A Quiet Day at the Bog

    I took my annual trip to Sax-Zim Bog northwest of Duluth, Minnesota with my two friends Bill and Russ last weekend. It just happened to be the same weekend as the Bog Bird Festival but rather than participate in the hoopla we thought we'd just see what we could find on our own.

   One of the dependable spots at the bog for birds is a feeder station set up on Admiral Road. We spend a lot of time sitting and watching the feeders for specialties like Pine Grosbeak, Boreal Chickadee and Gray Jay. Our best looks were at this male Hairy Woodpecker who was hogging some globs of peanut butter on a tree branch all to himself. He couldn't have cared less that we were only about 10 feet away.

  Of course, the Hairy Woodpecker wasn't a bog specialty but this little bird is - a Boreal Chickadee. This feeder is the only place I have ever been able to count on seeing this species. Once in a while you can find them at other feeders but this one is almost a sure thing if you have the patience to wait. They don't spend long when they show up and it could be 20-30 minutes between appearances.

   The big goal of any winter trip to the bog is for northern owls. Great Grays nest here but the owls we saw this day were 2 that only visit. This Northern Hawk Owl was cooperatively sitting at the top of a tree right along the west side of Owl Avenue (yes, that really is the name if the road). And if seeing this owl wasn't enough, as I walked down the road to get a closer look I stumble on my good friends Nick and Kristen. They were on a day trip just by chance. Talk about a welcome coincidence.
   This was one of 2 Northern Hawk Owls we saw that day. They seem to be here (Minnesota) in decent numbers this winter.

    The owl of the year, as far as numbers, is the Snowy Owl. Got a good look at this one sitting way up in a tree in the middle of a field. I can't remember seeing a Snowy in a tree before. Telephone poles and snow mounds yes but not a tree. This has been a crazy year for Snowy Owls all over the eastern U.S.. Even down where I live, south of Minneapolis/St. Paul, I have seen a bunch. I took my oldest son out on Jan. 4th and saw 5 just in a small part of my county. I believe the count for Snowy Owls in Minnesota this winter is well over 200. That's crazy.
   Even though we had some nice sightings on our trip, it was a quieter than normal day. We worked real hard and only came up with 15 species for our efforts. The weather is incredibly cold and long lasting. I remember winters being like this when I was in college but we haven't had an "old fashioned" winter in a while. Spring will get here eventually. Horned Larks are starting to move north and this cold can't last forever. Not sure how long it will take to melt all this snow though...

A Visitor From the North

    I've never really been a "chaser". If an unusual bird shows up in Minnesota there are plenty of people (those of more means and free time than I) who don't hesitate to jump in a car and go to see the current rarity. I don't resist based on some philosophical basis, I believe I'm just lazy. What gets me is that deep down I'd really like to do the chase too. A case in point is this week when a friend of mine sent a photo with the question "What is this?" Well wouldn't you know it's a dandy!

     Up by McGregor, MN a guy has this Varied Thrush hanging out around his house and says it's been there a while. I even have directions to his house. The drive would be well over 100 miles one way and would be through the cold and snow predicted this weekend. So my decision? Maybe I'll wait until the bird shows up in my yard. Then I'll can tick off a new species for Minnesota on my list and sit back in my rocking chair with my coffee. I think I'll start a new movement called "Slow Birding" (with apologies to the Slow Food community). Anyone care to join me?

Birds Moving Across Lake Superior?

    Looking at radar tonight there is what I think is an odd signature showing up in the Minnesota/Wisconsin area of Lake Superior. It looks like radar is picking up a movement across the lake from the north shore of Minnesota to the Bayfield Penninsula. The following images are in chronological order. They cover an hour and ten minutes, approximately 8:50 pm to 10:00 pm.

   I believe these may be birds because the signature is developing in a different orientation than the prevailing weather pattern in the area. Notice also the developing radar returns over southern Wisconsin, Iowa and Illinois. I will be very interested to see if there are any observations in Wisconsin tomorrow than confirm this radar pattern.
   Anybody out and about on Sunday morning around Bayfield, Washburn and Ashland may notice a change in bird numbers. Of course, it's early and the birds may continue to move or I may be completely wrong about what radar is showing. Fun to speculate though isn't it?

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.

Big Migration Movement Behind Cold Front

   It appears the cold front that brought rain and a day of falling temperatures may also be causing a big movement of birds.

    You can see the line of showers that is crossing St. Louis, Chicago and Green Bay. To the west of that line all those circles of color are birds. Backyards should be full of new stuff tomorrow!

Keep looking up.

