Bird banding – Page 10

Spring has Sprung…And So Have Our Mist Nets

April 3, 2012 By Communications Team

That lovely green mist of ephemeral spring beauty has officially invigorated the land and awakened Mother Nature from her brief winter’s nap. You know what that means…bird banders are also emerging from their winter hibernacula and eagerly throwing up their own mist in the woods.

Public bird banding sessions at Rushton Woods Preserve will begin next Tuesday, April 17, and we can’t wait!!

We will be bird banding every Tuesday and Thursday this spring at Rushton Woods Preserve, weather permitting. If it rains, we do not band in an effort to keep the birds safe. Please feel free to come out any of those mornings to observe. We start at sunrise, 6:30am, and take the nets down around 11 am. Large groups should contact Lisa Kiziuk, (lkr@wctrust.org) for an appointment. Anyone interested in becoming a regular volunteer should also contact Lisa Kiziuk.

This Spring is shaping up to be one for the records! Red-winged blackbirds have already been back for over a month now, and (relatively) short-distance migrants like Eastern Phoebes, Chipping Sparrows, Eastern Towhees, Pine Warblers, Tree Swallows, Field Sparrows, Eastern Meadowlarks, and Ruby-crowned Kinglets have been spotted earlier than usual setting up shop or passing through (in the Ruby-crown’s case). Some other interesting Chester County sightings this spring have included Pine Siskin, Palm Warbler, and Wilson’s Snipe. Dark-eyed Juncos and a few White-throated sparrows are still passing through. Waterfowl peak migration has passed, but you still might be able to catch a glimpse of some stragglers; sightings on ponds in the area included Green-winged Teal, Northern Pintail, Ring-necked Duck, Hooded Mergansers and Common Mergansers. Wood Ducks will enter the stage soon and begin nesting.

Ring necked Duck by Shawn Collins (PA Birders) — Ring necked Ducks by Shawn Collins (PA Birders)

Wood Duck looking for nest cavity. Photo by Peter Quinn — Wood Duck pair looking for nest cavity. Photo by Peter Quinn

Look for the long-distance migrating songbirds (coming from Central and South America) to start showing up this month including Baltimore Oriole, Gray Catbird, Indigo Bunting, Scarlet Tanager, Wood Thrush, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, Ovenbird, Louisiana Waterthrush and the other wood warblers! The warblers are my favorite, especially in spring, when they are in their finest plumage and lighting up the forest with their vibrant colors and songs. However, warbler-ing can be overwhelming and therefore less enjoyable if you are not confident with your warbler identification skills.

Whether you are a novice or expert birder, I urge you to watch this youtube video, “Birding Warblers“. It takes you on an exciting birding trip with Cornell experts to a woodlot in Rochester, New York at the peak of warbler migration and offers great birding tips and techniques. Plus, you get a sneak peak at what is coming soon to a banding station near you. .. As far as I’m concerned, these amazing little warblers are our own birds of paradise, to be treasured and enjoyed right here in our own backyard. I’m grateful I live in the Eastern U.S. rather than the West, which has far fewer warblers than we do! (Click here, if you want to know why).

Palm Warbler by Gerrit Vyn (Cornell Lab of Ornithology, All About Birds)

If you’d like to brush up on your warbler songs and ID for this spring, Cornell’s Macauley Library, the world’s largest archive of animal sounds, is a great resource that offers downloadable audio guides and hundreds of free sound recordings and video clips. The “All About Birds” website has another great warbler resource. Spring is a great time to get to know these birds in all their glory.

Speaking of glorious birds and early migration this year, I have hung my hummingbird feeders already, just in case! There have actually been reports of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in Pennsylvania already starting on March 19th, which is almost a month earlier than the first hummer sighting last year. Check it out on the hummingbird tracker map, another great resource.

This year’s early spring has generated much discussion amongst the birding/ornithological community and could spell disaster for long-distance migrants, in particular, who are the last to know that spring is early up here in Pennsylvania. The following is an excerpt on this topic from a “PA-Birds” listing last month by Scott Weidensaul, natural history writer, hummer and owl bander extraordinaire:

“The unusual weather, and unusually early migration, raise some interesting points about migrants and climate change that Drew and a few others have touched on.

Phenology is the study of timing in nature, and there’s an extraordinary data set of weather and nature observations stretching back almost 90 years at the Mohonk Preserve in southeastern New York – the longest-running such data set in the country.

In addition to keeping track of first bloom dates for flowers, leaf-out dates for trees and the like, they also tracked first arrival dates for birds – and it’s clear from an analysis of the Mohonk phenology is that birds are responding to climate change in different ways. Short- and medium-distance migrants like eastern towhees and eastern phoebes, for example, are arriving weeks earlier than they did in the early 20th century – just as wildflowers are blooming weeks earlier today than in the past (hepatica by 20 days, bloodroot by 13). Some species have simply stopped migrating in the region entirely, and are now year-round residents.

