March 29, 2016 - a day of wit?

It was a typical banding day with a good mixture of new birds and recaptures.  It was a fun day with everyone who volunteers and visits!

We caught 2 new Gray Catbirds and a male Painted Bunting.
We recaptured a female Painted Bunting, a House Wren, a Northern Cardinal, and a Blue Jay.

Migrants were in short supply.  Volunteers saw at least three Black-and-white Warblers and they could tell this because two were banded!  One on the right leg, one on the left leg, and the third was unbanded.

Maybe the highlight of the day, at least for Nancy Price, was to see this critter as she set up nets!

Fox

Photo by Nancy Price

The recaptured Blue Jay was from September of last year.  It felt the need to put its foot in its mouth.  Maybe a problem we all have from time to time.

Blue Jay

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Our company enjoyed the Gray Catbird that Pete banded.  Claudia captured the cat being let out of the bag!

Gray Catbird being weighed

Photo by Claudia Melear

Maybe best of all was the returning Painted Bunting.  It is about the 70th one this year that we have documented as returning to the site where they were banded. This one was banded almost a year ago (3/24/15) at Possum Long.  There is no place like home, even a winter home. Since she is now a year older and has had a second molt we know this to be a female.  Hopefully someone will find more of our banded buntings as they migrate to their summer homes.  Kudos to Jane who is working hard using social media to make people aware that there are banded Painted Buntings out there.  

Painted Bunting

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

We caught the House Wren last week during a training session.  Recapturing it gave us a chance to show others the wing patterns of a wren in hand.  Maybe a bird in the hand is worth two in the bush??

House Wren

Photos by Pete Grannis

Next banding:  Tuesday, April 5.  Nets go up at 7 am.  Remember that constant rain will cancel sessions.

March 22, 2016

I think it happens every year.  Migrants are moving; we saw Red-eyed and Blue-headed Vireos, Northern Parulas, and Great Crested Flycatchers.  However, in the nets we had more common winter birds.  We caught 3 Northern Cardinals, a Painted Bunting, a Common Yellowthroat, and a Yellow-rumped Warbler. Recaptures included a Northern Cardinal from 2014, the Ovenbird who has been around for the past three weeks, and a Painted Bunting originally banded three weeks ago.

Our Osprey has young in the nest.  Always great entertainment when a parent brings in food and we can see the tiny head reaching for food.

The new Northern Cardinals were all female.  The recapture was a male.

Northern Cardinal

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

The Painted Bunting was a new green.  Hopefully these birds will continue to return to the property.  They are soon to be on their way to their breeding grounds in North Carolina, South Carolina, or Georgia.

Painted Bunting

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Any bunting we capture now is over our total from last year.  Read more in the Pages section of this blog: Painted Buntings - Season Three.

The Common Yellowthroat may have been the only true migrant but hard to tell as it just as likely could have overwintered at the pond.

Common Yellowthroat

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Our Yellow-rumped Warbler had not really begun molting.  It had some fat so maybe with a little more feeding it will make its way north and acquire its summer appearance.

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Next scheduled banding:  Tuesday, March 29, 2016.  Nets go up at 7:00 am.

March 15, 2016

Today we had our first indication that birds are moving.  There was a good mix of winter birds still around but in lower numbers as well as a few new migrants.

Early on we caught a Yellow-rumped Warbler.  This may well be the last for the season.  May the migrants keep coming!!

Next we had our second ever Louisiana Waterthrush.  Typical of leaf gleaners this bird would snap at any approach to its bill.  They do this when they search leaves and then automatically snap at any potential food.  Louisiana Waterthrushes are early migrants and usually hard to detect.

Louisiana Waterthrush

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

This bird showed the large bill, white throat, and white undertail coverts that separate it from the Northern Waterthrush

Louisiana Waterthrush

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

The rest of the birds were recaptures.  It is truly amazing how many we have had recently.  We recaptured a female Painted Bunting from  March, 24, 2015 - the last bunting we banded last year.  Since this bird left it underwent another molt and remained green, thus we know it to be female now.  We recaptured another green Painted Bunting (banded last week) and the Ovenbird we have had the last 2 sessions.  Most informative of all, we recaptured an American Redstart that we banded in October, 2013.  Not much yellow coloring in the wing given that we know it was at least 4 years old.

American Redstart

Photo by Pat Marshall

American Redstart

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

The oddest thing we caught was a Florida Box Turtle.  It wandered into a net and pulled in its head and feet.  We moved it out of the netting but the shell had closed around a small bit of the net.  Eventually it stuck out its head and we could see that its foot was snagged on a few strands.  With gentle pulling it extended its foot and the net came off.  A group of three-year olds were touring the property as part of an early education program with our Education Committee and the Gertrude Walden School.  They really enjoyed our find.

Florida Box Turtle

Photo by Jane Wiewora

Next banding session:  Tuesday, March 22, 2016.  Nets go up at 7 am.

March 8, 2016

With the hope of migrants, we are seeing new birds and still have winter visitors. We captured a few birds and like the last sessions, we recaptured some.

