Uncooperative Weather

29 September- 3 October

This past week has almost been a bust for banding as the winds have howled along the coast. Threat of rain was predicted every day, but didn't really hit us until the end of the week. The weekend was clear and winds had diminished somewhat enabling us to at least open some nets.

On Wednesday I captured an adult female Downy Woodpecker.

Woodpeckers present more of an ageing challenge for banders by molt limits since they can go through several years of partial molts. I am looking for opinions from other banders on her age. At first I aged her as a second year (SY/TY) due to the retention of juvenile feathers in her primary coverts (pcovs), but normally it is the outer pcovs that are replaced. Both wings looked the same. She had finished her prebasic molt, but the innermost primary covert appears juvenile as well as the two outer pcovs. The middle pcovs are replaced, although I'm not sure if I'm seeing one of those feathers that was possibly replaced during a 2nd prebasic molt and retained during this molt, which would then put this bird in the TY/4Y age class. Maybe I'll just have to age her as an AHY. Click on the picture to enlarge it and let me know what you think.

Two Blackpoll Warblers were banded this week, one an adult male who had some black spotting on the throat and head

and wide, rounded (we say truncate) tail feathers.

The other Blackpoll was a hatch year bird

who was so full of fat it seemed to have a bit of trouble keeping airborne! There was a large fat pad covering the abdomen, under the armpits, and fat was bulging out of the furcular hollow (area above the breastbone).

We handled five titmice this week, all hatch years, and all with attitude!

Molt limits were visible between the replaced, grayer greater coverts and the retained, browner juvenile primary coverts.

Two more Yellow-breasted Chats were captured on Wednesday as well as this adult male House Finch. I took a picture of his streaked undertail coverts as I did last week with the unstreaked Purple Finch.

Nasty weather prevented me from getting back out in the field until Saturday. We captured our first Slate-colored Junco for the fall season, a hatch year female, 

along with a hatch year Nashville and Magnolia Warbler, with the Maggie pictured below

We recaptured a hatch year Carolina Wren first banded at the end of June

and another House Wren, also a first year bird.

Probably the highlight of the day was this adult White-eyed Vireo Gretchen found in the net on our last net round.

All in all we handled 37 birds today of 16 species, not bad for a windy day with only certain nets open. We had a few more birds on Sunday (40) but only 11 species. The highlight on Sunday would have been a Black-billed Cuckoo if I had been quicker getting to it, but I didn't run fast enough and with a few flaps of its wing it was out of there!


We continue to band catbirds (762 so far) and one we captured on Sunday was still quite young just starting to molt his greater coverts and body feathers.

This bird even went in for a partial French manicure! It had two white toe nails, one on each foot, same toe.

A few more Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warblers arrived, although not in the numbers we have had in past years at this time. Below is an adult male. Notice the blue feathers at the top of his wing 

and the wide black centers to the uppertail coverts, edged in blue.

 This young female is more brown, she also had a molt limit in her wing

and thinner black centers to the uppertail coverts with a mixture of brownish-blue edging.

We banded another Purple Finch, a hatch year male with a molt limit in his wing.

Purple Finches have a partial molt their first year replacing some or all greater coverts, but this bird replaced all of his median coverts and only the inner 7 greaters, retaining the 3 outer juvenile gcovs.

Our nets near the salt marsh yielded a first year Savannah Sparrow

and a young Saltmarsh Sparrow, still going through its first prebasic molt.

Thanks to those who helped out this week- Gretchen Putonen, Peter Brown, and Jo-Anna Ghadban. The following birds were seen, heard, or captured between 29 September-3 October. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 129                              Total Species: 49
Total Banded Species: 26                Birds/100 net-hours: 36

Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
Canada Goose
Cooper's Hawk
American Woodcock
Laughing Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Black-billed Cuckoo- 1 escape!
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker- 3
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe- 1
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 28
Tufted Titmouse- 5
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Carolina Wren- 1
House Wren- 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet
American Robin
Gray Catbird- 47
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
White-eyed Vireo- 1
Red-eyed Vireo- 1
Nashville Warbler- 1
Magnolia Warbler- 1
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 5
Blackpoll Warbler- 2
Ovenbird- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 2
Yellow-breasted Chat- 5
Northern Cardinal- 7
Eastern Towhee- 1
Savannah Sparrow- 1
Saltmarsh Sharp-tailed Sparrow- 1
Song Sparrow- 9
Slate-colored Junco- 1
Purple Finch- 1
House Finch- 1
American Goldfinch- 1

20,000th bird!

21-26 September


Banding occurred on Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday this week. Wednesday and Saturday were both extremely windy days so I opted not to band for the saftey of the birds.


We had 3 species show up for the first time this fall season on Tuesday. The first was  a hatch year female Ruby-crowned Kinglet pictured below:

Although I was able to positively identify her as a hatch year by skulling, another clue for banders to look at is the very pointed tail feathers on first year kinglets. Some of the feathers almost appear to have small pins projecting from the ends.

While adults tails are still pointed, they are not quite as pointed as the tail above. Below is an adult tail for comparison, although the picture isn't very good. Missing are the tiny projections at the end of the feathers.

Brown Creepers showed up too. We've only banded Brown Creepers during the fall. This bird was a hatch year, sex unknown.

The plumage of creepers is gorgeous and cryptically colored to make them inconspicuous as they travel up and down tree trunks.

Long toenails on their back toe enable them to cling and move easily on tree bark.