However, the arrival dates for long-distance migrants like scarlet tanagers and black-throated green warblers have not changed significantly at all in the past 90 years. The difference probably lies in what triggers the migration in both groups of birds. Short- and medium-distance migrants primarily winter in the southern U.S. or Mexico; they travel north in short stages, each flight triggered by good weather and wind directions – like the strong, persistent southerly winds blowing up the center of the continent the past two weeks.

Long-distance migrants coming from Central America, South America or the Caribbean, on the other hand, tend to fly in much longer, nonstop flights, and their departure is obviously not based on local weather conditions up here – a scarlet tanager in Colombia has no way of knowing it’s an early spring in Pennsylvania. They depart based on internal circadian rhythms and subtle changes in the daily photoperiod.

Once they come north, of course, warm southerly winds will speed their movement north across North America, just as persistent cold, northerly winds will retard it. Ruby-throated hummers, for example, usually arrive in the Gulf region the first two weeks of March – and this year, many are hopping on the south wind train and being sped north far, far sooner than is normal.

There is a real risk for bird riding the flow north so soon, of course, if the weather turns cold. But there’s also a serious risk for those species that can’t easily respond to the changing climate, like all those long-distance migrants. They are supposed to arrive early enough in spring to pair up, nest and hatch babies just as the early June explosion of soft-bodied insects (read: caterpillars) reaches its peak. With the leaves coming out weeks early, they may miss it. That’s already happening with trans-Saharan migrants in Europe, and with catastrophic consequences. Some species, like pied flycatchers, have seen a 90 percent population collapse in the last few years because their unchanging migration timetable means they’re now disconnected from their food supply.” (Scott Weidensaul in PA Birds)

Yikes! I hope those long-distance migrants can evolve new timetables faster than we think or adapt to different food sources.

On a more uplifting note, I have noticed that the early spring is benefiting Eastern Bluebirds in my backyard. I have had a female sitting on 4 eggs for the past several days without having to worry about competition from the House Wrens, who have not yet returned from their southern sojourn. Last year, by the time my bluebird pair was ready to set up house, Mr. Wren had already started a nest in both of my bluebird boxes! He starts a stick nest in every cavity in his neighborhood to maximize the female’s options. She then chooses one and “re-arranges the furniture” and puts the finishing touches on the nest. Then the male fiercely (and selfishly) defends all cavities in the area, which would have excluded the bluebirds last year.

House Wren at nest box by Adrian Binns — House Wren at nest box. Photo by Adrian Binns.

The Willistown Conservation Trust is reinvigorating the nestbox program to provide more vital homes for cavity-nesting birds in our program area. This spring, we are focusing on bluebirds and have added 30 new boxes on our preserves: Ashbridge, Rushton, and Kirkwood. We are monitoring the boxes weekly throughout the breeding season to determine nesting success.

Please contact me (bhg@wctrust.org) if interested in helping out! It’s a great way to get outside to enjoy nature, contribute to conservation, and see into the lives of these beautiful birds. It’s also an opportunity to get involved with citizen science as all of our monitoring data gets submitted to The Bluebird Society of PA. A big thanks to Ken Leister who gave an impassioned presentation about bluebirds last month here at the Trust and has donated his time and energy to building our 30 new bluebird boxes. For those of you who didn’t get a chance to attend his fantastic lecture, I will do a bluebird blog in the future summarizing it, so stay tuned! My favorite quote of his was,

“The more you learn about nature, the more complicated it becomes.”

Winter and Early Spring Memories from WCT

The PA Young Birders met in November to learn about cavity-nesting birds and even made their own bluebird box!

Young Birders building nestbox. Photo by Adrian Binns (pictured on right).

They reconvened in December for the Christmas Bird Count…

Young Birder with an Eastern Screech Owl borrowed for the morning from our partner, the Great Valley Nature Center. Photo by Adrian Binns

Young Birders birding for the Christmas Bird Count

In February, the PA Young Birders learned what it takes for birds to survive the winter…

Blake Goll showing Young Birders the structure of feathers. Photo by Adrian Binns.

In March, our Young Birders discovered the importance of the rainforest and learned that our birds are actually birds of two worlds. After a shade-grown/organic chocolate tasting, they learned what labels to look for on their chocolate to ensure that they are contributing to bird habitat conservation while buying chocolatey goodness…

Blake Goll teaching Young Birders about shade-grown chocolate. — Blake Goll conducting Young Birders shade-grown chocolate tasting. Photo by Adrian Binns.

Local birders and supporters of our Bird Conservation Program enjoyed “Woodcocks and Cocktails” in March during which we were thrilled to watch two male woodcocks performing their aerial displays across the darkening sky.

Waiting for Woodcocks at "Woodcocks and Cocktails".

Also in March, our innovative “Beer for Birds” annual lecture and Dogfish Head ancient ale tasting, featuring Patrick McGovern, the world’s foremost beer archaeologist, raised over $5,700 towards our Bird Conservation Program!

