September Migrants

We held our second banding session of the fall at Ritter Farm Park near Lakeville, MN yesterday. For early September is was unusually hot. We started the day in the upper 50s but very quickly got up into the 80s and we weren't sure how that might affect the days catch. To put it simply the birds were very cooperative. This Brown Thrasher was just one of the highlights of the day.


A big aim of our programs is to introduce kids to birds and show them how science is done in the field. We encourage kids of all ages to come out to watch and have some of them help us let the birds go. The thrasher made this young fellows day when it just sat there for about 30 seconds until it figured out it was free. This picture is of a memory that I hope this kid never forgets. When we wonder how to bring more young people into birding nothing tops something like this.


We only ran 3 nets for the program but we were busy from the start. Many of the birds were obvious migrants with a good number of young birds. This Purple Finch is a young bird with the last bit of yellow gape (edging of mouth) still visible at the base of the bill. We see PUFIs in migration but they nest north of us. Besides the visible characteristics that identify Purple Finches, we can always distinguish them from House Finches because PUFIs really bite!


The Northern Waterthrushes have been moving through for a couple of weeks and this one was netted in classic habitat, right along the edge of a wetland, skulking along low in the bushes. I even predicted this species for the day.


Finally, a preview of the next birds to come through in big numbers, the sparrows. We caught 3 species of sparrow including Song Sparrow, Field Sparrow and this Swamp Sparrow. Swamp Sparrow and Field Sparrow were the most common sparrow catch of the day.

Below are the totals for the day. The weather prediction for the next week is for a drastic change in temperatures. We are going from upper 80s for highs to barely reaching 60 degrees. We have 2 programs next weekend - Saturday at the Lowry Nature Center and Sunday is the final program at Ritter Farm this fall. With the change in conditions we may see a real change in species. Ya gotta love migration!

Totals for Sunday:

American Redstart - 1
Field Sparrow - 3
Common Yellowthroat - 3
American Goldfinch - 2
Northern Waterthrush - 1
Swamp Sparrow - 3
Purple Finch - 1
Red-eyed Vireo - 1
Song Sparrow - 1
Gray Catbird - 3
Brown Thrasher - 1

Total Individuals = 20
Total Species = 11

New Bird Species Discovered

I love the fact that the more we look at the world around us the more we see. This is something I try to impress on my students all the time. Well, someone has been looking more closely at a seabird from the Pacific and has found by appearance and by DNA analysis, there is a new species of shearwater called Bryan's Shearwater.

To read the whole story see the article from the Smithsonian's National Zoo press release.

Ya just gotta love science!

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.

So That's Why They're Called Waxwings

It has been a while since I've had anything interesting to post about. This summer is proving to be hot, humid, stormy and not as "bird centric" as I would like but it has been busy. In a future post I'll talk about the Purple Martin banding that occupied the first 2 weeks of July. Hard work but a record year for us!

The great thing about our regular banding sessions is that we often catch birds that show us characteristics up close that you just wouldn't see from a distance. This Cedar Waxwing is an example.


Lots of the Cedar Waxwings we handle don't show their namesake waxy tips on the wing secondaries. This fellow however was in full display mode. I've personally been seeing and hearing more CEDWs lately than usual. There should be lots of young mixed in with any flocks that may be around. Look for waxwings with streaky fronts and raggedy crests.


A close up of the wing reveals the waxy tips to look like they were made from bright red crayons. They feel that way too.



An extreme close-up lets one see the point from which the tips are produced. An interesting tidbit about waxwings is that they extract the color chemicals for their feathers from their food and in some places waxwings have been found that have orange tipped tails instead of the expected yellow tipped tail feathers due to their diet.

If you'd like to have waxwings around your yard plant some berry bushes or trees and the waxwings will find them before you know it!

A Piece of Advice

Rule #43 When you're out bird-banding and the storm rolls in faster than anticipated, don't go running through the fields carrying net poles.

