooty, Manx, and Cory's Shearwaters. Petrels have a dainty way of lightly stepping on the water as they search for food.

Our next task was capturing the petrels. Not being very good in sports I was also bad at trying to catch the birds. Luckily Peter was on a roll so that became his job too.

Got it!

As soon as he caught one in the padded long-handled net he removed the bird and handed it over to me.

We rigged up a line and hung the birds in bird bags while they waited to be processed. After capturing between 5-10 birds we would process those and release them before capturing anymore. We had to go through the chumming process all over again.

It was my job to process the birds. First I banded them with stainless steel bands. You can see what a messy job fishing is! Luckily I was able to ignore the blood and fluid surrounding me.

I assessed them for molt

and took photographs of their wings, tail, and claws.

WISP's have good size claws they use to dig their burrows. The webbing between their toes is yellow and veined.

After processing Peter clipped a tiny bit of feather from one of the feathers they were about to molt so we could have stable isotope analysis done. We hope to discover where the feather was grown, either in the northern or southern hemisphere. If grown in the southern hemisphere, it would tell us the bird was a juvenile as adults would grow their feathers in the northern hemisphere. After that the bird was released.

Wilson's Storm-Petrels belong to the family of tubenoses, visible above their beak. They drink salt water and the salt is excreted through the tubenose.

While netting for petrels, we also encountered a Great Shearwater

Sooty Shearwater,

and Peter even caught a Cory's but it escaped. We also saw numerous whales, both Minke and Humpbacks.

Over the two days, we captured a total of 50 WISP's, all in molt, and felt good about succeeding with that many birds when we weren't really positive if we would catch any!

On our way back I talked with Teddy learning about his life a bit

while PT rested after his grueling bout catching petrels.

We made our way back to the pier passing by Chatham Light

and many stately homes.

I thought about how I may not have all the money in the world but how lucky I am to be able to be out in the wild, be it field, woods, or sea learning what I can about our avian world.

The icing on the cake was being surrounded by gray seals as we tied up to the dock. A great two days!

Peter was happy too!

Now if only I could get that dogfish smell out of my clothes.....

Summer Babes

2011-07-20T15:44:00.000-07:00

2-16 July
Numbers of birds in our nets began to rise during the first week in July compared to June and by the 2nd week, newly fledged birds were everywhere!

Our first adult Baltimore Oriole appeared on the 2nd still singing during the banding process! This doesn't happen very often to me, but a male Eastern Towhee did the same thing earlier in the season. The male oriole was indeed a very handsome looking fellow.

For some reason, orioles (maybe other blackbirds too) will pry open their beak if you put your fingers on either side of it. Their muscles are quite strong!

Our first HY (hatch year) baby Prairie Warblers were captured on 2 July, 3 babies in the same net throughout the morning. If you don't know the species well some young birds can be difficult to identify before molting into their formative feathers. This youngster was halfway there.

Before molting really young Prairies have grayish plumage, but still have white in their tail feathers.

Other young birds this day included a cardinal, still too young to sex.

True to form it did what cardinals do best- here it is coming in for the kill

And GOTCHA!

It doesn't hurt quite as bad as the adult would!

Our first HY robin showed up on the first round and was still in full juvenal plumage.

To our delight on 10 July we has our first ever baby Hermit Thrush at Wing Island, still in full juvenal plumage, looking very similar to it's robin cousin above. We've had young Hermits in the past when we ran our MAPS station in the Punkhorn Parklands of Brewster, but previously only had them at Wing Island during the latter half of our fall migration monitoring.

Back on the 5th we captured an older adult Cedar Waxwing

who probably found a fine female to mate with due to the numerous red waxy tips to his secondaries.

Notice all the streaking to this young female Eastern Towhee, again they look very different from their parents.

Have you ever wondered what a bird's ear looks like? They are quite large, almost the size of the eye in this case. They don't have ear flaps as we do, but have protective feathers covering the opening from turbulent air during flight yet still allows them to hear.

