Ruthven Park Nature Blog

We had the great good fortune of having David Brewer drop in to help with the banding – he has done this for the last couple of years for several days throughout the banding season. He’s written several books on birds and banding and his birding travels have taken him all around the world – so he’s a guy who not only is fun to talk to but whose opinion is well worth considering.

David and I were sitting at the picnic table talking over the state of the (birding) world and the main topic of conversation was the apparent lack of long-distance warblers. This is something that I have been concerned about for several years and, as it turns out, so has David. In some ways, it must have sounded like a couple of fishermen talking about the good old days and the “lunkers” that we had caught. But there was a thread of truth in our discussion. For example, I have written a couple of times in the last week that there have been 12 or 13 species of warblers around the site on the same day. Folks, I can remember when I was a kid and just really getting into birding, running home from school and finding 13 species of warblers in just one big tree in our back yard in the east end of Hamilton. Not to be outdone, David recalled finding 8 species of warblers in one mist net at the same time. Now, warblers seem to be few and far between. And, frankly, I’m concerned when I wander along the wooded trails at Ruthven during what should be the height of the Spring migration and find none. Interestingly, Yellow Warblers are common and perhaps even increasing. But when you consider that they prefer “disturbed” or second-growth habitats – which are increasing in the Tropics – this shouldn’t be a surprise.

David discussed the idea that many species are suffering from the drastic destruction of habitat in their wintering areas. Even before this destruction, migrants would be faced with “compression” – in the breeding areas of northern Canada/U.S. they cover a huge area but then they are funneled down into a much smaller area in the Tropics. With the loss of habitat this compression becomes ever more critical. He mused that people of “our generation” may be the last ones that actually experienced the huge migrations of long-distance warblers. That, my friends, is a very sobering thought.

Despite inclement weather, our numbers continued to be modest.

Banded 28:
1 House Wren
3 Gray Catbirds
1 Tennessee Warbler
8 Yellow Warblers
3 Magnolia Warblers
1 American Redstart
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Canada Warbler
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
2 Indigo Buntings
1 Common Grackle
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
4 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 32:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 House Wren
3 Gray Catbirds
2 Blue-winged Warblers
4 Yellow Warblers
2 Common Yellowthroats
9 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
2 Chipping Sparrows
3 Song Sparrows
2 Brown-headed Cowbirds
2 Baltimore Orioles
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 64 spp.

Rick

Here it is, the middle of May, right when the bulk of the long-distance migrants should be pouring through and where are they? Although resident birds at Ruthven were making themselves heard (and often seen), the woods and edges were devoid of migrants. The early net rounds, usually the most productive, produced only a few birds and, later, we had some rounds that produced NO birds. About all I could do was work on my tan, eat muffins and chocolate cookies (thanks Carol!) and work my way through 6 years of data books to figure out how many birds of which species Faye has banded (quite a few as it turns out).

Matt et al. did the census and although the crew found 49 species only 8 of them were warblers, some represented by a single individual. Have they flown over or are there still lots to go? Only time will tell.

Banded 14:
1 Blue Jay
1 House Wren
1 Wood Thrush
1 American Robin
2 Yellow Warblers
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
3 Indigo Buntings
1 Song Sparrow
1 Brown-headed Cowbird

Retrapped 20:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 House Wrens
1 Gray Catbird
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Blue-winged Warbler
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
4 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
3 Chipping Sparrows
1 Baltimore Oriole
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 60 spp.
Rick

This year marked the first time that the Ruthven Banding Station entered the Baillie Birdathon – in any fashion. In order to give it our best shot, we assembled what is known in birding circles as a “kick-ass” team – the Dream Team. In doing so we tried to cover as many demographics as possible: youth (Ben), maturity (Peter), in-between (Joanne and Matt), expert (Matt), really good (Peter), learning (Ben and Joanne), male (3 out of 4), female (Joanne). And then, at the last minute we included Marie-Pier to make it truly bilingual. You couldn’t have a more politically correct or (more importantly) a more fun group than this. They exuded camaraderie and enthusiasm right from the start and the emails I got from them when they finished in the wee hours of the next morning were just as enthusiastic. Below is Peter’s summary of the event.