Patick McGovern, scientific director of the Biomolecular Archaeology Laboratory for Cuisine, Fermented Beverages, and Health at the University of Pennsylvania Museum.

Mark Your Calenders

The next PA Young Birder meeting will be held at Rushton Woods Preserve on Saturday, April 21st, from 9:30am to 11am. All children, ages 8-12, are welcome to come learn about and experience spring migration! Please RSVP to me (bhg@wctrust.org).

Young Birders at the Willistown Conservation Trust

A guided spring Warbler Walk will be held on Sunday May 6th, 7:30am at Kirkwood Preserve (on Grubbs Mill Road). This will be a great opportunity for birders of all skill levels to enjoy bright spring warblers at a beautiful preserve that offers grassland, riparian, and woodland habitats. Please RSVP to me (bhg@wctrust.org).

Get outside this weekend if you can! Buds are bursting, trees are flowering, wildflowers are thriving on the forest floor before leaf-out, pollinators are abuzz, salamanders and other amphibians are depositing eggs masses in vernal pools and ponds, raptors are breezing by hawk watches, and the Easter Bunny is hopping about!

Happy Easter and don’t forget, there’s a lot going on in the woods…

~Blake

Spotted Salamander by Bob Ferguson (PA-Herps)

Songbird Banding Comes to a Close and Saw-whet Owl Movement is Sluggish

November 17, 2011 By Communications Team

Migrant shorebirds at the Delaware Bay (Redknots, Ruddy Turnstone, Sanderling, Dunlin). By Blake Goll

“These were, perhaps, the original poetry…

…in tune with the lift and fall of the seasons,

returning from nowhere,

or from an unknown terrain

which must consequently exist….

…They needed, for no obvious reason, two worlds

in which to feed and breed,

so they needed a capacity for sustained flight,

a fine orientation,

an ability to sleep on the wing

an instinct for form and its rhythms

as each took its turn to cut the wind.”

-Adapted from “First Poetry”, by Moya Cannon, a lovely Irish poet who visited our Rushton banding station this year.

Dark-eyed Junco (Picture from Cornell Lab of Ornithology All About Birds website).

Well folks, it’s about that time…time to admit that the thrilling movement of fall songbird migrants is coming to a close as Old Man Winter looms closer. Last week, our nets produced very few birds (around 30 each day), the majority of species being White-throated Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos here to stay for the winter. We also banded many year-round residents like Blue Jays, Northern Cardinals, Carolina Chickadees, and Tufted Titmice. As usual, these classics were crowd-pleasers, especially for the 15 Girl Scouts who came out to Rushton Woods Preserve last Tuesday to learn about birds and earn their honorary Wildlife Badges! The 4th grade girls eagerly learned how to use binoculars, practiced identifying birds by sight and sound, studied the intricate structure of bird feathers, and kept nature journals of their avian field sketches. They were quite the little naturalists!

Of most interest last week, in terms of the songbird catch, were a lovely Fox Sparrow and a dashing Red-bellied Woodpecker. The Red-bellied Woodpecker was “nothing special to us”, but our guest bird bander, Emily Thomas, from the Allegheny National Forest of PA was absolutely ecstatic when she heard he was in the net! She sprinted to the net so fast, she said she pulled a muscle! The Red-bellied was one of the few birds she had not seen in the hand in her 7 years of banding because they are not common farther north and in higher elevations, like the Appalachian Mountains. Click here to see the range of our Red-bellied Woodpecker. Never take our common beauties for granted; what is common to us might be extraordinary for someone else! I, myself, remember longing for the familiar Northern Cardinals when I was bird banding in the Pacific Northwest two summers ago.

Red-bellied Woodpecker BINNS IMG_7518 copy — Red-bellied Woodpecker by Adrian Binns.

Emily Thomas was visiting our neck of the woods to speak at The Delaware Valley Ornithological Club (DVOC) and The Birding Club of Delaware County (BCDC) about her interesting graduate research on the effects of oil and gas development on songbird habitat and communities. By the way, both of these prestigious bird clubs are welcoming communities in which to become involved if you are an avid birder, want to cultivate your beginner birding skills or want to make new birding buddies! Both clubs hold interesting birding field trips and have monthly meetings and frequent distinguished speakers.

Marcellus Shale Drilling Tower. (Picture from Wikipedia)

In a nut shell, what Emily found from her research is that the habitat fragmentation in the Allegheny National Forest from Devonian shale shallow wells actually increases bird species richness (the number of different species). This is because forest clearings from well pads and service roads allow more understory and small-gap loving species (like Indigo Buntings and Cedar Waxwings, respectively) to move in alongside some of the remaining closed canopy nesters (like Blackburnian Warblers) that were there before. However, such fragmentation does result in the loss of some specialist species (ie. closed canopy nesters like Magnolia Warblers) that are unique to that Northern hardwood habitat. A lot of the new species that move in after oil and gas development are generalists like American Robins. In the end, Emily projected her Devonian shale conclusions on Marcellus shale, predicting that the effects of Marcellus fragmentation will actually be less because one deep Marcellus shale well pad can access resources that would require many shallow Devonian pads. However, the habitat footprint for a given Marcellus well pad will be larger than that of any individual shallow Devonian well. It’s all very complicated! For more information on oil and gas development in PA go to http://extension.psu.edu/naturalgas or http://www.dep.state.pa.us/dep/deputate/minres/oilgas/oilgas.htm .

