Still More Migrants Arrive

    In spite of the cold morning I headed out to the banding site and put out 3 nets hoping to take advantage of the clear weather. In October you never know what the conditions might be. Many of the trees are now devoid of leaves and the Gray Dogwood doesn't have any more ripe fruits clinging to their panicles.

    I only had 6 birds total for the morning but one of the birds, this young Bluejay, was a great example of a bird showing a "molt limit". This is a contrast between newer replaced feathers and older retained feathers.

    You can see in this wing photo that the primary coverts and one of the greater coverts has been retained and are not the bright blue they will be in the spring. As we go from October to November aging birds gets trickier and on January first all wild birds have a "birthday" so a bird that would be aged hatch year on Dec. 31st would be aged after hatch year on Jan.1st. In some species we just admit we don't know age or sex of an individual until later in the spring.

 

    First of the fall arrival for Fox Sparrows (for me anyway) brought this bird in along with 2 other Fox Sparrows making this the most common catch of the day. I like this species. Their big and chunky sparrows and are easy to handle. I also think they are beautiful.

     As I went to check one of the nets we saw a bird hovering over an open grassy area and my first thought was it might be a kestrel but it was too small and the wings weren't the right shape. As it flew up and perched in a nearby tree I saw white wing patches and a black mask and I knew it was a shrike.

     This is another first of the fall season for me. it hung around all morning and was still sitting in a tree as I drove home.
    If the weather  is reasonable next weekend I may push the envelope and try to get in one or two more banding sessions. A mid-week storm may change my mind.

Hope Springs Eternal

Purple Finch

    Well the change in weather here in Minnesota has been nothing short of dramatic. We have gone from warm, dry days to cold, wet, windy days but the birds are still showing up. Luckily our banding sessions have fallen into weather windows when we wouldn't be completely miserable.
    Last Friday I headed to a friend's house in Wisconsin and had a busy morning. I banded 35 birds including Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Black-capped Chickadee, Dark-eyed Junco, American Goldfinch, White-breasted Nuthatch, Downy Woodpecker and White-throated Sparrow.
     I also had 2 retraps. 1 four year old chickadee and a five year old Hairy Woodpecker!

     The following day was our regular banding session at Carver Park and in spite of the threatening bad weather we had a great day. Twenty two individuals of ten species. The big surprises were the Purple Finch shown above and a couple of Eastern Bluebirds. This young male is interesting in that it shows some feathers having already been replaced but if you look at the wing photo below you can see some feathers that have been retained.

    If you look at the greater coverts on the wing (the feathers covering the base of the secondary and tertial wing feathers) you can see the contrast in color between the outer 2 feathers and the rest of the coverts toward the body. We got most of our birds by setting nets near shrubs that still have ripe berries but those are becoming fewer each day.

    Below is a list of all the species we handled that day:
American Tree Sparrow
Yellow-rumped Warbler
Black-capped Chickadee
Dark-eyed Junco
Purple Finch
House Finch
White-throated Sparrow
Eastern Bluebird
White-breasted Nuthatch
American Robin

    We are trying to continue banding for as long as is reasonable. It looks like this weekend Sunday might give us a chance to get out but it is hard to know what might still be around. We remind each other that zero is still a valid data point but not as much fun as a flock of sparrows.
    Check back next week to see if I was able to get out. Otherwise keep looking up!

Ya Gotta Be Tough

    The days are getting colder, rain is possibly changing to snow flurries this weekend and the migrants keep on moving. The latest species to show up are White-throated Sparrows, Red-breasted Nuthatch, both Kinglets and Hermit Thrushes. I had a good day banding earlier when the temps were higher and there was no wind.

    A few warblers are still passing by this area. Nashvilles like the one above were pretty common along with Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers. A couple of weeks from now they should be all gone.

     The last of the thrushes (besides Robins and Bluebirds) to pass through are the Hermit Thrushes. I like banding thrushes. They have long legs and are pretty easy to age. This is a hatch year bird and that was true of every thrush I handled that day (a total of 4).

    Ruby-crowned kinglets showed up in numbers about a week ago. I love getting to see their crown up close but they are so small banding them requires a level of dexterity that my big fingers sometimes struggle with. They also have a tendency to get more tangled in my nets. The mesh size is just big enough for them to really get the net wrapped around their body.

    I added the picture below of a Golden-crowned Kinglet that I caught the previous session. Their crown is always visible but the orange feathers (which aren't always apparent) in the middle of this kinglet's crown make this a male.

     And he was a tough old boy. The picture below is of his right leg. It was broken at one time but has completely healed and the bird has full use of his foot. I didn't see it perch but it appears that this bird is doing just fine in spite of the deformity. I banded the bird on the other leg.