Other babies on the 5th include our first young female Downy Woodpecker,

a male Northern Cardinal, further along in its molt compared to the one shown earlier

and both male and female White-breasted Nuthatches. First the male with its very black cap

and the female with a gray cap (she seemed a bit younger and a whole lot cuter!)

Not sure what she was trying to accomplish but she kept biting her own wing!

July 10th brought in a HY Tufted Titmouse posing quite nicely for the camera

and a young female oriole.

A young male was captured on the 16th. His wings were much longer and he was starting to develop some nice orange tips to his coverts.

This is about the time of year that we get young starlings as they flock in groups and today was no exception. I kept my fingers crossed that the group circling above would stay there and not all end up in one of the nets! This is probably the best posed starling I've ever had. Usually their mouths are wide open and are squawking at the top of their lungs.

All in all we handled 208 birds of 20 species, 19 of those on the 16th. We went from handling 28 birds on the 2nd to 88 on the 16th! A big thank you to all who helped out- Gretchen Putonen, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Carolyn Kennedy, Judy Keller, and Jessica Rempel. Birds seen, heard, or captured are shown below.

Total Birds: 208 Total Species: 40
Total Banded Species: 20 Birds/100 net-hours: 47

Canada Goose
Osprey
Northern Bobwhite
Willet
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker- 9
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 22
Tufted Titmouse- 5
White-breasted Nuthatch- 3
Carolina Wren- 10
Eastern Bluebird
Hermit Thrush- 1
American Robin- 12
Gray Catbird- 41
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing- 2
European Starling- 1
Yellow Warbler- 2
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler- 13
Ovenbird- 2
Common Yellowthroat- 36
Northern Cardinal- 7
Eastern Towhee- 4
Song Sparrow- 26
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Baltimore Oriole- 7
House Finch-2
American Goldfinch- 2
House Sparrow

June

2011-07-08T09:56:00.000-07:00

As usual, the month of June is very slow birdwise. The majority of migrants have passed through and others are busy nesting. Our last day for monitoring spring migration was 16 June. It proved to be the second worst spring season for us since banding started on Wing Island in 2000. We banded only 260 new birds, compared to a norm of ~ 337. Weather proves to be a challenge on the cape in spring and this year was especially cold, windy, and rainy. I'll be curious to see if our fall will be impacted as well or if the birds will have made up for lost broods. We continue monitoring nets one or two days a week in summer to remove ticks from birds for infection surveillance with the Cape Cod Cooperative Extension.

During the month of June we captured a total of 105 birds; 57 were new. My thoughts were on flycatchers on 3 June and sure enough we caught one, a Traill's Flycatcher, a probable Willow.

Our first Pine Warbler for 2011 was captured on our last net round for the day, a second year female. Her plumage was rather tattered and she had a molt limit in her tail feathers. Pine Warblers generally don't molt their tail as a young bird during their first prebasic molt, so she must have lost some tail feathers adventitiously (accidently) and the new ones replaced come in as adult feathers. She had a brood patch starting and was processed quickly.

A second year male Yellow Warbler but still brilliantly colored showed up this day.

He had replaced his tertials and secondaries 5,6 during his first prebasic molt.

He even had some chestnut streaking on his crown that I don't often see. According to the Yellow Warbler account in The Birds of North America, the southern forms of this species have variable amounts of streaking on the head.

Our first hatch year birds showed up on 8 June. That is the earliest for us to see hatch years and I was quite surprised considering the cold spring we had. One was a Carolina Wren

and our first baby Song Sparrow.

All our baby birds are quickly processed and brought back to the net area where we captured them.

There were no notable captures again until 26 June when we had our first Great-crested Flycatcher. This bird presented with a non-extensive brood patch and since both sexes incubate the young we were unable to note the sex.

Our first Cedar Waxwings showed up also; a combination of males and females, five in all.

We had one with orange edging to the rectrices where the rest had yellow edging. She was probably munching on a variant honeysuckle species last summer when her tail feathers were growing. Here is a comparision, orange edging on the left, yellow on the right. They weren't too happy being photographed together and it was all we could do to keep the aggressive bird on the right from biting the bird on the left. These second year birds had no red waxy tips to their seconday feathers.

