A Wave of Warblers

I had a chance to spend some time at my banding site for four days last week (Thursday - Sunday) and while the numbers weren't high the variety was exciting. I also netted a couple of birds that prompted the "What's the heck is this one?" reaction. The photos below are a selection from the 4 days. See if you can guess # 2 and #3 before you look at the label!


#1 This is one of my favorite fall warblers to catch. The Chestnut-sided Warbler has such a different look in fall migration that if you didn't know better you might think it's something else. I've seen these birds flitting through the woods on gray, rainy fall days and the color they display almost glows.


#2 This was the first of two tough IDs I had. It took a while to key it out but I was quite pleased to have figured it out. In the hand are a couple of characteristics that you might not see easily in the field. First, there is no white on the underside of the bird. It has yellow undertail coverts and no white spots on the tail. It also does not have dark legs.


#2 The thing that threw me at first was the white eye ring. Adults of this species don't have an eye ring. As I walked up to the net I thought this was a Nashville Warbler but, in fact, it is a young Mourning Warbler! Not a species we handle much anyway but this youngster really was a challenge.


#3 This was the second bird that made me scratch my head. My friend Mark was with me this day and he immediately recognized it as one of three fall warblers that are really tough to ID. We both take a bit of a perverse pleasure in catching a bird that's is not easy to ID. Part of it is that we know we probably haven't handled the species before and it gives us a chance to learn some of the more subtle characteristics that are only apparent in the hand.


#3 This adult, female Bay-breasted Warbler was the first of that species I have ever handled.


#4 A more typical warbler to catch during migration is this Wilson's Warbler. Large black-cap with quite a bit of olive green edging is something to look for in the fall.


#5 Common in the area during both breeding season and migration is this American Redstart. The only trick to banding these in the fall is to know that young males of the year look like an adult female. The glossy black and bright red feathers of the adult male take a couple of years to develop.


#6 Not a warbler but a species that we catch at the same time as the warblers are moving through here is the Red-eyed Vireo. All the REVIs that I've caught so far are young with brown, not red eyes.

Here's hoping the next banding session is just as much fun as this one.

Fall Migration is Revving Up.

Saturday morning found us at the Lowry Nature Center for our monthly banding session, but we were also anticipating the appearance of the first south bound migrants of the fall. Word from up in the northern part of the state was that the first flocks of warblers were showing up and with the winds out of the north we were hoping that some of those birds had made it this far already. Shorebirds have been moving for about a month now but seeing them is a matter of finding good habitat. It's been pretty dry the first part of this month.

We set nets in the usual lanes and and had a steady but not overwhelming number of captures. The only birds we banded that may be migrants are a couple of Least Flycatchers. All the other species caught are known to breed in the area. Here is a full list of the days catch:

Eastern Phoebe - 2
Trail's Flycatcher - 1
Least Flycatcher - 2
American Goldfinch - 1 (in spite of lots being around the banding site)
Black-capped Chickadee - 3 new, one retrap
Field Sparrow - 1
American Redstart - 1 retrap originally banded in spring 2009
White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
Downy Woodpecker - 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak - 1
Northern Cardinal - 1
Gray Catbird - 1 new, 1 retrap

Total species = 12
Total individuals = 18

This week I hope to get out to a different site and do some banding. I had a Wilson's Warbler and a Canada Warbler in my apple tree Saturday evening so there is good stuff around. Now they just need to find my net. I was going to go out this morning but I spent yesterday afternoon hand clearing my net lanes with a weed whip and had a hard time rolling out of bed this morning. Complaints of an aging bander!

Banding Program on Saturday

Just a quick post to let everyone know that tomorrow, August 2oth is our regular banding session at the Lowry Nature Center located in Carver Park Reserve just outside Victoria, Minnesota. The program goes from 9 am until noon and there is a chance we'll be seeing some early southbound migrants in our nets.

Hope to see you there!

Mystery Solved

Well I think my questions have been answered. After receiving a number of replies to my questions, the majority opinion was that the crow was suffering a case of avian pox. Some folks offered other possibilities and I am impressed by the depth of knowledge that people possess and are willing to share.

The bird reappeared this morning and the growth has disappeared. I was able to get a couple of shots that show an open wound where the growth was. Again, the bird seemed none the worse for this and was happily feeding with its sibling and parents.