Female & Male Magnolia Warblers at Powdermill. By Blake Goll. Magnolia Warblers breed in Northern hardwood forests.

Did you know that baby ticks are out and about? I didn’t even know what a baby tick looked like until last week when we saw little orange bumps on some of our birds, around their eyes and in their ears! Since we did not get a picture of the ticks, go to Hilton Pond’s website and scroll down for a nice (or not so nice!) view of a cluster of ticks under a jay’s eye. We found these exact same clusters on our Blue Jay’s eye as well as in the ear of other species like White-throated Sparrows. Apparentl, they are called seed ticks and will go through several more stages of development before reaching maturity. Yuck!

Debbie Beer & her sister, Rebecca, bonding over a Saw-whet.

As for the Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO), we are getting shut out left and right. Last year, we banded a total of 24 nights for 91 NSWO. This past Saturday (11/12) was our 24th night this year, and we’re still at only 34 NSWO plus 2 Eastern Screech Owls. As of November 10th, Scott Weidensaul was at 86 owls across his 3 sites (compared to 336 last year to date), which is well below his 10-year average for the date of 187. All of these warm, moonlit nights with South winds are not great for Saw-whet movement. Other owl banding stations, like the Ned Smith Center for Nature and Art, find this trend to be true as well; north winds generate more southbound owl movement. In fact, some other owl banders have been speculating that the role of wind direction in local movements of these tiny owls is significant enough to conclude that they are not a truly migratory species, but rather a somewhat nomadic species with opportunistic migration. It’s never black and white in nature, which is what makes banding so interesting and exciting!

sawwhet BINNS IMG_1905 copy — Northern Saw-whet Owl by Adrian Binns.

On a related note, the big news last week was our nomad number 0904-08744, which found one of Scott Weidensaul’s (famous author and naturalist) nets at Hidden Valley on November 6 after having been banded by us at Rushton on Halloween. I guess Scott’s Valley isn’t so hidden after all! The Saw-whet Owl was a Hatching Year female (born this summer). This recapture shows that she wandered about 60 miles Northwest to Hidden Valley from Rushton in 6 nights. This same northbound wandering during migration occured last year when another Saw-whet we banded on November 9 was captured 5 nights later, on November 14th, at another one of Scott Weidensaul’s owl banding stations called Small Valley (in the same general vicinity of Hidden Valley). That’s two documented cases of northward wanderings at the tail end of “southbound migration”! This record is also remarkable because Scott encouraged the creation of our owl banding station when Lisa Kiziuk volunteered at Hidden Valley in the 2009 season. Talk about a full circle! Check out the Ned Smith Center’s Owl Research page for more information on Saw-whet Owl research.

Young Ruby-throated Hummingbird. By Blake Goll

While we are on the topic of Scott Weidensaul’s research, did you know that you should be keeping at least one hummer feeder filled and available at least through Thanksgiving? If you’ve put away your feeder already, consider putting it back up and you might get a western vagrant! Scott is one of only about 200 hummingbird banders in the country studying newly evolving migration routes of western hummingbirds.

rufous hummer — Rufous Hummingbird (derived from Google Images)

Traditionally, only the Ruby-throated Hummingbird was found east of the Great Plains, departing in September and wintering in the tropics. However, in recent years, almost a dozen species of western hummingbirds have been showing up in the East and Southeast in autumn and winter (including Eastern PA!). Hummingbird banders studying this emerging phenomenon are finding that most of these vagabonds are Rufous Hummers that breed in the Rockies, Alaska, and the Pacific Northwest and typically winter in Mexico. However, changes in the landscape coupled with the warmer winters of the past century have made the east hospitable; those that survive and return to breeding grounds are passing on these “vagrant” genes that were once unfavorable, resulting in this rapid evolution of a new migratory route and wintering area for these birds.

Most homeowners take down their feeders when the last Rubys leave in September, but these Westerners don’t appear until October, November, or even December. Put that feeder back up if you want a chance at an early little Christmas gift wrapped in iridescent feathers! After Oct 15^th, you should contact Scott Weidensaul scottweidensaul@verizon.net if you are sure you have an overwintering western hummingbird. He or a fellow bander will come to your home, capture and band the bird, and release it to continue migration. The results can be spectacular! For example, in January 2010 a Rufous was banded in Tallahassee, FL and was recaptured 6 months later in Chenega Bay, Alaska! This information is vital to understanding how these migration routes are evolving.