Ruthven’s Dream Team. A report on our Baillie Birdathon
(by Peter Thoem)
The Dream Team: Ben Oldfield, Matthew Timpf, Marie-Pier Laplante, Joanne Fleet & Peter Thoem.
The Dream Team gathered at the Edge of the Day; Daybreak to most. We’d decided to anchor our day’s marathon by doing Ruthven Park’s daily census. It was a good idea because in a little over an hour we built a solid base of 73 species. It included all the usual bread and butter stuff like Northern Flicker, Yellow Warbler and White-breasted Nuthatch. But the combination of knowledge, experience and habitat variety helped us build a really strong foundation of birds; not only the usual inventory but some of the tougher species that might otherwise take some searching for; or a generous stroke of luck. Things like: Wild Turkey, Eastern Tufted Titmouse and Common Loon. It was warbler time too, so our route through the forest landed us 14 warbler species including Nashville, Bay-breasted and Blue-winged Warblers.
On the road, fresh and inspired, we swept along a few spots by the Grand River and quickly added some grassland birds: Bobolink, Savannah Sparrow and Eastern Meadowlark. An Osprey, a Great Blue Heron and an Orchard Oriole filled a few worrisome gaps remaining from the census at Ruthven.
We then set off in the general direction of Long Point watching the roadside farms and fields for American Kestrel and Horned Lark. We got them eventually, as well as a Northern Mockingbird that was obligingly perched on utility line.
At Townsend we spent an hour or so prowling around the sewage lagoons. There are few people in the world who make a point of visiting sewage lagoons; municipal waste water officials and birders would probably comprise the entire list. But to a birder these are rich places because to birds they are delicious places. We quickly found 10 duck species including the always elegant Northern Pintail, striking Northern Shovelers and a mother Wood Duck with young in tow. There were shorebirds too including Dunlin, Greater Yellowlegs and Short-billed Dowitcher. A real surprise was a single Wilson’s Phalarope hunched among some Dunlins and Killdeers.
A brief stop in Port Dover gave us Semi-plamated Plover, Wilson’s Snipe and a single Solitary Sandpiper. By now our species total was 108.
Then we moved into Long Point Country – the land of heavyweight birding; and we were getting tired.
A couple of stops in St. Williams brought us some real specialties. A Northern Goshawk made it quite clear that we were unwelcome, clearly it had a nest around somewhere so we moved on. As we did so we added Red-breasted Nuthatch, Ovenbird and Pine warbler to our list.
In the depths of some of Ontario’s richest woodlands we heard, but did not see, Hooded and Prothonotary Warbler and watched a mother Hooded Merganser leading a tribe of youngsters through a Buttonwood-clogged slough. Hooded Merganser females are highly secretive during breeding and care of young, so our sighting probably came about only because we were sitting quietly hoping to see the Prothonotary Warbler.
Matt led us to some parts of Long Point that are heavily used for camping and day-use during the summer months. The combination of open spaces and thick brushy privacy screens made for extraordinary birding. The trees were jumping with birds, most of them jumping out of sight or moving just as you found them in your binoculars. There must have been a major overnight arrival of Gray Catbirds, there seemed to be one in every tree. Many of the warblers that we’d only glimpsed or heard earlier showed themselves in their full glory. A small wave of Scarlet Tanagers, males and females, caught our attention for a while, one of the males was a very orangey-red; not scarlet at all. We added Tennessee, Orange-crowned and Chestnut-sided Warblers as well as Veery, Swainson’s Thrush and Ruby-crowned Kinglet. A mystery song left us wondering whether we’d heard a Carolina Wren (which we needed) or a more likely, another Tufted Titmouse.
We had to eat and needed rehydration, so we took a much needed dinner break back in Port Rowan; we’re human after all. But with the food barely off the plate we were back to another Matt Timpf Special Place and despite some weary foot dragging we topped up with a couple of missing warblers: Wilsons and Western Palm. These two brought our total warbler count to 24. Wow! Then we added two more vireos, Philadelphia and Blue-headed Vireo, giving us a total of five counting Red-eyed, Yellow-throated and Warbling Vireos from earlier.
Standing on a viewing platform overlooking Big Creek Marsh, we wondered whether we’d catch a glimpse of a Sandhill Crane. Then as if to respond, two started bugling way off to our right. We searched and finally saw a pair flying our way. They came closer and closer, and in a perfectly choreographed flight, passed within a hundred yards of us at eye level, their long elegant legs and necks, gray bodies and rusty caps perfectly illuminated. We were silent for many minutes after. Some said it was the Bird of the Day.
As the sun went down we caught the distant sounds of an American Bittern and Least Bittern while Swamp Sparrows sang in the fading light.
It was dark as we headed home and as a last shot at two more species we stopped at a clearing along a sandy road. No sooner were we out of the car than we could hear the peeenting of an American Woodcock and from the far woodland margins the endless calling of a Whip-poor-will: “Wip-per-WILL Wip-per-WILL Wip-per-WILL. 141 species and perfect.
Birdathon Photos:

