Fall Migration Banding Begins With a Whimper

Today was the first day of "official" fall banding at my school site which basically means I am coming to grips with having to go back to work on Monday and thought I'd fill this last weekend with some banding. My friend Amber came out to help but I don't think the birds got the memo because we got skunked! It could have been the cool morning or the winds that kept getting stronger as the morning went on or it may just be that nothing is really moving through this neck of the woods yet.


So the pictures included with this entry are actually from the first fall banding session at Ritter Farm. That was a good banding day. Lots of birds and some good species. This young female Eastern Towhee, Pipilo erythophthalmus, was one of the highlights of the day. We knew it was special as soon as we walked up to the net.


We also had a really nice recapture of a Yellow-throated Vireo, Vireo flavifrons, that had been banded in May of 2007 at Ritter. Nice to see it again. Note the molting wing feathers.


As always happens in the fall, much of what we have to look at has to do with molt limits and general shape and condition of feathers. Young birds, adults molting into their basic (winter) plumage and just generally confusing birds make fall a much tougher season in my opinion than spring banding. On the other hand, it is when a bander learns the most about the life histories of many of the species they handle.

As I tell my students, even zero can be a good data point so I'll be back at it tomorrow and maybe have a little more luck!

Back after a bit of a Break

I haven't had much to post lately so I've been away but it is getting to that time of the year when birding and banding start to pick up again.

Saturday we're banding at the Lowry Nature Center and we may be able to catch some of the early southbound migrants that some people are talking about. It will be a fun day and we'll have visitors from out east to help out at the station. There is also a Birds n Beers get together that night at Merlin's Rest in Minneapolis. If you come out to banding, watch for PGA Championship traffic as Hazeltine NGC is close to the park.

A researcher at the University of Iowa is doing a study of banders and their exposure to avian inluenza. If you band non-passerines or are just interested in the study, check out the story here.

I hope to have a more regular presence now that birding is picking up. See you next time.

Seabirds in Trouble

I came across this recent article talking about seabirds and conservation concerns. The news is, as usual, not cheerful.

Read this article.

Cool birds are beginning to show up in the upper midwest with the start of the end of summer. There is a Mottled Duck, Anas fulvigula, being seen in southern Wisconsin, a Rufous Hummingbird, Selasphorus rufus, being seen just west of the city of Ashland, WI by Lake Superior and a Scissor-tailed Flycatcher, Tyrannus forficatus, in Dodge County, Minnesota.

Even in August there are good reasons to get into the field!

Slow Summer Birding

I haven't been out much the last week but activity seems pretty typical for mid-summer. Lots of young birds coming to the feeders with parents. The noise at times is incredible with all the begging calls. It does look like the chickadees and cardinals had a good nesting season.

I took my kids canoeing a couple of times this week and had fun seeing how close we could drift up to birds along the shoreline. The Canada Geese were oblivious to us and the Great Blue Herons were more interested in catching dinner. We had nice close-ups of Great Egrets and Wood Ducks along with lots of fly over swallows and gulls. My oldest is getting really good at observational skills as long as it doesn't have anything to do with chores. He spotted a soaring Red-tailed Hawk over the treeline along the lake.

Nothing really beats floating in a canoe on a summer afternoon and watch your kids get excited by the simplest things.