Most people find it astonishing that hummingbirds can survive cold winter weather. Western hummers are actually very hardy because they are accustomed to nesting near timber line at high elevations where they can tolerate sub-zero temperatures if need be. These amazing birds can go into deep hibernation-like torpor on cold nights (rubys can only do this to a small extent) during which their body temperature is reduced from 102 F to just 54 F! As for finding enough to eat in cold weather, hummers can find dormant insects and spiders or cold weather active midges. The birds have also been known to drink tree sap from sapsucker wells! Visit Scott’s website to learn more about this fascinating western hummingbird research.

saw whet talons BIUNNS IMG_5206 copy — Feisty Saw-whet's Talons by Adrian Binns.

Schedule for the Rest of the Banding Season: Songbird banding is closed for the season, and this Friday and Saturday will be our next owl banding nights. As always, please sign up with Lisa Kiziuk, lkr@wctrust.org, to reserve an owl banding spot! We have not had a good night since November 5th, when we got 7 owls. Since then, we have only been getting one, two, or no owls each night. We’ve also been getting the same owls that we banded several nights before, like Feisty 54. We captured Feisty 54 four times so far this season: first on November 2 and twice in one night on November 11! This ferocious older female may still be haunting Rushton because, although we aren’t catching any owls these nights, we keep hearing Saw-whet calls that we suspect are coming from Feisty 54. Maybe she scared everyone else away! In any case, we are hoping for a few more owls before we shut down for the season (many northern stations have already closed). Even if we don’t get any new owls for audiences this weekend, there is a good chance of recapturing good old Feisty 54! I think she is starting to enjoy the attention. And I’ve also noticed that the human camaraderie is at its best on owl-less nights.

Never a dull moment here in the woods,

~Blake

P.S. The last PA Young Birder meeting on November 4th was a big success… with over 50 kids of all ages and no owls! Luckily, there were so many other fun activities going on (owl art, campfire and s’mores, night hikes, owl seek and find, and owl slideshows) that I don’t think the kids remembered that we were even trying to catch owls!

pumpkin sawwhet BINNS IMG_2198 copy — Owl pumpkin carved by Lisa Kiziuk. Photo by Adrian Binns.

The next PA Young Birder Meeting, “My Nest is Best,” is this Saturday November 19 from 9:30-11am at Rushton Woods Preserve. The Jr. Birders (ages 8-12) will learn about bird architecture and the many different types of nests that birds construct in various habitats. The children will assist with nest box installation for the Trust and will hunt for real cavities used by birds in the woods of Rushton. Please RSVP to Lisa Kiziuk, lkr@wctrust.org.

eastern bluebird m at nestbox BINNS IMG_7837 copy — Eastern Bluebird at nestbox by Adrian Binns

Last Days of October Produced The Season’s First Juncos, First Snowfall, and A Bunch of Halloween Owls

November 3, 2011 By Communications Team

2 sawwhets BINNS IMG_1910 copy — 2 of our Saw-whet Owls of 2011 by Adrian Binns. Notice the one on the left has a more complete white ring around its face than the one on the right. The one on the left is older.

I haven’t brought you up to date on last week or this week yet because it has been pretty hectic for us sleep-deprived, cranky bird banders. This is the time when we are working hard banding back to back: nights for Saw-whet Owls and mornings for the last fall songbird migrants. This sounds crazy, I know; why don’t we just quit the songbird banding and focus on the owls? The reason is because it is very important to gather as much songbird data as we can up until the very end when the flight peeters out so as to flesh out the entire picture of the fall migration. Quitting songbird banding too early could mean we miss the unexpected migrants on the periphery of the fall movement. So we soldier on for the love of birds and the loyalty of scientific research.

lisa & cardinal BINNS IMG_2128 copy — Lisa Kiziuk soldiers on with songbird banding after a long night of owl banding and apple/ finger peeling that made her more vulnerable to the fury of blood thirsty Northern Cardinals. Photo by Adrian Binns.

We went for songbirds last Tuesday (10-25) and Wednesday (10-26) morning and were surprised by large numbers of migrants still moving through. We banded 59 birds on Tuesday, including a feeding flock of snarly Chickadees and Tufted Titmouse. Wednesday was the notable fallout day, with migrant birds virtually dripping from the trees and carpeting the fields; the hedgerows were alive! A large flock of Cedar Waxwings eluded us all morning by staying high in the canopy, but we banded 70 birds that day, including a late Nashville Warbler, several Yellow-rumped Warblers, lots of White-throated Sparrows, a handful of lovely little pink-billed Field Sparrows, a flock of young Hermit Thrush, and the first batch of Dark-eyed Juncos of this year! It was good to see the Juncos again… to hear their familiar metallic chipping in the shrubs, and to watch the flash of white outer tail feathers as they jovially flit about the hedgerow….almost like welcoming old friends back for the holidays. Of course, Juncos are the first sign of impending snow, and they indeed brought the snow with them.

