Migration in the Pacific Northwest

Since I'm located east of the Great Plains most of my focus on birds is the eastern half of the U.S. but I did look at some radar images this morning from the Pacific Northwest and there looks to be a pretty good landing on migrants from Portland, OR to Vancouver, BC. Below are images from this morning:

 

 The top image above shows migrants arriving this morning and as time progresses the image returns become more faint as birds land. This is the exact opposite progression of the liftoff we see in the evening.

 Ann Nightingale of Victoria, B.C. mentioned on BIRDBAND another radar image source for that region that looks really good. It is from the University of Washington. Again, the top image shows birds arriving and the second shows the image fading as birds land. For west coast birders I've also seen this pattern in the central valley of California.

 Here are those images:

 So as spring migration really begins to peak it might be worthwhile for birders to look at weather to get a feel for movement both into and out of your region. The thing that I've learned is that a good migration movement sometimes means birds are leaving - not arriving.

I'm going to go watch the White-throated Sparrows under my feeder for a while...

Migration Hot Spots

Tonight it looks like two areas of the country are having big movements of birds. The first is the expected location of south Texas. The southern tip of the state looks busy tonight.

 Lots of birds moving across the Rio Grande on their way to the nesting grounds. Further north it looks like Wisconsin is the winner in the Great Lakes region. We've had some rather bizarre weather the last 3 days with some parts of Minnesota and Wisconsin seeing 14+ inches of snow. Things are beginning to shift with temps. returning to "normal" by mid-week. There will be heavy runoff of melt water and this will result in both flood potential in localized areas but also will mean lots of agricultural fields with standing water for a while. Shorebirds may find plenty of habitat as they go north but may be so spread out that they will be hard to find.

Biggest movement in Wisconsin right now is along a line from about LaCrosse to Green Bay. Hard to say where these birds will put down in the morning but they may find snow drifts instead of open fields. Many lakes still have ice cover. The life of a migrating birds certainly isn't easy!

Keep the feeders full and your eyes open. No telling what might show up in these conditions. There is a Lazuli Bunting coming to a feeder in the eastern suburbs of St. Paul, MN. Boy it that bird in for a surprise...

Very Heavy Migration Tonight

Hello -

      Radar is indicating a very strong movement of migrants all across the eastern U.S. from Florida to Texas and north to a line of storms along a cold front moving into the South Dakota, Minnesota and Wisconsin area. North of the front is very quiet. There should be obvious arrivals in peoples backyards tomorrow morning (except where I live north of the cold front - doesn't it figure!). Here is a screen shot of movement at about 10:45 pm on 4-30-13.

It sounds like weather will stay consistently cold for a few days so whatever migrants arrive in the morning should stay a while, except where I live...

Keep looking up!

April Banding Looked More Like March

We held our monthly banding session at the Lowry Nature Center just west of the Twin Cities last Saturday and it was more like March than April. The temps were no where near normal and the most common bird of the day was Dark-eyed Junco.

The morning totals ended up being 24 birds of 7 species. This Song Sparrow was one of the few migrants even seen that day. The afternoon did turn out to be the best part of the weekend and I went out birding but it sure isn't spring around here just yet.

Banding results were:

Dark-eyed Junco - 12
Black-capped Chickadee - 5
Chipping Sparrow - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
White breasted Nuthatch - 3
Song Sparrow - 1
Northern Cardinal - 1
      This fellow was a retrap first banded in 2008. He has chewed on his band so that it is overlapped. We did not replace the band as it still moved up and down his leg and the process of removing that band and putting on a new one would have caused more stress than we felt was justified. Besides he's an tough old bird and we hope to see him many more years.

Our next banding is next Sunday April 28th at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville, Minnesota. It will be the first of 3 sessions there this spring and the predicted high that day may reach 70º. Hoping for a wave of Yellow-rumped Warblers!

A Greeting for Today

Hoping Everyone Has A Wonderful Earth Day 2013!

Possible Gulf Coast Fallout

There is a large weather front moving across the U.S. stretching from Texas to Michigan that looks to be the right set up for a migration fallout along the Texas and Louisiana gulf coast. Returns ahead of the front appear to show significant movement of migrants across the gulf.

This might be the day for birders down south to really be on the lookout for birds ahead of the rain.

Subspecies of the American Tree Sparrow

     One of the things I most enjoy about bird banding and having the opportunity to see birds up close in the hand is that I have the chance to learn something new with each bird. The American Tree Sparrow (Spizella arborea) above is a case in point. When we had this bird at the banding table one of the first things that was commented on was how pale the bird looked. You can see from the photos that there is a large amount of gray around the head and nape. The spot on the breast is faint and the all over color appeared washed out compared to the other birds we handled that day.

A check with the Pyle manual showed that there are two recognized subspecies of American Tree Sparrow with the western subspecies being more pale and gray. Measurements for the bird (chord, tail, etc.) all fell within the described measurements for both subspecies. As far as we banders know, we had never handled an example of the western form before. So the question we had was "is this a sparrow that would qualify as the subspecies S. a. ocliracea?

Turns out that this is not a simple question. Not only is the variation between the subspecies subtle there is also, near our location, a zone of intergradation (overlap) that covers the Great Plains. Throw in the normal variation within the species and we realized we were over our head in assigning this bird to a subgroup.

So it comes to this - I am going to ask anyone who is familiar with the western form of ATSP to comment on this bird.

Decided to add a photo of the tail just for yucks. We aged and sexed this bird as an ASY-U. One person asked if we took any wing shots and unfortunately we didn't. Most of our ATSPs are headed north (finally).

Does it look like the western subspecies?
Is it possible to separate the groups in winter?
Do these photos show enough to make a determination?
Is this a Fool's Errand that I am pursuing?

Any insights from western banders would be most welcome. Fortunately, with birds now headed north for the summer this is not an identification that I will have to deal with until next winter. However, if there is a way to separate these subspecies it might give us insight into which birds winter here in Minnesota.

Thanks to all who comment!