One of the cutest babies captured on the 26th was our first of the year Barn Swallow!

The lack of extension of the tail feathers compared to adults is easily seen in this photo.

Late in the morning an adult female Ruby-throated Hummingbird showed up, our first one for the season.

Many thanks to Gretchen Putonen and Judith Bruce for helping out at the banding station during the month of June. Birds seen, heard, or captured are shown below.

Total Birds: 105 Total Species: 52

Total Banded Species: 16 Birds/100 net-hours: 19

Great Blue Heron
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Canada Goose
Mallard
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Black-bellied Plover
Willet
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Great Horned Owl
Ruby-throated Hummingbird- 1
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Traill's Flycatcher- 1
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher- 1
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow- 1
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 3
Tufted Titmouse
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren- 4
American Robin- 2
Gray Catbird- 23
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing- 5
European Starling
Yellow Warbler- 2
Pine Warbler- 1
Prairie Warbler- 9
Common Yellowthroat- 25
Northern Cardinal- 3
Eastern Towhee
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow
Song Sparrow- 15
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
Baltimore Oriole
House Finch
American Goldfinch- 9
House Sparrow

Last Ditch Effort

2011-06-02T16:00:00.000-07:00

25-30 May

This week was a last ditch effort to hopefully add a few more migrants for our spring list, but the nets were fairly quiet. Blue-headed Vireos were heard singing near the banding table both on Wednesday and Sunday but none were captured. Wednesday I heard a Black-billed Cuckoo singing from across the marsh. He didn't get captured but we did manage to band an American Redstart, a second year male.

Male redstarts won't resemble the adult until they go through a molt in their second year after breeding. Some black feathers are usually visible by spring and this male has black feathers in the face, throat, and breast.

Redstarts get their name from the reddish orange tail feathers seen on the adult male. Apparently 'start' is an old name for tail. They are often seen flashing their tails as they flit about capturing insects and often do during the banding process too.

They have whiskers called rictal bristles on either side of the bill similar to flycathers, supposedly an aid in capturing insects. You can see them on the left side of his bill.

Another nice bird on Wednesday was a second year male Magnolia Warbler.

Magnolia Warblers go through a prealternate molt during the winter as they get ready for the breeding season, replacing some body and wing feathers. Older adult birds will display 2 generations of feathers in the wing, those that were replaced during their annual molt and those replaced during the prealternate molt. Second year birds will show 3 generations of feathers as was the case with this male. He replaced his inner greater coverts (the shorter feathers with white tips second row down) during the prealternate molt, the remaining outer greater coverts were replaced last fall, and the primary coverts (the smaller browner feathers towards the distal end of the wing) are retained juvenal feathers.

Another Ovenbird showed up too. If you look closely in the lower left corner I unknowingly got part of a beautiful spiderweb in the picture! I'm always amazed at the size of their eyes compared to the head. They prefer to live in large tracts of forest so large eyes would be an advantage in the low light of the woods.

We captured a female Blue Jay with a brood patch. She was first in line to be banded to get her back quickly to her nest. She posed nicely enabling me to get a quick picture of her. Her blue coloration is not due to blue feathers but something called Tyndall scattering. When light strikes air filled cavities in the feather barbs it produces the blue color we see.

I was able to age her as a second year bird due to the molt limit in her wing. You can see the replaced longer, brighter blue and wider black bars to the inner greater covs compared to the retained outer 3 greater coverts. Also the retained juvenal primary coverts have no barring.

I was able to get out again on Thursday the 26th. Boy did it feel nice to have two sunny days in a row! Felt good for the soul and I think the birds appreciated it too as there was an abundance of bird song. I watched a brilliantly colored male Indigo Bunting in the field at the same time crows were incessantly mobbing a Red-tailed Hawk. The hawk was working the field from north to south perching in a tree near the bay and then would fly to the next tree in a southerly direction. Even the mockingbirds got in on the act of attacking him, but once he moved out of their territory they settled down. I'm a bit surprised they haven't attacked me yet as I'm sure I pass their nest on the way to some of our nets. Mid morning I captured a pair of Eastern Kingbirds, but otherwise no birds of great interest, just the usual suspects. It was great to be able to compare the male and the female kingbird. The plumage is the same for the two sexes, however I did notice an interesting difference in the color of the inconspicuous orange crown feathers. Directly below is the male

whose red crown appeared more brilliantly colored and darker than the female pictured below

The female's wing length was quite short, totally out of range for a male, plus she had a brood patch. The notch on the outer primary feather (p10) is shorter than the male also. You can see a slight difference in length between the two sexes. First the longer notched p10 of the male

and shorter notch in the female.