Yellow-rumped warbler — Female Yellow-rumped Warbler Fall 2011. (Blake Goll)

Hermit thrush — Hermit Thrush Fall 2011. (Blake Goll)

Perhaps last Wednesday was so busy because all the birds knew they had to get a move on before the rain of last Thursday and the snow of Saturday. In the calm before the storm they can feel the pressure changing and thus sense what is to come. In any case, Wednesday was a day to be remembered.

I went home briefly for lunch after morning banding and stepped out of my car in my driveway to a birder’s paradise. There were birds EVERYWHERE. I think I left the keys in the ignition with the car running and the door wide open as I grabbed my binoculars from the dashboard and excitedly scanned the yard. A Brown Creeper was creeping 5 feet away from me in a magnolia tree, and a Ruby-crowned Kinglet was flitting around hunting insects in an ornamental tree 2 feet in front of me. Further into the yard was a Hermit Thrush distinctively bobbing its tail up and down under the blue spruce. Suddenly a woodpecker whizzed past the spruce and into the arborvitae next to the house. Could it be? It was! A beautiful male Yellow Bellied Sapsucker, only seen in my yard during migration! I ventured further into the shallow woods behind my house, lured by the restless flurry of birds. There I saw about 20 Robins, the Hermit Thrush (which followed me and was spying on me as I find they often do), an abundance of Yellow-rumped Warblers, a Golden-crowned Kinglet, lots of White-throated Sparrows, and yet another Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (a juvenile) tap tap tapping on an oak. What a day!

yellow bellied sap male — Male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (from Cornell All About Birds website)

Juvenile Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (from Cornell All About Birds website)

Speaking of Golden-crowned Kinglets, on that same Wednesday (10-26) we had an interesting catch, if you can fairly call it a catch. Lisa, Lou, Doris and I were about to disperse for another net run when a little Golden-Crowned Kinglet came careening into the banding lodge and flew up into the skylight. She didn’t have enough speed to injure herself fatally because in order to hit the skylight she had to dip down and then up. However, she did bump her head unexpectedly and then sat on the railing totally stunned. I saw the whole transaction and am still not sure who was more stunned: me or the bird. As Lisa and I were standing there staring at the bird in disbelief, Doris quickly reacted and said, “Grab it and band it!” Lisa and I looked at each other in shock and then looked at the bird. She seemed okay, so I gently picked her up and banded her. She perked up and flew away after we processed her, but she didn’t fly far. We saw her perched in a tree 5 feet away looking at the banding shelter and then at her ankle as if thinking, “What on earth just happened to me? One minute I was flying and the next I was stopped by an invisible wall and then picked up by a giant who stuck this shiny thing on my ankle!” She got over it fast and soon went back to foraging.

Male Golden crowned Kinglet — Male Golden-crowned Kinglet (Blake Goll)

That day, we also got a recap White-throated Sparrow, which was exciting because the band looked like an old band. Getting a recapture songbird from someplace else is very unusual; most all the recaps that we get are our own birds that we banded just a few days ago at Rushton (they either haven’t moved on yet or are here to stay). This White-throated Sparrow ended up being our own as well. However, looking back at the records, Doris discovered that it was first banded at Rushton as an After Hatching Year (AHY) bird in December of 2009. This means the bird is over 3 years old and probably spends its winter in Rushton Woods Preserve every year! Interesting example of winter site fidelity.

Older White-throated Sparrow recap of this year. (Blake Goll)

Yesterday (11/2) was pretty slow for songbird banding, with only 34 birds, which is probably how it will be from here on out as fall migration comes to a close. Tuesday (11/1) yielded 58 birds including a gorgeous male Golden- crowned Kinglet, an exquisite Brown Creeper, the first handsome Fox Sparrow of the season, and a bizarre White-throated Sparrow with bright orange lores instead of the usual yellow (referring to the area right in front of the eyes). There are still Palm Warblers moving through the area in decent numbers as well; they were at Rushton yesterday, and I saw one at Okehocking on Sunday while walking in the snow with my pug. Next week will most likely be the last week of songbird banding before we close for the season. As always, you’re welcome to come out and observe Tuesday and Thursday.

As for the Northern Saw-whet Owl (NSWO) banding, the season is well underway. We are going out every night this week to take advantage of the peak of the season and the relatively dark nights before the full moon thwarts our efforts next week. (Moonlit nights are not good for catching NSWO because they can see the nets better and tend to move less because they know they are more visible to predators like Great Horned Owls, Screech Owls, and Barred Owls.)

lou blake lisa sawwhet BINNS IMG_1932 copy — Lou, Me (Blake), and Lisa observing the wing of a Saw-whet to age. (by Adrian Binns)