Our first Savannah  Sparrow appeared on Tuesday, one that had me a bit stumped at first as I'm used to seeing them with at least some yellow on their lores. This hatch year bird had none.

I banded a Red-eyed Vireo who had some kind of thick coating on its bill even covering its nares.

Not sure what it got into, but luckily I had my tick tweezers and was able to carefully remove it. Ah, now it can breathe easier, I'm sure!

Wednesday evening, the 22nd must have been a good flight night as we banded 20 species of birds on Thursday. The first fall Swamp and White-throated Sparrows arrived. Hatch year Swamps are usually easy to age because of the yellow tint to the lores and supercilium.

Compare to the head coloration of an adult.

 White-throated Sparrows exhibit plumage polymorphism with dull and bright forms. The White-throat we captured on Thursday was a dull morph variety.

We recaptured an old friend we originally banded on May 1st, 2003 as a second year making this Northern Cardinal 8 years old! We caught him twice in '03, twice in '05, once in '08, and this is the 3rd time this year. He remains in the same area every time. I was fortunate not to get this picture without him getting a piece of me!

 

This wasn't the case with the Purple Finch, pictured below.

In case you aren't sure if this is a Purple or House Finch take a look at the unstreaked (mostly) undertail coverts of the Purple Finch:

Banders can also differentiate between the two, if they bite it is definitely a Purple!

We had a choice between the best bird of the day. One was the hatch year Connecticut Warbler below. The eye ring wasn't quite as complete as I'm used to.

According to Pyle (our 'go to' book for banding), Connecticuts can occasionally have small breaks in the normally complete eyering. Also by comparing certain measurements and feathers in their wing, we can differentiate between the two. The ninth primary feather should be at least 3.5 mm longer than the 6th primary feather, which is the case here, whereas in Mourning Warblers the ninth primary is usually shorter. The ninth primary is the furthest feather to the right in the wing.

The other cool bird this day was a Gray-cheeked Thrush! Note the grayish coloration in the face and indistinct eye ring. Swainson's Thrushes have a buffy appearance and more distinct eye ring. Measurements were also done to rule out Bicknell's Thrush.

Species diversity was down a bit on Friday, but we did manage to band a Brown Thrasher, a bird we don't see too often anymore.

Four new Song Sparrows were also banded. Song Sparrows are hard to age by molt limits, we usually do it by skulling, but I find most of the hatch years we band replace the outer 5-6 primaries and I can occasionally see the difference. In the photo below, this Song Sparrow replaced the outer 5 primaries and retained the inner four. Take a look and see if you can notice the darker shafts of the outer feathers compared with the lighter brown shafts of the juvenal primary feathers. You might have to double click on the photo to make it bigger.

Yellow-breasted Chats are always enjoyable to capture and today we caught two, one male and female. I took a picture to compare the face coloration. The lores of the male are blackish (bottom bird) and dark gray in the female (top bird).

Winds were gusting on Saturday so no banding, but Gretchen and I did get out on Sunday. I thought the catbirds had pretty much passed through but we banded 35 new catbirds this day.

I've been wondering when the yellow-rumps (Myrtle Warblers) would show up and sure enough three appeared in our nets. In the next three weeks we will probably band at least 600 of them!

We had a Lincoln's Sparrow

and I was able to capture a good example of streaking on the throat in this photo:

Our most exciting bird today was not the species, but the fact that it is our 20,000th bird banded on Wing Island since opening in 2000. This doesn't include other birds banded at other sites, but just on Wing Island. A hatch year Nashville Warbler!

Thanks very much to Jan Bridge, Jo-Anna Ghadban, Suzanne Moore, Gretchen Putonen, and Jessica Rempel for helping this week. The following birds were seen, heard, or captured between 21-26 September. Numbers reflect captured birds only.

Total Birds: 301                     Total Species: 65

Total Banded Species: 38        Birds/100 net-hours: 54

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

American Black Duck
Osprey
Black-bellied Plover
Greater Yellowlegs
American Woodcock
Laughing Gull
Ring-billed Gull
Herring Gull
Great Black-backed Gull
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Belted Kingfisher
Red-bellied Woodpecker
Downy Woodpecker- 2
Hairy Woodpecker
Yellow-shafted Flicker
Eastern Phoebe- 2
Tree Swallow
Blue Jay- 6
American Crow
Fish Crow
Black-capped Chickadee- 41
Tufted Titmouse- 24
Red-breasted Nuthatch
White-breasted Nuthatch
Brown Creeper- 3
Carolina Wren- 3
House Wren- 1
Golden-crowned Kinglet- 2
Ruby-crowned Kinglet- 1
Gray-cheeked Thrush- 1
American Robin- 2
Gray Catbird- 127
Northern Mockingbird- 1
Brown Thrasher- 1
Cedar Waxwing
European Starling
Red-eyed Vireo- 3
Nashville Warbler- 2
Northern Parula- 1
Yellow Warbler- 1
Myrtle (Yellow-rumped) Warbler- 3
Western Palm Warbler- 2
Blackpoll Warbler- 10
Black-and-white Warbler- 1
American Redstart- 1
Ovenbird- 2
Connecticut Warbler- 1
Common Yellowthroat- 7
Yellow-breasted Chat- 4
Northern Cardinal- 4
Eastern Towhee- 4
Savannah Sparrow- 1
Song Sparrow- 22
Lincoln's Sparrow- 1
Swamp Sparrow- 1
White-throated Sparrow- 2
Red-winged Blackbird
Common Grackle
Purple Finch- 1
House Finch- 1
American Goldfinch- 9
House Sparrow