Ruthven today:
It was a gorgeous day and the banding was consequently pretty slow. The birding was pretty good though as we encountered 76 species, the most notable being a Great Egret that flew by….going south!? We also had 13 species of warblers.

Banded 28:
1 Least Flycatcher
1 Tree Swallow
1 House Wren
5 Gray Catbirds
2 Cedar Waxwings
1 Nashville Warbler
2 Yellow Warblers
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
2 Common Yellowthroats
2 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Orchard Oriole
6 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 76 spp.

Rick

My mother was a wonderful woman for whom I had the greatest affection. Same with my grandmother – the woman who fanned the early flame of my interest in birds. I could never thank them enough for who they were and what they gave to me. For me, mothers are a big deal.

So it was with great satisfaction that I was able to endow visitor Ruth Kinzie with a wonderful Mother’s Day gift. As she did last year, Ruth gave herself the gift of coming to the banding lab to spend a morning at her favourite pasttime – birding. She arrived early, just after opening, and after the usual pleasantries announced that she had never seen a Scarlet Tanager and her goal was to see one today – especially after seeing that we had caught one yesterday.
“Well”, I said, “You’re in luck. There’s one calling just behind me along the Carolinian Trail”. Ruth took her binos and the very first bird she focused on was a Scarlet Tanager. That made her very happy. But we like to do things in a big way at Ruthven, so on the first net round we turned into net lane #5 and found….not one but two gorgeous male Scarlet Tanagers. Happy Mother’s Day Ruth!

There were a number of displays of motherhood going on at Ruthven. At the confluence of the Fox Den and Carolinian Trails, we watched a mother Eastern Bluebird feeding just-fledged young. These must have been the three young from the nest box at the corner of the parking lot. Christine and Chris reported that the box contained young yesterday but that they were gone today. As upwards of 80% of young birds do not survive through their first year, mother bluebird (father too) will have her work cut out for her feeding them until they can forage for themselves. This pair took a chance and bred early, gambling that they would not be hit by a prolonged cold snap. They did go through a short one that killed 2 of the original five. But these three have emerged at an ideal time – the insects are emerging full force, giving them a really good chance of “making it”.

Another motherhood story is that of a Yellow Warbler that we retrapped today. It was hatched in June of 2005 making it just under 7 years old. Each winter it has gone south to the tropics and then has returned to Ruthven successfully. It would be interesting to know how many young it has fledged successfully and how many of those young are alive today. How many nests did it make and how many times did it bring food to its young? Motherhood is a tough job!

Another example is the time and effort that Margaret (and John) Leiher takes to bring her granddaughter Gabrielle to Ruthven from Aurora so she can take part in the banding program. And if that wasn’t enough, she puts on a picnic lunch complete with table cloth! Mothers (and picnics)…you gotta love ‘em.

With overcast skies and reports of scattered showers throughout the area, I had great hopes for the day. We had a good first net round but after that the numbers went down as the cloud dissipated. Still, we had a lot of diversity recording a Clay-coloured Sparrow on census and banding the first American Redstart of the year. We also had 67 species for the day. Not a bad day.