The highlight of the day on Sunday was an Eastern Wood Peewee. This was only the 4th peewee we've captured at the station since opening in 2000 and our first spring record. The birds we captured in 2001, 2006, and 2009 were fall birds. At first glance you might think this bird is an Eastern Phoebe, but the lower mandible is a dead giveaway. The lower mandible in the phoebe is black but is orange in the peewee.

Separation from Empidonax flycatchers is easy as the peewee has a much longer wing. The tarsi (leg bones above the feet) are also very short.

As Carolyn was checking nest boxes on the island on Sunday, a female Tree Swallow flew out of the box at the same time one of the white feathers that Tree Swallows use to 'claim' their box fell out. She immediately scooped it up in her bill, looked at Carolyn indignantly and put it right back in the box!

We did get out again on Memorial Day but the activity was so limited we closed nets early and called it a day. We captured only 109 total birds during the four days of banding this week. Of those, 24 birds were returns from previous years and three were at least 7 years old; a cardinal, goldfinch, and Common Yellowthroat, all females. Thanks very much to Gretchen Putonen, Carolyn Kennedy, Judy Keller, Suzanne Faith, and Diane Silverstein for their help this week. Birds seen, heard, or captured between 25-29 May are shown below.

Total Birds: 109 Total Species: 50
Total Banded Species: 17 Birds/100 net-hours: 26

Double-crested Cormorant
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Northern Bobwhite
Black-bellied Plover
Willet
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo
Belted Kingfisher
Yellow-shafted Flicker- 1
Eastern Wood-Pewee- 1
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Eastern Kingbird- 2
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay- 2
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 13
Tufted Titmouse- 1
Carolina Wren
American Robin
Gray Catbird- 19
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Blue-headed Vireo
Red-eyed Vireo- 1
Yellow Warbler- 3
Magnolia Warbler- 1
Pine Warbler
Prairie Warbler- 2
American Redstart- 1
Ovenbird- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 39
Northern Cardinal- 2
Eastern Towhee
Song Sparrow- 12
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch- 8
House Sparrow

Intermittent Banding

2011-05-23T16:12:00.000-07:00

9 - 21 May

I was only able to get in five days of banding in the past two weeks due to high winds and/or rain. It has been a really tough spring this season compared to the glorious days of last year at this time. Unfortunately, this weather is a bit more typical for spring on Cape Cod. I attempted to band on May 9th but closed up after two rounds due to the high winds capturing only a Common Yellowthroat and 3 catbirds. May 13th was a bit better with winds 5-10 mph but they were from the northeast so I didn't expect to capture too many migrants. I was happy to get a Saltmarsh Sparrow in full breeding condition however, he probably was forced up to higher ground from the saltmarsh during the high tide.

Some nice migrants came in on the 14th even with a cold and misty start including a SY Black-throated Blue Warbler.

He had a molt limit in his wing molting all of his greaters coverts including the greater alula, but not the other two.

I continued hearing Black-throated Blues throughout the next week but he was the only one we captured. Black-throated Green Warblers were also heard singing but they completely eluded us. Our second Nashville Warbler showed up this day, a SY male this time.

We were happy to capture a White-eyed Vireo

ageing this bird as a SY due to a molt limit in the primary feathers. White-eyed Vireos can do an incomplete molt eccentrically during their first year, which means they can replace some outer primary feathers and inner secondary feathers leaving a block of retained flight feathers in the middle. This bird replaced his outer 5 primaries, you may be able to see the darker shafts on those feathers.