Fall Vireos

   Vireos are a group of birds that sometimes don't get as much attention as other groups like warblers and sparrows but they deserve more admiration. In the fall identifying some species can be tricky. I've learned this the hard way. At this time of year in my area it is possible to encounter at least 4 species of vireo at the same time. Blue-headed, Philadelphia, Warbling and Red-eyed Vireos are common migrants in Minnesota.

   Last weekend we had three of those four species end up in our nets. Easily identified by the stripe pattern on it's face is the Red-eyed Vireo.

 

   It shows an "oreo cookie" pattern of a light stripe bordered by dark stripes on both top and bottom. Young birds in the fall show a brown to red-brown iris. Some individuals can retain this color into the following spring. Adults have the bright red iris that gives them their name.

   The ability to separate the Warbling Vireo from the Philadelphia Vireo can be more difficult. Both were in our hands and there are a couple of things to look for that separate the two.

    This Philadelphia Vireo shows the yellow throat that clinches it's ID. The cap on the head is gray and the line through the eye seems to me to be more bold. It is a bit smaller than the Warbling Vireo and feels that way in the hand.

   This Warbling Vireo is a bit larger and shows a white throat and chest. The crown color is more olive compared to the Philadelphia. A second characteristic for separating the two is only seen with the bird in the hand. Warbling Vireos have a relatively long tenth primary (p10) on the wing while p10 on the Philadelphia Vireo is "vestigial" or completely absent.

   On this bird you can see that p10 is longer than the primary coverts of the wing. This is a quick characteristic to check when trying to decide between Warbling Vireo and Philadelphia Vireo. Having a bird in the hand allows for a whole different approach to identification versus looking at these birds up high in a tree.

   With the weather continuing to be warm and dry this weekend should be good for getting out into the field. The Warbling Vireos should just about be gone but the Philadelphias and Red-eyed will be moving through for a while yet. The next big group will be sparrows!

A Quick Correction

Just a quick note. A couple of much smarter people than me pointed out the difference between fault bars and growth bars. The chickadee is showing growth bars in its feathers. I have updated the blog to reflect this correction.

As soon as I get the monkey trained, the errors should go down...

Feather Molt and Energy

    With all the birds we handle while we're banding, once in a while we have one that gives us insight into the daily life of a bird. The first two photos below are close ups of the wing and tail of a Black-capped Chickadee we caught Sunday while banding. The light and dark bars on these feathers are referred to as growth bars. This phenomenon has been known and written about for over a hundred years but it is not something most people see unless they have a bird in the hand. We now know that this pattern is caused by conditions that vary from day to night as the feather develops. In this case probably the alternation between day when the bird is being fed and night when it is not. There is also a situation where there is a significant interference with access to nutrition that is reflected as fault bars, an actual weakening of the feather usually in the flight and tail feathers.

       In other words, things like poor weather, a parent bird being prevented from feeding young birds regularly, or general lack of prey items can result in fault bars and sometimes even a weakening in the feather structure itself. The symmetrical pattern of the growth bars across all the feathers is different. This bird shows a pattern where one light bar and one dark bar represent 24 hours of growth. There are cases where an adult bird might lose and replace a single feather and that single feather shows growth bars but when all the tail feathers or wing feathers show this it can be an indication but is not definitive of a juvenile bird since those feathers were all being grown at the same time.

      Even normal, seasonal molt requires lots of energy and different groups of birds show different patterns of molt. Because molt is tied to energy several strategies have developed. Some migrant birds molt after they have fledged their young but before they leave the breeding grounds. Others begin their molt on the breeding grounds but suspend their molt during migration and finish the process on the wintering grounds. Some birds just wait until the reach the wintering grounds. Local birds that do not migrate have slightly less concern about energy and show a more protracted molt.

    No matter what, molting in a whole new set of feathers is a big investment. The picture above is of an adult Gray Catbird wing from Sunday that is growing new primaries as it is moving south. This individual will need to find enough energy to both grow these new feathers and to continue on its migration.
     The good news is that all those "confusing fall warblers" that are moving through right now will reappear next May with a brand new set of feathers that will make most of them easier to identify. And don't even get me started on the juvenile sparrows that are just now showing up!

Banding on a cool, cloudy morning

I had such high hopes for our banding program yesterday morning but the weather and wind did not cooperate. We weren't skunked but the numbers and species were not what they could have been. We did catch a couple of birds that are moving through right now - Swainson's Thrushes. They were both youngsters and must have just arrived as they had no stored fat on them.

This Gray Catbird was another bird I suspect was moving through because I think the local nesting catbirds have already left. This bird was molting in feathers on most of it's body. The only other species we caught were a couple of Black-capped Chickadees. Even common local species can teach us something once in a while like one of the chickadees did. Tomorrow I'll post some pictures of the chickadee and catbird and a little note on feather molt and energy.