Banded 42:
2 Blue Jays
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
1 House Wren
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Veery
1 Swainson’s Thrush
2 American Robins
9 Gray Catbirds
1 Tennessee Warbler
3 Nashville Warblers
3 Yellow Warblers
3 Magnolia Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
2 American Redstarts
1 Ovenbird
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Scarlet Tanager (the other was a retrap)
3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Orchard Oriole
3 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 67 spp.

(Unofficial) Birdathon Report:

In the words of Dream Team member, Ben Oldfield:

Hi Everyone
Thank you so much for sponsoring me in the the birdathon.

We woke up at 4:00 in the morning and we had our breakfast. We got in the car and picked up one of my other partners. In total we had 4 people doing the bird a thon. We met at Ruthven, in Caledonia, Ruthven in a bird banding monitoring station When we were all together we started,at 6:00am

We called out all the birds we could see or hear. When we left Ruthven we were up to 72 species a very respectable number !. The highlights were scarlet tanager, bay breasted warbler and a early Canada warbler.

Next we were off to the sewage lagoons for water fowl and shore birds. On the way there, we saw a mocking bird.
Highlights there were Wilson’s phalarope,short billed dowitcher, northern pintail and a green winged teal.

Next to silver lake for more shorebirds.There we picked up semipalmated ploverand solitary sandpiper. Then we drove to St Williams where we looked for a goshawk nest. These birds are very dangerous they will dive bomb you and sometimes catch your head with their talons. This one did not dive at us we were lucky,another person went in and got dive bombed ouch!!!!
also we heard pine warbler and a red breasted nuthatch.
Next to the backus woods for rare warblers including cerulean hooded and prothonatary.The prothonatry warbler is critically endangered less then 10 pairs in Canada!!!
We were very lucky and heard all 3 !
next to long point it was the best by far.
Highlites were tennessee orange crowned chestnut sided warblers. also a veery and swainsons thrush.
Next to the new park in Long Point ..highlites were philadelphia vireo wilson’s warbler northern paurula.
Then to the swamp.highlites were a fly over of sandhill cranes also swamp sparrow marsh wren
It was getting to the end of the daylight. Not to the night birds we heard
a american woodcock,and a whipooorwill. We did not hear any owls. We ended our day in Ancaster at 11pm,
what a great day. We were hoping for 120 species for the day but we got 141 species. Awesome. Including 25 Warbler species.

I have attached some of my favorite pictures I have taken.
Thank you so much for sponsoring me. The money will help the bird banding observatories which helps identify species at risk, and find out the migration routes for these species.
Ben Oldfield

Rick

The excitement was almost palpable as the Dream Team assembled just before 6:00 and started their pursuit of trying to find 150 species in one day. And today, as would be fitting for International Migratory Bird Day, the birds did not disappoint. The sun had no sooner cleared the horizon than a Common Loon, white belly burnished by the golden light, flew over. An auspicious beginning.

The Team followed the Carolinian, Fox Den, and River Trails and finished their count/census with 72 species!

It was kind of neat to watch them in action. What a mix of ages and experience: Matt, in his mid-20′s with lots of experience lead the way pointing out one here, one there… Peter was not far behind, hindered only by his inability to pick out songs in the higher frequencies (a problem I am beginning to become aware of); Ben, at 12 years old, made up for his lack of experience with quick eyes and joyful enthusiasm; and speaking of enthusiasm…Joanne, almost overcome with awe at the variety she was seeing, provided tons of support (and drove). It was with great regret that I watched them head on out of the parking lot, dragging Marie-Pier with them, to turn up rarities between Ruthven and Long Point. They were certainly on track to easily break 100 species and probably 125 species. I won’t find out their final totals until tomorrow but I’m sure they will be awesome. (And thanks to everyone that sponsored them and, in doing so, supported the banding program at Ruthven!)