I was finally able to get a picture of a more cooperative Carolina Wren of unknown sex, who wasn't as squirmy as the others. They can have a molt similar to the vireo above, although it was harder to tell on this particular bird, who may have just molted the greater coverts since the flight feathers appear to line up fairly well. The primary coverts were extremely abraded so we aged it as a second year.

A SY Common Yellowthroat who was first banded as a hatch year bird on 2 Aug 2010 and found with avian pox on his lower mandible showed up this day with it completely healed so his immune system was able to get rid of the virus.

I wasn't able to get out again until the 20th as rain occured every day from May 15th- May 19th. The only new species for the spring season this day was a beautiful ASY male Red-winged Blackbird.

The south winds the evening before brought in a few more first spring migrants for the season on the 21st. A male Blackpoll Warbler, not too cooperative, but I was able to get a quick pic showing off his gorgeous plumage.

We captured another Myrtle Warbler, a SY male, this was the latest spring date in the past 11 years of banding on the island for this species when most have gone through by the first week in May.

Eleven Prairie Warblers (5 new and 6 recaptures) were netted during this period including two on the 21st that had this 'gunk' under the bill which wasn't there when we first recaptured the bird below on the 3rd. The other prairie was also first recaptured on the 3rd. Must be something they are eating. Juicy bug?

Although we aren't allowed to band game birds we were still thrilled to get a Northern Bobwhite, a female, in our net. Females have buffy coloration to their chin, throat, and supercilium (the area above the eye). In males this area is white. Isn't she outstanding?

And take a look at the beautiful pattern on her back. I bet she is a bird that was released last fall by fifteen year old Nicholas Fiore on October 31st, for a licensed project to help the species populate this habitat.

We recaptured a Pine Warbler, the one that was banded on May 3rd but sadly she presented with cloacal flukes, not seen on the 3rd. She had no brood patch and may have problems trying to mate.

We captured a Red-eyed Vireo, a first spring capture for this species at our site, in past years we've only captured them in the fall.

All in all, 158 species were netted during this time period. Eighty were new birds and 77 were recaptures. Of the recaptures, 31 were returns from previous years including a few oldies: a 6 yr old Song Sparrow, a 7 yr old American Goldfinch and Common Yellowthroat, and a 9 yr old Gray Catbird. Thanks very much to the following people who helped out at some point during these banding days: Cathy Connolly, Arlene Hedlino, Carolyn Kennedy, Gretchen Putonen, and Jessica Rempel. Birds seen, heard, or captured between 9-21 May are shown below.

Total Birds: 158 Total Species: 55
Total Banded Species: 23 Birds/100 net-hours: 26

Double-crested Cormorant
Black-crowned Night-Heron
Canada Goose
American Black Duck
Mallard
Red-breasted Merganser
Osprey
Peregrine Falcon
Northern Bobwhite 1
Black-bellied Plover
Willet
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Tree Swallow
Barn Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Black-capped Chickadee 13
Tufted Titmouse 1
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren 2
American Robin 3
Gray Catbird 31
Northern Mockingbird
European Starling
White-eyed Vireo 2
Red-eyed Vireo 1
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow Warbler 4
Black-throated Blue Warbler 1
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler 1
Black-throated Green Warbler
Pine Warbler 1
Prairie Warbler 11
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Ovenbird
Common Yellowthroat 35
Northern Cardinal 4
Eastern Towhee 3
Saltmarsh Sparrow 1
Song Sparrow 16
Red-winged Blackbird 1
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
House Finch
American Goldfinch 23
House Sparrow

Slow start

2011-05-10T18:48:00.000-07:00

26 April - 7 May
The past two weeks have not been agreeable weather wise to be out and about banding birds, especially with nowhere to escape the elements for both personnel and equipment. I made it out on 26 April with winds from the southwest, but the day was overcast and almost misty. The wind picked up so briskly that I had to close early. I heard the first Willets vocalizing over the marsh and saw my first catbird of the season. I had only 6 species this day, almost all returns from previous years and 3 new birds. One of those was a female cowbird, much to my chagrin. I think the clearing of half of Wing Island has certainly encouraged those birds to look kindly on our banding site as a great place to lay their eggs in the nests of other birds. This bird is however, as much as we don't like it, a native species and is protected by law.