I believe our total for this season so far is 23 Saw-whets. The season started out a couple of weeks ago with a very slow trickle of none, 1, or 2 owls a night until All Hallow’s Eve when we got 7 ferocious Halloween NSWOs. They were especially feisty that night with talons flailing and beaks clapping…maybe they knew it was the Devil’s night! Tuesday night (11/1) we got 8 Saw-whet owls including a recapture banded a few nights ago by us. Last night, we banded 4 new Saw-whets. This week we also banded a gorgeous red-phase Eastern Screech Owl, which brings our screech total of this season to 4 (3 red and one gray). Screech Owls can be predators to Northern Saw-whet Owls, but so far (knock on wood) our resident Screeches have been behaving themselves. We enjoyed hearing them singing last night amidst the meowing contact calls of the Saw-whets in the hedgerows.

eastern-screech-owl-thermal-vision-BINNS-IMG_1855-copy — Eastern Screech Owl next to a thermal camera. The yellow areas represent the warmest temperatures of the body, which appear to be his giant eyeballs! (Photo by Adrian Binns)

All of the other Saw-whet banding stations nearby are starting to get the owls in greater numbers as well, but no one is seeing the abundance of last year. Even Scott Weidensaul’s 3 stations near Schuylkill Haven, PA (“the Big Boys”) have only about 31 owls as of November 1, which is slightly behind their worst season in 2006, when they had 33 for the date, and well below their 10-year average of 64 for the date. This year is definitely not an irruption year for the little fuzzballs. Perhaps there are too many rodents up north to warrant many of the owls to migrate south or perhaps the breeding owls were not as successful this summer.

In any case, this is shaping out to be the best week this year so far for migrant Saw-whets to reach Rushton and jump into our nets. If you would like to observe the mistnetting and banding process of these wondrous little creatures of the night, remember that you must contact Lisa Kiziuk first (lkr@wctrust.org) to make an owl appointment. Nights are getting frigid so layer up!

Please note that this Friday (Nov 4th) is the PA Young Birder meeting at Rushton from 7-9pm, so owl banding will be closed to the public during that time, unless you have RSVPed your child for the event. The night should be a wild one, with Saw-whet Owl banding and presentations, owl ‘Seek and Find’ in the farmshed, owl art with Adrian Binns, s’mores and owl stories around the bonfire, and even short night hikes for those brave souls that really want to get a feel for the natural world at night!

There’s a lot going on in the woods,

~Blake

P.S. Our bird conservation program has really taken flight this past year, and we love being able to connect the public with our birds in such an intimate way. The Willistown Conservation Trust’s main goal remains protecting the land we love, but we have found that birds (in addition to farm fresh food) are a great way to get people to appreciate the land on a deeper level. Furthermore, our bird banding research contributes to global bird conservation efforts while guiding local habitat management for the benefit of birds and other wildlife. We appreciate all the help we can get as we are a non-profit organization with big dreams! If you have benefitted in some way from any of our programs or if we have provided you with a life-changing moment with one of our wild birds, please consider giving back. Anything helps!

: “Hooo Hoo Hoo will help me?” Northern Saw-whet Owl perched on our donation box before release. Wood carving by Peter Hausmann. Photo by Adrian Binns.

Last Days of October Produced The Season's First Juncos, First Snowfall, and A Bunch of Halloween Owls

November 3, 2011 By wctbirds

There’s a lot going on in the woods,

~Blake

: “Hooo Hoo Hoo will help me?” Northern Saw-whet Owl perched on our donation box before release. Wood carving by Peter Hausmann. Photo by Adrian Binns.

Final Fall Fallout of Migratory Songbirds & Our First Saw-whet Owl of the Season!

October 22, 2011 By Communications Team

Nashville Warbler by Adrian Binns — Nashville Warbler at Rushton Woods Preserve by Adrian Binns (Fall 2011)

Last Friday (10-14), we banded 56 birds to the delight of my adult class (age 50+) from Widener’s Osher Lifelong Learning Institute. After studying birds, bird banding and bird conservation in the classroom, the enthusiastic students came out to Rushton Woods Preserve to experience the banding production in person. They were thrilled to touch and be so close to these wild feathered beauties and were pleasantly surprised at the diversity of species: Eastern Phoebe, 5 Palm Warblers, 3 Myrtle Warblers, 1 Common Yellowthroat, 4 Black-throated Blue Warblers, lots of sparrows, 1 Gray-cheeked Thrush, towhee, goldfinch, cardinals, Carolina Wren, and 1 late CATBIRD!

The net over the compost pile was very busy that day with over 15 birds in the net at once during the mid-morning net check. Doris was packing 2-3 birds of the same species in each bag (we need more hand-made bird bags if you can sew and want to lend a hand!). Poor Doris also suffered deep puncture wounds during that same net check from an ungrateful mole or vole that she rescued from the net. “Don’t get no respect, even from rodents!”, she cried.

This past Tuesday (10-18) was our second big fallout day, probably the last one for this fall. We banded 93 birds of 20 species, which is 7 birds over Rushton’s previous record of 86! A Northern Parula Warbler was the best of 6 warbler species, and several Golden-crowned Kinglets were new for this year. Our loyal volunteers Alice, Lou, and Godefroy extracted non-stop and kept the birds safe. Win and Justin helped at the open and went to work saying, “Here are 6 birds. There are 2 more in #7 and 12 in #6.” That was 7:45 and we never stopped until after 10. Doris says, “No bird was held more than 90 minutes, which is long for Rushton, but nothing for the big banding stations which routinely hold birds for longer.”