We mark this special day by holding an “open house” at the banding lab for the general public. This gives anyone that’s interested an opportunity to see what we do and how we do it….and a chance to see some pretty wonderful birds up close. We had over 50 visitors and had 77 birds to put on display – 44 banded and 33 retraps. Perhaps the most exciting bird that we banded was a brilliant ASY male Scarlet Tanager. But besides the birds we caught, we had the most species encountered around the grounds we’ve ever had on one day: 81, including 18 species of warblers (the most notable being: Northern Parula, Cape May, Black-throated Blue, Blackburnian, Bay-breasted, Blackpoll, and American Redstart). It was really nice that the birds co-operated! I am expecting this surge of migrants to continue for at least another week – let’s hope the weather takes a turn for the worse and brings them down from the treetops into “net range”.

Banded 44:
1 Blue Jay
1 House Wren
4 Gray Catbirds
2 Warbling Vireos
1 Red-eyed Vireo (1st of the year)
1 Blue-winged Warbler
2 Tennessee Warblers
1 Nashville Warbler
9 Yellow Warblers
4 Magnolia Warblers
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
3 Western Palm Warblers
3 Common Yellowthroats
1 Scarlet Tanager
2 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
3 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 33:
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Eastern Bluebird
5 Gray Catbirds
1 Blue-winged Warbler
4 Yellow Warblers (one was ~6 yrs, 11 months old)
1 Common Yellowthroat
3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
2 Chipping Sparrows
6 Song Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
3 Baltimore Orioles
2 American Godlfinches

ET’s: 81 spp.

Rick

The Baillie Birdathon is TOMORROW! So if you want to support the Ruthven banding program in a financial way, feel free to sponsor a member of the “Dream Team”. For more information, just read the sidebar on the right of this blog and follow the instructions to donate. Thanks!! Although straight dollar amounts are fine, team members say they prefer $$ per species as it pushes them to beat the bushes for every possible bird they can find. They think (quite realistically) that they will get somewhere between 100 and 130 birds.

What a gorgeous day! War, blue cloudless skies, light northerly wind. A good day for just napping on the picnic table bench, completely sated with date squares and muffins. But, alas, there was still a migration going on….evidently. Although it wasn’t all that evident as we had to work hard to band the 31 birds we did. Even though there were 65 species of birds seen during the day, some were present in only small numbers (e.g., only one Blackburnian Warbler). As I’ve said many times before (sort of our mantra) good weather equals lousy banding at Ruthven.

The relaxed pace gave us a chance to take a good look at some of the birds we were catching. I’m particularrly interested in the variety of plumages that we see in male Indigo Buntings. SY males have a pronounced mix of blue and brown feathers and are pretty easy to age. But then you get males that are brilliant blue throughout and others that are mostly blue but not as brilliant. I’m wondering if the former could be aged as ATY (i.e., After Third Year) and the latter as TY (Third Year). In other words, does it take this species 3+ years to reach full breeding plumage?
Check out these pictures for yourself:

This blog has been running for quite some time now (amazing how time flies!) but a couple of years ago it was greatly enhanced when, Luddite that I am, I figured out how to post pictures as well as text (by this time, Jeff MacLeod, who initiated the blog and still does all the troubleshooting and updating, must have torn out most of his hair…). I try to post pictures from anyone who takes the time to send pictures that relate to our banding program at Ruthven. In the Photo Gallery section below I have included the pictures of 3 new contributors: Fred Smith (President Betsy Smith’s husband) has come upon birds and birding relatively late in life but is quickly becoming an afficianado (as well as a good photographer). AS they live just 2 km downriver he often lets me know about birds arriving or at his feeders (which are just outside his office window). Note in one of his shots, the Rose-breasted Grosbeak is sporting a band, most likely applied at Ruthven.
Hannah Scholtens, sister of Caleb, who often has his pictures on the blog, sent me her first offerings and is showing great promise.
Mackenzie Degelder is one of our co-op students from Cayuga SS. Mack is becoming a very interested birder and quite competent in aspects of banding. I hope you like their shots.