I captured 3 Song Sparrows

with one being a new bird and two returns from previous years. The older of the two, an ASY (after second year) male, first banded as an adult last year, surprised me as he had a yellowish hue to his legs and feet. Maybe they darken as they get older but I've never noticed it before.

I also took a picture of a SY (second year) Song Sparrow with pink legs that I am used to seeing on this species.

The weather turned around for the weekend, but unfortunately I was out of town so I didn't get to band again until the 2nd of May. I could hear Brant out by the bay as well as a Common Loon, probably a fly over. The Common Yellowthroats were in and I recaptured an adult male first banded as a hatch year in 2005 making him 6 years old. What a beauty he is!

I had a female cardinal

and chickadee both with beginning brood patches, where they lose their belly feathers to incubate eggs, and by 9:30 the wind was howling so again I closed nets up early.

During the night the winds turned from north to southwest and with them a few new species for the year arrived. I was expecting a small group of students from Provincetown but unfortunately they missed some of the more colorful birds such as Northern Parula,

Yellow Warbler, a SY male with a molt limit in the secondaries,

and the return of a 5 year old Prairie Warbler, all captured on the 2nd net run.

The kids were thrilled to see a Song Sparrow, White-throated Sparrow, Downy Woodpecker,

Gray Catbird

and a female SY Pine Warbler

I think they had fun releasing the birds and were glad they came.

Friday the 6th was windy again but were able to open some of our nets with success. We had no new species for 2011 except a Carolina Wren who wriggled out of my hands before getting a picture. Saturday was a more successful day with a nice variety of birds. Two significant encounters included a Black-capped Chickadee first banded in 2002 as a hatch year bird making her 9 years old and a Prairie Warbler we first banded as a SY bird in 2004, and have captured in the same area every year after, making him 8 years old. Gretchen found a bird we rarely get in our nets, this is only the seventh bird in 11 years and 2nd time captured in the spring, a Brown Thrasher.

We aged this bird as ASY due to the similar lustre of the greater coverts, carpal covert, primary coverts, and remiges.

I photographed a dull morph White-throated Sparrow, only the 3rd individual so far this spring. We usually have numerous White-throats that pass through, but I probably missed most of them due to inclement weather.

A more brilliantly colored individual showed up earlier in the week, a bright morph variety.

We captured 2 male Eastern Towhees, one being an older adult, who was not very cooperative with having his picture taken, but I so wanted to get a pic of that gorgeous red eye

and a much more cooperative SY male

You can see the difference in how they molt, the similar color and lustre of the older adult, who molted all his feathers last year

and the retained juvenal primary coverts compared to the replaced greater coverts of our SY bird.

As Judith says, Gretchen had good birdy kharma on Saturday finding not only the Brown Thrasher but also an ASY male Nashville Warbler

and an Ovenbird, probably heading over to the Punkhorn Parklands to breed.

Thanks very much to Judith Bruce, Stew Goodwin, Tiffany Kerstan and her boyfriend, Steve, and Gretchen Putonen for helping over the past two weeks. Birds seen, heard, or captured between 26 April- 7 May are shown below.

Total Birds: 108 Total Species: 49

Total Banded Species: 20 Birds/100 net-hours: 20

Common Loon
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Brant
Canada Goose
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Red-tailed Hawk
Greater Yellowlegs
Willet
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Downy Woodpecker	3
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Great Crested Flycatcher
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay	2
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee	27
Tufted Titmouse
Carolina Wren	1
American Robin	2
Gray Catbird	24
Northern Mockingbird
Brown Thrasher	1
European Starling
Nashville Warbler	1
Northern Parula	2
Yellow Warbler	2
Pine Warbler	1
Prairie Warbler	6
Ovenbird	1
Common Yellowthroat	7
Northern Cardinal	4
Eastern Towhee	2
Song Sparrow	7
White-throated Sparrow	3
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird	1
House Finch
American Goldfinch	11
House Sparrow

Late Winter & Early Spring

2011-04-24T17:03:00.000-07:00

I took advantage of milder days during winter and early spring to teach new assistants the fine art of bird extraction from mist nets at my feeder. I hoped to capture some birds we never see in our nets on Wing Island, such as Pine Siskins and Common Redpolls. On 2 March, 23 birds of 10 species were handled with just 1 1/2 nets open for 2 hours in late afternoon. Two chickadees were recaptures from last year and the rest were new birds. I was fortunate to capture 3 redpolls. What handsome birds!