Thursday and Friday of this week were slower, with probably more High School kids than birds. About 100 honors students from Conestoga High School’s Environmental Science class came out to Rushton over the past two days. They had the chance to visualize and experience concepts they have learned or will learn in the classroom this year by rotating through 3 stations: a woodland ecology walk, tour of the sustainable CSA farm, and bird banding and conservation. The students were impressed with the common birds we all sometimes take for granted like the handsome American Robin and Northern Cardinal and the charismatic Tufted Titmouse. The very last catch of the day was a stunning Sharp-shinned Hawk, which the kids got really excited about. The cell phones immediately came out of pockets and were snapping pictures left and right! This is probably the same hawk that we have occasionally seen darting in and out of the hedgerows and even dive-bombing Lisa one day as she was closing the nets. I think the Sharpie was angry that she wasn’t leaving the net up to facilitate his lunch endeavors.

Sharp-shinned hawk- Young female — Young female Sharp-shinned Hawk (by Blake Goll)

As for the Northern Saw-whet Owls (NSWO), we were off to a very slow start. For the first couple of weeks, we ended up empty-handed every night except for a red-phase Eastern Screech Owl two Fridays ago at 8pm and then again at 11pm. He just couldn’t get enough of our nets, apparently. Let’s just hope he has learned his lesson and stays away once we really start catching saw-whets (screech owls are a predator of NSWO, believe it or not).

Eastern Screech Owl recapture (by Blake Goll)

We don’t know what’s taking the Saw-whets so long, but it may be related to this crazy wet weather we have been having (which seems to have delayed this year’s songbird migration as well). There is also some speculation that this year was not a very successful breeding year for the NSWO, and therefore the number of young “Hatching Year” (HY) birds is much lower than last year. Since most of the owls we band are HY birds, we don’t expect to band as many this year as last. (The older more dominant males tend to prefer to stick out the winter on their northern territories rather than migrating south with the young owls and the females. )

The NSWO is also an irruptive species closely tied to the pine tree seed crop up north. Last year was an irruption year during which we had more saw-whets coming south than usual because the pine trees did not produce as many seeds as the previous year, which caused the rodent population (owl food) to plummet. When food up north is scarce, more owls travel south for the winter. Bird migration is related to food scarcity, not cold weather. Most birds, even some hummingbirds like the Rufous, are well adapted to dealing with cold weather.

You can imagine our delight last night (10-21) when we finally caught our first Northern Saw-whet Owl!!! It was a cute-as-a-button feisty young female weighing in at about 92 grams. It was about 9:00 at night when she found her way to our nets while investigating our audio lure that incessantly plays the male’s territorial call. Everyone was ecstatic, and even men’s voices were raised an octave or two as they ‘ooed’ and ‘aahed’ over the little owl. As for myself, I was a little intimidated by her mesmerizing yellow eyes that seemed to be boring into my soul from some wild place and “reading my mind”, as one woman said.

Young female Northern Saw-whet Owl — Our young female Northern Saw-whet Owl (by Blake Goll). My, what beautiful eyes she has!

Photogenic Northern Saw-whet Owl — Our very photogenic Northern Saw-whet Owl

Alas, there is hope for this year’s owl banding season! Remember to contact Lisa Kiziuk (lkr@wctrust.org) if you are interested in observing owl banding. Songbird banding will also continue on Tuesday and Thursday mornings for the next couple of weeks. No reservation required for songbirds.

And speaking of Lisa, congratulations to her on winning the DVOC (Delaware Valley Ornithological Society) Rosalie Edge Conservation Award for her tireless bird conservation work! Without her vision, the Willistown Conservation Trust’s banding station at Rushton Woods Preserve would never have become a reality. Today, the Rushton bird banding station is not only a reality but a wonderful destination where adults and children of all backgrounds experience some of nature’s finest works of living art while learning about the importance of such scientific research in the understanding and ultimate conservation of our nation’s feathered bounty. Thank you, Lisa, for making your dream come true and for all you do for the birds. I know Rosalie Edge would be proud of you.

~Blake

Spring has Sprung…And So Have Our Mist Nets

Public bird banding sessions at Rushton Woods Preserve will begin next Tuesday, April 17, and we can’t wait!!

Winter and Early Spring Memories from WCT

Mark Your Calenders

Songbird Banding Comes to a Close and Saw-whet Owl Movement is Sluggish

Last Days of October Produced The Season’s First Juncos, First Snowfall, and A Bunch of Halloween Owls

Last Days of October Produced The Season's First Juncos, First Snowfall, and A Bunch of Halloween Owls

Final Fall Fallout of Migratory Songbirds & Our First Saw-whet Owl of the Season!

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