Banded 31:
2 Least Flycatchers
3 Gray Catbirds
2 Blue-winged Warblers
2 Nashville Warblers
4 Yellow Warblers
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Song Sparrow
3 Lincoln’s Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
7 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 28:
2 Tree Swallows
1 House Wren
4 Gray Catbirds
1 Blue-winged Warbler
6 Yellow Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
4 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
2 Song Sparrows
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 Baltimore Orioles
3 American Godlfinches

ET’s: 65 spp.

Photo Gallery:

Rick

I’ve been in a bit of a personal rush over the past two days so I’ll cut to the chase with the banding numbers for these two days and some pictures.

Of note, there have been 2 very interesting retraps:
On the 9th, we recaptured an Eastern Wood Pewee that we had originally banded in the Spring of 2009, meaning it was hatched in at least 2008. Just think, this bird has spent a minimum of 4 winters in the understory of South American rain forests.

Today a Yellow Warbler was recaptured that had been banded originally by us in May 2006. At that time it was a SY or second-year bird meaning that it had been hatched in 2005 (probably June). This little bird is just shy of being 7 years old. Wow!!

May 9th, Banded 55:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Least Flycatcher
2 House Wrens
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
9 Gray Catbirds
2 Blue-winged Warblers
4 Nashville Warblers
9 Yellow Warblers
1 Magnolia Warbler
5 Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Black & White Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Wilson’s Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
5 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Orchard Oriole
2 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 69 spp.

May 10th, Banded 54:
2 Mourning Doves
2 Tree Swallows
1 American Robin
6 Gray Catbirds
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Tennessee Warbler
2 Nashville Warblers
2 Yellow Warblers
13 Yellow-rumped Warblers
2 Western Palm Warblers
1 Northern Waterthrush
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Northern Cardinal
4 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
2 Song Sparrows
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrows
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
4 Baltimore Orioles
3 American Godlfinches
ET’s: 70 spp.

Photo Gallery:

Rick

After a steady regime of getting up earlier and earlier, the hard rain falling at 4:30 was a welcome reprieve. Rather than rush out the door to open nets, I was able to start the morning off right at a more leisurely pace….and a cup of tea.

 

A glimpse at the weather radar showed that the rain was going to taper off before too long so I headed over to Ruthven to take advantage of its stopping and be ready to open as soon as it slowed down. We were about 2 hours later than normal opening the nets but began catching right away. The nice thing about these conditions (wet and overcast) is that they tend to bring the birds down from the treetops into the vertical range of the nets (within only 2 meters off the ground). There were a number of warbler species around (including a couple of stunning Blackburnians) and Yellow-rumps continued to pour through – we banded another 27. Altogether we handled 101 birds: banded 76 and had 25 retraps. And we had a species count of 63.

You know, I’ve never been able to figure out some people’s abhorence of Dandelions. Their delightful yellow glows on a green lawn, or anywhere for that matter. And what a tremendous early-Spring source of food. A while back when southern Ontario was inundated with Red Admiral butterflies and we had at least several hundred go through the banding area, they were sustaining themselves by feeding on these wonderful flowers. And now that the flowers have gone to seed, they are providing a bonanza for moulting goldfinches and migrating sparrows. And what pure simple fun it is to blow a seed head and see the little “parachutes” float away on the breeze…looking for a lawn to share. I mean….what’s wrongwith dandelions!?

Banded 76:
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
3 Least Flycatchers
1 House Wren
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Veery
3 Gray Catbirds
1 Tennessee Warbler
3 Nashville Warblers
2 Yellow Warblers
4 Magnolia Warblers
27 Yellow-rumped Warblers
7 Western Palm Warblers
6 Common Yellowthroats
3 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Baltimore Oriole
4 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 25:
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Tree Swallow
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Blue-winged Warbler
1 Yellow Warbler
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
3 Common Yellowthroats
2 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
3 Baltimore Orioles
3 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 63 spp.

Photo Gallery kindly provided by Sheri Lewis of her family’s day at Ruthven on Sunday:

 

 

 

 

 

 

Rick

By the time I was able to sit down and enjoy this wonderful sunrise, we had already caught and banded 2 birds. Usually it takes them a while to get up and get moving but not this morning. In fact, there was a certain urgency to the morning that is hard to describe – there was a lot of birds singing…and some of those songs I hadn’t heard for many months: Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush, Eastern Wood Pewee,Baltimore and Orchard Orioles, Magnolia Warbler. You just got the feel, a sense of urgency, that there were birds on the move.