Profiles from both sides show a sore that looks like it was centered just above the base of the upper bill.


The photo below has been enhanced a bit to brighten the image and is the best image I have of a frontal view of the wound. All in all a pretty interesting few days following this individual.


My sincerest thanks to all of the wonderful people who weighed in on this question. I continually learn from you and realize that I will never know enough to be satisfied so don't be surprised if you see a new question soon!

More Crow Pictures

Yesterday I posted a couple of marginal pictures of a crow in my yard with a strange growth on its face. The responses I've gotten so far land on either an engorged tick of possibly avian pox. Luckily the bird returned and I was able to get much better shots of the growth in question. I'm now pretty sure it is not a tick.

The cooperative bird gave me views from both sides of its face and the structure of the growth is much more visible. I still don't have a clue to its origin but if anyone has a guess I'd love to hear it.


The bird still seems normal in all respects except for this object. I hope the bird will continue to hang around my yard so I track any changes in its behavior or in the growth itself. Meanwhile, I think it's time to start looking for migrants. Cheers!

Strange Growth on Crow

For the past couple of weeks a family of American Crows (2 adults and 2 young) have been visiting my feeders everyday. The youngsters are VERY vocal and I wouldn't be surprised if the neighbors think something is being attacked in my yard. I have a good time watching the kids beg for food and try to figure out how to get to the suet in the hanging feeder.

One day while watching the commotion in the yard I noticed what looked like an acorn stuck to the upper bill of one of the crows. I can't tell from the photo but it might be an engorged tick. Below are a couple of relatively poor photos taken through a window screen that show the growth close-up.


Anybody have a guess or has anyone seen something like this before. The object appears to be located right about where the base of the upper bill or perhaps just anterior to it. Is it just a tick or some other type of growth? I suppose if the family keeps coming around and the growth is gone it was probably a tick.


The bird appears to be healthy not displaying any symptoms of illness or injury, behavior is normal and feeding is unimpeded. So I'll leave it up to those of you who know a lot more than I do and wait to see if anyone can give me a definitive answer as to what I'm seeing. In the mean time the kids are back in the yard raising a ruckus. I think I'll go watch.

Puttting Bands on Purple Martins

The month of July in Minnesota has been just oppressively hot and humid. Not a great combination for getting out into the field to do some birding. That's O.K. though because the first two weeks of each July are taken up with banding young Purple Martins before they can fledge. We work with several martin "landlords" in the Twin Cities metro area and this year have had a banner year for putting bands on young.

People wonder what the purpose of banding is and there are several things we're learning by doing this but in the case of Purple Martins, it is to find out more about their movements after they leave their colonies and how much movement there is between colonies of birds. After 3 years of marking birds with both federal USFWS silver bands and red alpha-numeric bands (showing a letter and numbers) we are starting to find out some cool stuff.

We head to the colonies when young birds are between 13 and 20 days old and pretty ugly. Old enough so that their legs are actually thinner than when they hatched. Baby birds have thick legs because they store fat along the bones. Bands won't fit well until the birds use some of that fat up. We put 2 bands on each bird, a silver band on their right leg and a special red band on their left leg. In Minnesota, all Purple Martins that are color marked get a red band with white letter and numbers. The 3 numbers on the red band match the last 3 numbers on the silver band so we can identify a bird without having to catch it again. Birds are placed back into the houses after they've had a good cleaning and then we just sit back and wait to see young birds soaring around eating mostly dragonflies.

In this photo you can see the bands on the birds legs. Once the birds fledge they leave the colony and head for what are called "pre-migratory" roosts before heading south for the winter. Here are some of the things we've learned so far:
-When young birds first start to fly, they will often return to a nest cavity in a martin house that is not the one they hatched in. Parent birds don't seem to care and will feed these intruders along with their own young.

-Purple Martins in Minnesota actually move north after they leave their colony and spend time in north-central Minnesota in huge flocks of up to 30,000 birds, roosting at night in cattails around the edges of large lakes.

-When arriving back in the spring, most Martins show up at the colony they were born in but some will go to a nearby colony and take up residence at a new site.

Anybody out birding and seeing Purple Martins should check their legs as they perch. We banded 535 young this year and now have over 1600 martins with bands flying around (we hope). Citizen science only requires a good pair of binoculars and some patience to help add to our understanding of Purple Martins and where they go.