I had hoped for the possibility of a Hoary Redpoll to be in the flock but no such luck. The longer and more acutely angled bill shown below

and streaked undertail coverts

along with heavily streaked back pointed towards Common Redpoll. Bill lengths were long too compared to Hoary.

Five Downy Woodpeckers were banded this day, with 4 being SY (second year) birds.

The last Downy, however, appeared with 2 isolated juvenal looking primary coverts (first and third from the outside) indicating a possible 4Y (fourth year) bird, but I will likely age it as an ATY (after third year) bird for the banding lab.

Eastern Bluebirds have been busy chowing down on my 'birdy bread pudding' made from a mix of lard, chunky peanut butter, and cornmeal including this SY female. She had a molt limit in the greater coverts (those feathers in the middle of her wing), molting the inner 4 feathers and retaining the rest.

Another clue to her age as a SY bird is the retained juvenal outermost primary covert which presents with wide white edging around the feather.

Pine Siskins were seen frequently during the winter at the feeders but I only captured one on 15 March.

Net lane maintenance and mist net installation occurred between 14 - 19 April. Many thanks to Judith Bruce, Suzanne Faith, Stew & Margo Goodwin, Carolyn Kennedy, and Gretchen Putonen for helping out. Our first day banding back on the island was 4/21 with 42 birds of 10 species handled. The majority of those were Black-capped Chickadees, 33 in all, and most banders would agree that chickadees can give us a run for our money being as feisty as they are! We banded another 13 chickadees the next day, the most we've ever banded in the course of two days. It must have been a small migrating group since 29 of them were full of fat.

Three of the chickadees presented with leucistic feathers, those lacking melanin, one with leucistic secondary flight feathers, one with the outermost tail feather on each side, and one with half of the tail leucistic. This bird had lost half of the tail and may have undergone some stress as it's new feathers were growing in.

This Tufted Titmouse, in the same family as the chickadee, Paridae, looks quite innocent as I took the picture, but certainly didn't appreciate the banding process, squawking and biting me the whole time!

One lonely junco showed up in the mix, a handsome ASY (after second year) male.

This beautiful ASY male Eastern Towhee with it's gorgeous red eyes, sung the whole time I banded it, what a treat for me!

Judith was so happy to capture her first Tree Swallow, a species we occasionally band. This bird was eager to get back to its mate, wings flapping repeatedly as I tried to take a picture, so I put him in the bander's grip and settled for a face pose.

Thanks to Judith Bruce, Stew and Margo Goodwin, and Ron Hunter for helping with the banding the past two days. Rain is coming in so hopefully I'll get back to the nets soon. Birds seen, heard, or captured on 21-22 April are shown below. Of the total birds handled, 14 were recaptures from previous years, the oldest being a 3 yr old chickadee and Blue Jay. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 65 Total Species: 38

Total Banded Species: 10 Birds/100 net-hours: 44

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Osprey
Red-tailed Hawk
Greater Yellowlegs
Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Lesser Black-backed Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Belted Kingfisher
Downy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe
Tree Swallow	1
Blue Jay	1
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee	46
Tufted Titmouse	4
White-breasted Nuthatch
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Robin	1
Northern Mockingbird
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Pine Warbler
Northern Cardinal	3
Eastern Towhee	1
Song Sparrow	5
White-throated Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco	1
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Brown-headed Cowbird
American Goldfinch	2
House Sparrow

The End of a Season and Some Mysteries Solved

2010-12-02T08:59:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-17T10:25:00.000-08:00

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

2010-11-04T06:32:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-26T16:21:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

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

2010-10-12T17:15:00.000-07:00

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