Our first round was a big one. To my surprise, we were inundated, again, with Yellow-rumped Warblers and these were moving along the net 8-9-9A ‘axis’, as they had on the previous big Yellow-rump days. It would appear that during the day, they are moving in large numbers along the river and when they get below the cemetery they have options: follow the thin line of trees right along the river; follow a more substantial “middle” row of vegetation along this axis (but which is 50 m inland from the river); or swing further inland still to a bigger, deeper forest tract but be even further from the river. Now you could find “Myrtles” in all three options, but we caught by far the most in that middle section. Also of interest is that the sex bias has swung male to female – we are getting quite a few more females now.

We had a good variety of birds around today: 57 species on census and 72 species in total for the day – 14 of these were warblers, including the first Tennessee Warbler of the year.

Banded 115:
2 Mourning Doves
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
2 Least Flycatchers
1 Blue Jay
1 House Wren
9 Gray Catbirds
1 Tennessee Warbler (1st of the year)
6 Nashville Warblers
5 Yellow Warblers
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
46 Yellow-rumped Warblers
5 Western Palm Warblers
1 Ovenbird
4 Common Yellowthroats
1 Canada Warbler
7 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Song Sparrow
3 Swamp Sparrows
2 White-throated Sparrows
4 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
2 Brown-headed Cowbirds
2 Baltimore Orioles
4 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 34:
2 Downy Woodpeckers
2 Tree Swallows
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
1 Blue-winged Warbler
4 Yellow Warblers
2 Common Yellowthroats
6 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
5 Baltimore Orioles
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 72 spp.

Photo Gallery:

I hope you all got a chance to take in the moon last night. It rose dramatically in the east in a clear, star-studded sky that was almost electric. And this morning, it was just going down in the west as I was heading for Ruthven. If I was a bird, I would have set out last night for a good jaunt north, enjoying the lack of wind, the cool temperatures (good for thermoregulation), and the clear sky (good for navigation). I think a lot of birds did set off last night as there were many ‘new’ birds around this morning, including the first Eastern Wood Pewee, Eastern Kingbird, Swainson’s Thrush, and Canada Warbler of the year.

We also had a large influx of parents and kids, whose interest and enthusiasm just added to the day.

One of the most interesting aspects to Spring banding is the recovery of birds banded in previous years – like the return of old friends. (And amazing when you consider that many of them have survived the rigours of long-distance travel between the tropics and Ruthven for several years.)
Here are a few of the more interesting ‘retraps’ that we had today:
Tree Swallow – banded as a new hatchling in a nest box on Indiana Rd. on June 3, 2005 (almost 7 years old)
Tree Swallow – banded as an AHY female on June 2, 2010 (at least 3 years old)
Yellow Warbler – banded as an AHY female on May 9, 2009 (at least 4 years old)
Baltimore Oriole – banded as AHY on May 16, 2007 (at least 6 years old)
Baltimore Oriole – banded as SY on May 20, 2008 ( 5 years old)
Just think of how many kilometers, collectively, these 5 birds have flown and the places they’ve seen!

Banded 78:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Least Flycatcher
1 Tree Swallow
2 House Wrens
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 American Robin
3 Gray Catbirds
1 European Starling
1 Blue-winged Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
3 Yellow Warblers
1 Magnolia Warbler
22 Yellow-rumped Warblers (they were all over, again, today)
6 Western Palm Warblers
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Canada Warbler
5 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
3 Chipping Sparrows
2 Field Sparrows
1 Song Sparrow
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
2 Swamp Sparrows
4 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
2 Baltimore Orioles
5 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 29:
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 Tree Swallows
1 American Robin
2 Blue-winged Warblers
4 Yellow Warblers
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
2 Field Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
6 Baltimore Orioles
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 64 spp.

Photo Gallery:

Rick