January 26 & February 7; February 6

Since the last post we have made 2 visits to PB 73 where we had loaned the host a caged feeder.  (Nets were unproductive on our first visit.)  It took a while for the buntings to trust the feeder but it was worth the wait.  We banded a total of 11 Painted Buntings, plus an incidental Common Grackle, 1 Red-winged Blackbird, and 2 Northern Cardinals. 

Common Grackle

Photo by Suzanne Zuckerman

Painted Bunting (male with some yellow coloring on the undertail)

Photo by Suzanne Zuckerman

Red-winged Blackbird

Photo by Suzanne Zuckerman

The Red-winged Blackbird was a female with a lot of reddish coloring on the face and throat.  This indicates it is likely an older female.  Other data supported the adult classification.  

Many thanks to this gracious and dedicated host.

Red-winged Blackbird

Photo by Suzanne Zuckerman

On February 6 we returned to PB 67 just about a week later than when we went last year.  This yard and host is  a joy to visit - birds and enthusiasm.  Being 2 hours north gave us a little different variety.  Last year we caught our only Tufted Titmouse here.  Within seconds of putting up the nets we caught number 2.  

Tufted Titmouse

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

The rest of the day was consistently busy.  We beat last year's 21 birds by banding 22 plus we recaptured 2 from last year.  

young Painted Bunting

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

This particular bunting had undertail coverts with darker centers.  

Painted Bunting

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

In addition to the titmouse we had 12 additional incidentals.  Eight Northern Cardinals kept us watching out for our fingers.  A Common Grackle, 2 Blue Jays, and the surprise of the day rounded out the captures.

Our host had told us he had a different sparrow so we were hopeful that it would be caught.  It turned out to be a White-crowned Sparrow - a bird I had studied in Washington as part of a site fidelity study.  This was a different subspecies but it was nice to have "in-hand" again.  This subspecies has a dark lore (the area between the beak and eye) while the one in WA has no black there.  This is an immature bird as told by the reddish brown and tan crown stripes but it is starting to fill in the black and white stripes of adulthood.  

White-crowned Sparrow

Photo by Bill LaFramboise

We are starting our "spring" banding at Possum Long on Tuesday, February 13.  Net go up at 7 am.  Regular sessions will continue on Tuesdays.  We will see what shows up this early (likely still "winter" birds) but we can hope migrants appear soon.

January 28, 2017

We made it to a new county.  We banded in Kissimmee in Osceloa county.  What a great experience as so many of our sessions are.

We banded 21 Painted Buntings and surprisingly most were adult and many were male.  Thirteen were male, 5 were female, and 3 were born last year so undetermined (young and green).

Painted Bunting, male

Though we cannot band hummingbirds, if one is caught in the net we (of course) extract them.  We saw evidence of at least 4 birds:  Two immature males with varying amounts of red, one molting tail feathers, and one adult male.  We had moved feeders to prevent them being in the path of the net but the birds were accustomed to flying that way anyway.  They quickly learned to not do that!  The photo isn't as red as is sometimes seen but that is only due to the angle of the photograph.  It was red. 

Ruby-throated Hummingbird (adult male)

We also had 16 incidental captures:  6 Northern Cardinals, 3 Blue Jays, 3 Chipping Sparrows, 1 Ovenbird, 1 Carolina Wren, 1 American Goldfinch, and 1 Tufted Titmouse!!  The Tufted Titmouse was a new bird for me to band (113).

Tufted Titmouse

For the Carolina Wren, is interesting to note that the barred pattern is only on half of each wing feather.  When the wing folds, the unmarked portion is under the neighboring feather.  

Carolina Wren

Ovenbird

We are still planning on a February 14 start to the "spring" season at Possum Long.  Details will follow soon.