Busy Birding Week

I've been very busy this week teaching my Field Ornithology class and having a great time doing it. Trouble is I come home just knackered at the end of the day.

I'm headed to the north shore of Lake Superior in the morning to see if I can catch up to some of the birds that have already passed through my neck of the woods.

Thought I'd give you one photo as a tease for all the rest I promise to post when I get home from up north. Until then...keep looking up!

Migrants Still on Their Way

The radar images from Saturday night show that there are still many migrants on the move especially in the lower Great Lakes all the way into places like Missouri, Illinois and Indiana. For all of you despairing that the migration might be over, the only place that looks like they're into summer is the far south. Movement there is pretty quiet.

The storm system that has affected the midwest for the last few days has finally moved on an that means the floodgates might be open, that's what we hope for anyway. Banding tomorrow should tell us whether we still have birds arriving in Minnesota.

Banding Programs This Weekend

There will be 2 programs this weekend for bird banding in the Twin Cities area.

Saturday we will be banding at the Lowry Nature Center located in Carver Park Reserve just west of Victoria, Minnesota from 8 - noon.

Sunday we will be banding at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville, Minnesota from 9 - 1 as part of their celebration of nature event.

Both programs are free and open to the public. If you come out to visit make sure you bring your camera. I think it should be a good weekend for birding!

Weekend Banding Totals

Saturday was so much fun that I dragged myself out of bed again on Sunday and went up to school to see if I could add to my totals for the weekend. The weather was considerably better with lots of sun and a light wind. This is how banding should be.

The birds were around but I didn't catch as many as the day before. I did have a couple of "good" birds for the year. The first bird of the day was a Swamp Sparrow on his way through but the really exciting bird was the little girl pictured above. This is my first Blue-gray Gnatcatcher ever. They are incredibly small and their legs are like toothpicks. We've been hearing a lot of these birds around but they're usually up in the tops of trees, not anywhere near my nets.

May banding is off to a nice start. For the weekend I had 38 individuals of 15 species. The list is as follows:

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (1)
Chipping Sparrow (4)
Black-capped Chickadee (3 new, 2 retraps)
American Goldfinch (2 new, 1 retrap)
House Wren (1)
Pine Warbler (1)
Swamp Sparrow (1)
Downy Woodpecker (1 new, 1 retrap)
White-breasted Nuthatch (3 new, 2 retrap)
White-throated Sparrow (4)
Northern Cardinal (1 retrap)
Hairy Woodpecker (2 new, 1 retrap)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (2)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (2 new, 1 retrap)
American Robin (2)

Next weekend we will be doing 2 programs. Saturday we will be at Carver Park Reserve near Victoria, Minnesota doing our monthly banding program for the public and on Sunday we will be at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville, Minnesota doing a banding program during the cities spring nature festival.

Drop by and say hello if you can!

Banding in Wisconsin

I have a chance every so often to head over to a site in Wisconsin with Birdchick and another friend to do some banding at a great piece of habitat not far from Menomonie, Wisconsin. With the beginning of migration finally picking up I was excited to put out some nets until it started to snow on the drive over. Low overcast with wind and rain/snow is probably the worst when it comes to banding. However, with the chance that the front would come through and clear the sky we persevered and had nets up by 8 am. The rain held off for the most part and the wind varied so we stuck with it and were rewarded with 31 birds of 12 species.


There were several Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Pheucticus ludovicianus, coming to a feeder station and we caught 2 beautiful males. It was worth it despite the finger numbing bites these fellows can inflict.


A brush pile turned out to be a great spot for a net and there were still some White-throated Sparrows, Zonotrichia albicollis, hanging around. We heard them all morning but didn't catch any until later in the afternoon.


One of the better catches of the day was this Pine Warbler, Dendroica pinus, and we might not have caught it if Birdchick hadn't set up a warbler chip call recording near the net. It was pretty effective in drawing the bird in quickly.

By the time we took down our nets the sky was clearing and the temps were rising. We can always count on working hard when we band at this site but it is always worth it.

Storm Fronts Slow Migrants

Two strong storm fronts moving across the eastern U.S. have slowed migration pretty much everywhere behind the fronts. Good movement is indicated ahead of the storms, particularly in the far southeastern U.S.



As these fronts pass migrants should be grounded after not having moved a great distance. Any migration behind the fronts should be light.