Final weekend of spring bird banding at Sprucehaven

26/27 May 2018

SpruceHaven, St. Agatha, ON

26 May 2018

     We seem to have just started banding for the spring session and it is already over. Kevin was unable to come one weekend due to family commitments and we got rained out on another so the activity has been shortened a little.

     For the first time this spring Debbie Hernandez was able to make it out to the nets and we were delighted to see her again.

     

     Since we last saw her Debbie has graduated from Wilfrid Laurier University with an Honours BSc. in biology and is now contemplating her future. Whatever it holds we hope that she will continue to come and help out at SpruceHaven.

     We banded a few new species for the season including this Mourning Warbler (Geothlypis philadelphia), a bird previously only recorded in the fall.

     It is interesting to look at the following photograph of the same bird taken from a slightly different angle. You will see that the grey throat has a much paler aspect, and in a couple of other photographs which were blurred unfortunately, it looked even whiter.

     I simply provide this comparison to illustrate the fact that a photograph can at times be misleading. Different light can portray a bird in tones quite unlike its true colours.

     This male Brown-headed Cowbird (Molothrus ater)was one of two caught in the same net.

     A Lincoln's Sparrow (Melospiza lincolnii) is a delicately marked little bird, one which is often misidentified in the field by inexperienced birders, but there was no mistaking this bird in the hand.

     Heather carefully processed the bird and she and Kevin conferred on some finer points of aging and sexing.

     Kevin's tee shirt says, "I'm not normal," and I leave it up to you to judge how true this statement is! Suffice it to say, that Kevin would have been right at home as a member of Monty Python's Flying Circus, or perhaps a star performer on The Goon Show!

     Here are a couple more pictures of Lincoln's Sparrow before release.

     It is not often that we capture a Common Starling (Sturnus vulgaris). Perhaps this species is generally too wily to be caught in a mist net.

     Without a shadow of a doubt Cedar Waxwing (Bombycilla cedrorum) is one of our most beautiful birds.

     Here you see the detail of the waxy tips on the wings from which the bird derives its name.

     It would be pretty hard to tire of waxwings.

     Curiously several of our Barn Swallow (Hirundo rustica) nests held a single nut (walnut?). How these nuts got there is a matter of conjecture but perhaps they represent some kind winter storage for squirrels.

     Pileated Woodpecker (Dyocopus pileatus) is a species we have seen infrequently at SpruceHaven and Kevin's friend, John Pringle, visiting from England, managed this flight shot.

All species banded 26 May: Cedar Waxwing (1), Common Starling (1), American Goldfinch (1), Common Yellowthroat (1), Mourning Warbler (1), Brown-headed Cowbird (2), Common Grackle (2), Song Sparrow (2), Lincoln's Sparrow (1). Total: 9 species, 12 birds.

27 May 2018

     It was a slow day at the nets, fittingly perhaps on our final day of banding for the spring.
     Significantly, however, we trapped two more Mourning Warblers for a total of three in two days. Since most warblers have already moved north, and this species has bred locally in past years, it leads me to believe that perhaps they are breeding at SpruceHaven.
     A Barn Swallow in our nets was the first bona fide capture, other birds having been netted in/at the barn to establish which birds had returned to their natal site. This bird had not been previously banded and was not one of the nestlings banded last year.

     A male Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) is not a momentous capture, given the sheer number of this species at SpruceHaven, but this male was especially handsome and robust. This is a polygynous species and it is likely that this male has a harem of females.

     Just before we wrapped it all up, Vashti Latchman and her young son, bird devotee, Roddie, arrived for their first visit of the season.

     It was good to see them both and it was too bad that we had but a single Song Sparrow (Melospiza melodia) to show them. We will look forward to a return visit in the fall when we hope to have many interesting birds to fuel Roddie's already burgeoning interest in all things ornithological.

All species banded 27 May: Traill's Flycatcher (1), Barn Swallow (1), Mourning Warbler (2),  Red-winged Blackbird (2), Song Sparrow (1), Northern Cardinal (1).  Total: 6 species, 8 birds.

Gotta love this one.