Interesting Rose-breasted Grosbeak

This past weekend found us banding at a program in Lakeville Minnesota where we have been banding for several years. The day was fantastic! We had so many birds around and in our nets we had to close the nets after less than an hour and ran out of bird bags. It was the kind of day we will tell stories about for years.

The bird that got us really excited was this Rose-breasted Grosbeak


If you look at the bird you can see lots of indications that this is a second year male. The brown edged feathers, brown primaries, etc. made the age of this bird a bit of a no-brainer but...


This bird was banded! We had banded this bird in 2009 and aged it as a second year bird at that time. If this had been an unbanded bird we wouldn't have thought twice about its age.


So the question I'm throwing out there has two parts. First, has anyone else ever seen a case of a known age RGBR showing characteristics that didn't fit their actual age and second, am I correct to guess that this might be a case of a hormonal condition in this individual?

Nice to Get Some PR

In spite of lousy weather last week, we had a reporter from the Star Tribune hang out with us at Ritter Farm while we banded. This morning there was a nice article in the paper about us. See it here.

Weekend Arrivals

As May progresses I look out the window every morning hoping to see long absent birds at my feeders. Saturday morning was one of those mornings when it seems like birds have appeared by magic. Going from not much to large numbers of White-throated Sparrows and trees full of warblers is a birders fantasy.

Needless to say, I took the chance to throw some nets in my yard to see if I could put some "jewelry" on birds headed north. Lots of sparrows ended up in my hands. mostly White-thoated Sparrows. They showed quite a bit of variation from this brilliant fellow above to the drab tan-stripe individuals.


A local nester is the Chipping Sparrow. This one may be moving through or it may be on territory. All I know is that they have been singing in the neighborhood for a couple of weeks already.


Sunday was the first banding session for the spring at Ritter Farm Park. Cold, very windy and spitting snow was what we dealt with all morning. It was a trick just to find a place to set nets where they didn't look like spinnaker sails.In spite of the terrible conditions, there were birds everywhere. Mostly on the ground and along the edge of the nearby lake. It took a while but we did catch s few individuals for the day. Our first catch was this Palm Warbler, one of the early arrivers in the spring.


The Ruby-crowned Kinglets have been here for a few weeks and are still flitting around like mad. We caught two females so no chance to show off the hidden crown patch.


Finally the biggest numbers of warblers were the Yellow-rumped Warbler. Lots of places reporting this species in numbers. They were almost all feeding on floating vegetation along the edge of the lake. There wasn't any insect activity on land and hopefully the birds were getting enough food to make it through the next couple of days.

Other warblers seen included:
Black and White Warbler
Nashville Warbler
Northern Waterthrush
Yellow Warbler

Also had first of the year House Wren, Eastern Towhee, Swamp Sparrow.

A Sunday Evening Surprise

Before you go on see if you can guess what this bird is from this angle. I hate to admit it but sometimes this is the best look I get at a bird. If you don't want to play the game just scroll down and see what I stumbled onto.






After having a family get together on Sunday I got a couple of hours to myself to get out birding after a week of cold, drizzly weather. Sunday evening was gorgeous. No wind, warm and sunny. It couldn't have been better. As I was scanning birds at one of the best wetlands in the area, I looked down at the edge of the water just below my feet and saw a small bird skulking in the dead vegetation.

This Sora Rail was absolutely cavalier to my presence. I got out the camera and started shooting. I must have spent 20 minutes watching this bird and only stopped taking pictures when the light started to fade.


I was really taken aback by the colors of this bird. The blue edging on the back feathers was stunning.The markings on it's side and head were something I hadn't had a chance to study before. There was a point where I thought the bird might be sick or injured because it showed no reaction to me. I've decided it just had other priorities. It just kept hunting along the water's edge and from what I saw was finding plenty to eat.


There were other nice birds at the site like Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs, Yellow-headed Blackbird, Vesper Sparrow, a nice variety of ducks and a singing Meadowlark on a power line. Water levels have finally risen in the area wetlands so there should be good habitat available for birds throughout the summer.

The weather is going to deteriorate the next 2 days so anything that is around will probably stick around for a while. It seems like spring will never arrive!