Early on we had 2 green Painted Buntings at the pond.  It is always fun to have our 2 projects intersect.  If you haven't found our Painted Bunting project, look at the pages to the right side and find topics including our 3 seasons, encouraging Painted Buntings, and more.

(Hoping for photos)

We also banded more Gray Catbirds.  As common as they are, they each seem to show us something.  They are a great bird for teaching as they are strong and big enough to handle easily.

Gray Catbird

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

This photo, though not from today's session, proves the point.  This is a bird that was born last summer.  The tips of the tail are ok but just in from the tip something happened.  Then the rest of the tail grew fine.  The tail of young birds grows all at once.  So the "something happened"  is likely lack of food.  Was this the runt who got fed last?  Was there bad weather that kept food supplies low for a while?  We don't know, but the pattern of growth here added to our assessment of the age of this bird.  

Our possible migrant (or soon to migrate away) was a Black-and-white Warbler.

Black-and-white Warbler

Photo by Jane Wiewora

We recaptured the Ovenbird we caught last week.  That makes us wonder if it used the property all winter.  Also we had a Common Yellowthroat that we banded in the fall.  It is very likely that it has used the pond all winter as its refuge.

Next session:  Remember the time change.  Nets go up at 7 am.

March 5, 2016 - Young Audubon Program features banding this month

We started the day on the usual schedule of setting nets up at 6:30 am.  The participants were scheduled from 10 to noon.  Though we only banded one new Gray Catbird with the recaptures and an exciting visitor it was an amazing day.

Gray Catbird

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

So the day was saved with the recaptures we had.  Some of the birds caught today were first caught in 2013.  Some were already 2 years old.  Learning the longevity of these birds is one of the pieces of information we wish to learn.  The birds we re-caught today are migrants so this tells us how important the property is to them.  They depend on finding food and shelter on their journey.  They have mapped where to stop.  These birds somehow know that they can refuel there. Imagine how upset you'd be if you were almost out of gas in the car and the only gas station for miles around, where you had planned to stop, is now gone.  

We recaptured 2 Gray Catbirds - one from just last week and one from February, 2013.  We recaptured 2 Yellow-rumped Warblers - one from last November (2015) and one from December, 2013.  Another recapture was a Northern Parula originally banded in October, 2013.  It was already an adult when we banded it so it had been born in the summer of 2011 and is now at least 5 years old.

Northern Parula - male

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

I thought we were almost done when Bill said that he and several folks had seen a Sharp-shinned Hawk on the property.  That is exciting news in itself.  Much more frequently the bigger counterpart, a Cooper's Hawk, is seen.  Sharp-shins are much more rare.  It is time for these birds to be making their way north.  

Next thing I heard Bill yell that we had a bird in the net.  I ran to help and found this........look what we caught!

Nancy LaFramboise with a Sharp-shinned Hawk

Photo by Nancy Price

My permit does not allow me to band hawks so we could only look and appreciate this wonderful bird.  I had banded one before when I was training so no disappointment at all.

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Photo by Nancy Price

Sharp-shinned Hawk - close-up (cropped)

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

For a large (for us) bird and a hunting bird, this one was very calm in our hold.  It did not lash out when it was in the net or in hand.  As I released the bird one talon snagged my finger for momentary pain but no lasting injury. I am thankful for that.

Next session is the regularly scheduled Tuesday session.  March 8.  Nets go up at 6:30 am.

March 1, 2016 Opening Day!

I expected opening day to be a little slow and it was, but it was also VERY GOOD (read all the way to the end).  First off was the expected Gray Catbird. This one received a new band and we also recaptured a different one from a practice session we did 2 weeks ago.

Next we banded a green Painted Bunting.  We can truly only say that this bird is green.  We cannot tell if it was female or male.  It was born last summer and still had some all gray feathers from its first molt (see arrow in the first photo below). It has to go through one more molt before we can tell if it is male or female. Had the feathers been green-edged we would have know it was female (see second photo below).

Painted Bunting born last summer - note plain gray feathers

Painted Bunting female (not the bird from today)

note green edges on the same feathers that were gray in the photo above

We caught a Ruby-throated Hummingbird in one of the nets.  I do not have the special endorsement needed to band hummingbirds.  It was photographed and quickly released.  It sat on my hand for a brief moment and then flew off.

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Photo by Pat Marshall

We also recaptured an Ovenbird that had been banded last September.  Since we were not banding for a bit and had not seen or caught it on the property since October, it is hard to say if it stayed for the winter or was now returning north through the property again.

So, the big surprise for opening day was our first ever Orange-crowned Warbler at Possum Long.  We had banded one at a Painted Bunting site two winters ago but this was a first for the property.  This was good excitement for the day with many photos taken.  In Jane's photo the orange crown was visible.

Orange-crowned Warbler

Photo by Nancy LaFramboise

Orange-crowned Warbler

Photo by Jane Wiewora

Next banding:  Tuesday, March 8.  Nets open at 6:30