    Sparrows and Juncos should dominate the banding session on Saturday if the weather cooperates. If the weather is cold and rainy we'll use traps and then it will be a Black-capped Chickadee marathon. I am hoping to band on Friday also over at a site in Wisconsin. That site is good for Red-breasted Nuthatches and Tufted Titmouse.

    Check back later for more photos and a tally of the weekends captures.

OK, So I Bled a Little...

   I had the day off work Friday so I planted myself at the banding site and hoped I might have a day filled with White-throated Sparrows or Yellow-rumped Warblers. Those guys didn't show up but I did catch a species I had never handled before and I know now how to do a better job the next time. I walked up to one of my nets and there sat

a Sharp-shinned Hawk! Well that got the old heart beating just a little faster. From handling other raptors I knew 2 things. 1) Talons are sharp and 2) raptors are way faster than me.  So being careful I got the bird out and realized I didn't really know what to look for on this bird for age and sex, etc.. So I dialed my friend Amber (using one hand) and got the low down. What a lifesaver.

   The whole process of banding and measuring went fine. I gauged the leg and put on a #3 band. And then, right at the point I was measuring the tail I found out... Tail is close to foot, foot has sharp talons, I have holes in my thumb...

   Luckily it didn't have that good a grip on me and I was able to finish up the banding and get the bird on its way. What a cool bird to catch and it didn't come at the cost of some small passerine already caught in the net. No pile of feathers nearby.

    I had another interesting catch but I tell that tale next time.

Migration in the Southeast

   Tonight it looks like the busiest spot for migration is in the southeastern U.S.. The heavy movement looks to be in Georgia and northern Florida. The image below is even picking up birds making the jump from south Florida over to Cuba on their first hop across the Caribbean.

    The movement in my neck of the woods is slowing down but we should have 2-3 weeks of migration yet even here. The warm weather is certainly making it easy for birds to stick around a bit longer than maybe they usually would. A cold front arrives in Minnesota this weekend so that may encourage any birds that have been hanging around to get up and go.
    Word from up north is that the Northern Saw-whet Owls are showing up in good numbers. One banding station banded 150 owls in one night. My friends who band by me are starting to put in some long nights trying to catch some NSWO as they pass through. Only banders think sitting in a cold car all night is fun...

Migration in Duluth, MN

 

    One of the great birding spots in Minnesota is Duluth. Located on the far western end of Lake Superior, it's location and topography make it a real hotspot year round. A report from the Hawk Ridge area showed a large movement of birds as a recent cold front moved through. An update posted from Duluth by Karl Bardon on the Minnesota listserve gives a flavor of what is being seen:

"Massive numbers of birds continue to move down the North Shore, as counted by Cory Ritter and myself for Hawk Ridge Bird Observatory. Normally we are lucky enough to have one or two days of “mass migration” when thousands and thousands of birds invade our counting space, but this year we have already had six such events, including today. Today’s flight may have been the largest yet, since although “only” 15,974 birds were counted, this flight appeared to occur over a very large front, with thousands of birds moving inland from shore as the sun rose, and thousands more moving well inland from Hawk Ridge. In the last four days, we have counted 47,564 migrating non-raptors! (which brings the season total to 185,771 non-raptors). Although these flights continue to be dominated by warblers (19,539 in the last four days), today’s highlight was a super flight of American Goldfinches, with 3,585 counted, nearly all of which were counted from the apartment at the mouth of the Lester River (season total now 7994 goldfinches). The previous high counts for this species in Minnesota were 1323 on 13 September 2012 and 877 on 18 September 2010, both at the same Lester River location. It will be interesting to see how many more goldfinches continue during this season’s flight. Raptor flights have also been very strong the last two days, with many early season species such as Ospreys, Sharp-shinned Hawks, and American Kestrels moving by in peak numbers despite the October date. Daily updates of these raptor and non-raptor counts can be seen from the link on the Hawk Ridge website at www.hawkridge.org." Karl Bardon Duluth, MN

    The thing that excites me the most is knowing that at least some of those birds should be headed my way sometime soon. I hope the weather gives me a chance to put "jewelry" on a few as they pass by.

Another Big Night

   A check of radar tonight shows continued migration through the upper midwest. Reports from Duluth and northern Wisconsin after the cold front moved across that area last Saturday night told of big flocks of sparrows and warblers (mostly Yellow-rumped). Radar looks very similar tonight.

   A significant change in weather is predicted to begin Wednesday night with rain and falling temperatures. By Saturday temps will be 20 degrees lower for highs and rain is possible for the next 4 days. The birds must be getting out while the getting is good. Probably no banding until the weather clears. Maybe Sunday.