Bird Banding Video from Three Rivers Park District

My friend Kirk M. posted this video that I had never seen on his blog. Surprised to see me tromping around catching birds.



With the lousy weather we've been having this video sure gives me hope!

Coastal Fallout?

This morning I took a look at the radar images for the southern U.S. and saw what I think is a big movement of birds across the Gulf of Mexico. I am not as familiar with these sorts of images as I am with overland images so I'm looking for a little feedback. I'm especially interested in the area around Brownsville and southwest. It looks like some of the returns around Galveston might be weather related. Anybody along the Texas coast seeing a fallout or anything that might confirm that the image posted is of birds and not something else?


Up here in Minnesota we're bracing for a bit of April snow and wondering if spring will ever get here. Early migrants like Yellow-rumped Warblers and Fox Sparrows are here in good numbers but the warblers will have a hard time finding food the next couple of days. Hopefully things will turn around in time for Earth Day.

Another Big Movement of Birds

Checking radar show another night of big movement in the eastern U.S.. The images below show the build-up of birds moving in Texas but the entire area east of the Great Plains shows lots of birds except near the low pressure system moving through Nebraska and the Dakotas.

I got a couple of comments from my last post I'd like to address. 1) The colors do represent the density of birds present. Green shows more density than blue. These patterns are pretty typical of spring movement.

2) One commenter cautioned about assuming these returns show birds. There have been decades of study done on tracking birds with radar during migration. The patterns we're seeing are literally millions of birds moving north. The suggestion that the images might be due to other atmospheric conditions is possible but the returns are too widespread and too consistent with what we underestand about radar ornithology to write these off to anomolies. A look at the information sites addressing radar ornithology such as Clemson University or this excellent primer by John Idzikowski should clarify how we interpret these radar images.

Long story short - Texas is hopping tonight!

Radar Series -April 10

The following 3 screen images show the change in radar returns for the evening of Sunday April 10th as birds lift off at sunset and head north. In a live, looping image the change is impressive. Notice how the spaces between the radar locations fills in with color and how the center of each radar "donut" gets more green as time has elapsed. It looks like lots of birds moving in the southeast tonight. The shots cover approximately one hour of time.

Little Visitor

With the change in weather things are starting to become much more active. This morning I heard my first of the year Eastern Phoebe singing away along with a Song Sparrow and a drumming Downy Woodpecker. It took everything I had to walk through the door to work. Today would be a good day to play hookey.


A friend at work has this little guy show up in his backyard and got this nice photo to share with me. He hasn't seen him in the last couple of days but if he shows up again I may try to sneak over and get some pictures myself.

Here in Minnesota the weather is supposed to improve with a string of warm days this week. A look at radar tonight may give a clue to where the birding is going to be good tomorrow.

More Radar Fun

A check of Nexrad tonight showed a bit of migration along the east coast just ahead of the big storm moving through. Behind the front, little if any movement. A look at the radar in the Florida Keys shows some activity.


In this image the returns over the keys is actually a movement of birds that came out of Cuba and are headed to Florida. In the past there was a radar image in Cuba that was viewable but it was often not functioning and I haven't seen an image from there in a while.

Once this big storm system moves offshore and the winds switch around the movement of birds should resume. The next 2 nights should see birds headed north.

Movement in the Southeast

From the posts on the local bird chats it appears that there was a good movement of birds into Minnesota and Wisconsin last night. Kinglets (both species), Eastern Phoebes, Killdeer and Hermit Thrushes have shown up in lots of places this morning.

A look at radar at 2100 (9:00 pm) shows lots of movement south of a front traveling across the upper midwest and Great Lakes.


Areas of heaviest migration seems to be northern Florida, Georgia, Alabama and just inching into South Carolina.

Most locations in the gulf area show good movement tonight. Storms are anticipated moving through the region the next 2 days so what arrives may hunker down for a bit.

Reports from a bird banding station near Vera Cruz Mexico is reporting lots of warblers moving with hundreds being caught and banded each day. I can't wait for them to get here!