The South is Rising Tonight

...at least the birds are. The radar at 10:00 pm CST shows really heavy movement south from the Ohio River Valley and central Missouri. Pretty much anywhere below the Mason-Dixon Line (do you see a theme in this post?)

Anyway this is what it looks like now -

Of course, up here in Minnesota where we're having a bit of a cool spell there appears to be little if any action tonight. No matter. I'm headed out to the banding site tomorrow morning and then to Ritter Farm Park on Sunday morning to see if I can add some jewelry to the warblers and vireos passing through. I'll post an update.

KEEP LOOKING UP!

A Day of Surprises

Sometimes working on a site you don't control has it's surprises. My banding site sits on the grounds of the school where I teach. One of the odd characteristics about the area here is that we have a lot of underground oil pipelines running all over the place. There is a refinery not too far away and long story short, these pipelines have right of way agreements as too their management. Well, I showed up to get ready for fall migration banding and holy #!&;*# they mowed down everything on top of the pipeline. One of my net lanes is now non-existent!

They got it down to pretty much bare soil. As upsetting as this might seem, it actually is something that happens here every few years. It gives me an opportunity to see if this changes the species that show up and it helps to concentrate some birds toward my other net lanes.

Well Sunday morning was a break in the oppressing hot, humid weather we had been experiencing for the past week and Monday looked to be hot again so I had a small window for banding.  I sat for 3 hours and caught not a single bird and the landscape was pretty quiet except for high flying Cedar Waxwings and a very vocal Cooper's Hawk down the lane. Then at 10:30 we saw some flitting along the edge of the trail and it was definitely warblers foraging in the brush. A quick check of the nets made the waiting worthwhile.

This bird was a first for me. I had never banded a Black-Throated Green Warbler before and was I excited! Fall warblers can be a challenge but this individual was very cooperative. Pretty stunning in the hand.

Then of course there are the truly difficult fall warblers. This fall plumaged Bay-breasted Warbler can give you fits when compared to a fall plumaged Blackpoll Warbler. Luckily having caught one last fall I knew what to look for and the coloration on the sides of the bird and the color of the feet clinched this one for me. Always kind of exciting when you walk up to the net and go "uh-oh".

If they were all easy it wouldn't be as much fun now would it? We had a total of 13 birds, but as is typical of migrating warblers, they were a mixed flock and we only got one of each species.

Other birds we caught with these warblers included 3 Black-capped Chickadees, 4 Red-eyed Vireos and a Downy Woodpecker.

One of my favorite warblers (if one can have a favorite from this group) is the Black and White Warbler. Not only is their coloration striking, their behavior is so not like other warblers at times.

Finally we have a Magnolia Warbler. Another great catch and looking so different from when we catch them in the spring. The white band across the entire tail is an easy ID mark. It looks like it's having a bit of a "bad hair day" because I had to look at its skull to see if it was a young bird or not.

"Skulling" is another one of those odd skills banders work on in order to get the best data they can from the birds they handle. It sounds worse than it actually is. A young birds skull, like a young human, is not fully formed when it hatches. By wetting the head feathers and looking at the skull through the thin skin on the head you can often see "edges" where the bone is still growing to form a complete skull. Some species might not finish forming their skull until well into the winter.

Things should be picking up for the next few weeks. Once the warblers push through we'll see the sparrows next. If you think fall warblers are tough you ought to see young sparrows in the fall...

    Today was the first session of fall migration banding at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville, MN but we really didn't have the conditions for a good day. Sure enough, we only caught one bird - a Northern Waterthrush. Most likely a migrant. Except for a big flock of Cedar Waxwings and some hummingbirds hanging around the big plot of Jewelweed there wasn't much around. Temperature is supposed to hit mid- 90s and the winds are blowing quite strongly. We spent most of our morning chatting and checking empty nets.

    On the other hand, having some time to just look around led me to the thing that made the day - a nice haul of Hen-of-the-Woods mushrooms. I found these two clusters at the base of an oak tree that is pretty dependable for these mushrooms. It was right at the end of one of our net sets.

    I'll spend the afternoon inside in the air conditioning getting these ready for freezing for later. Of course I won't resist sauteing a few fronds for tonight. Today was a good day...

Birds Moving South Tonight

A quick glance at radar tonight showed some pretty impressive movement of migrants. The extremely pleasant weather and winds from the northwest made perfect conditions for birds to take off.

The Missouri River Valley looks pretty busy and the upper midwest is seeing lots of south bound birds showing up. I checked a local park reserve yesterday to see if the Sedge Wrens that were on territory in June were still there and it was obvious that they and many of the other grassland birds were already gone.

Now we spend the next 3 months trying to figure out how to identify the young sparrows and fall warblers. If you thought spring was a challenge.....