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Wednesday, October 3, 2012
September is always a fun month to band and weather cooperated most of the time. While we had oodles of birds, our species count was down and we missed many species we normally get- Northern Waterthrush, Northern Parula, Mourning Warbler, Myrtle Warbler, and no thrushes what so ever!
We banded another 11 Yellow-breasted Chats, all hatch years, making this year's total 16 so far, our highest count for this species.
Chats are easily aged, HY birds do an incomplete molt, molting some of the outer primary feathers and inner secondaries, although I don't always see it in the secondaries. From the picture below this chat has replaced primaries 4-9 and retained primaries 1-3 (click on the picture for a better view). There is a noticable difference between the dark shaft and feather of the fourth primary compared to the browner 3rd primary.
He replaced the sixth secondary feather shown below, again darker in both shaft and feather than the adjacent s5.
The majority of our Prairie Warblers have moved on but we did capture 4 more this month including this young male.
HY male Prairies show a molt limit, usually at A1 (the alula covert-see red arrow), which is darker than the other two alula feathers and primary coverts.
Males have distinct dark streaks on their sides as seen in the first photo and dark chestnut feathers on their back.
We captured our first for the season American Redstart on the 2nd
as well as our first of five Red-breasted Nuthatches. They have been vocalizing up a storm!
Female RB nuts (that's what we call them) have gray crowns contrasting slightly with gray back,
while the crown of the male contrasts sharply with the back.
Goldfinch numbers have jumped substantially in September since young have fledged and they flock together in groups.
On the fourth we captured a Red-eyed Vireo with a band that did not belong to our station! Any of you banders out there recognize this bird? 2181-59468. I've inquired to nearby banding stations, sent info to the Bird Banding Lab and sent out a query on the Birdband listserv but no takers yet. Since it was a HY bird, I'm sure the bander has not sent in the information yet in the middle of the fall season. I'll be sure to post where it came from when I find out!
6 September brought the first of three Acadian Flycatchers, the most we've had in a year. They are part of the Empidonax Flycatcher family and can be challenging on occasion to sort out. Acadians are known to be the 'least cute' due to their big head.
Besides all the measurements we do to separate these species, we also take a look at their leg color, gray for Acadian,
and the shape of their 6th primary feather (p6). On Acadians it is not emarginated (emarginated means the outer web of the feather narrows towards the tip as in p7 & 8) seen in the photo below.
Also on the 6th brought our first of many Blackpoll Warblers, a HY bird of unknown sex.
While most of our birds are in their first year, we've also had a few adults. Males look dramatically different in their alternate plumage from spring breeding plumage, but are still distinguished by their white bellies and black streaks about the head, throat area, and distinct black streaks on their sides. They also have large dark centers to their back feathers.
While on the subject of Blackpolls, they are known for their yellow feet as shown below
but some of them have such striking color they almost approach orange!
Sadly we've had no Mourning Warblers this year,however I won't rule it out yet, but we were excited to get 3 Connecticut Warblers, the most we've ever had. The first one showed up on the 6th and then two on the 25th.
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Other nice warblers this month included Pine Warbler, a nice bird to show off for our banding demo on the 8th (although this was our adult male banded on the 25th),
Black-throated Green, a HY male, on the 11th,
a HY Magnolia Warbler on the 14th,
Canada Warbler
Nashville Warbler
and a Black-throated Blue Warbler, all on the 16th.
HY Black-throated Blues males are easy to age and sex due to their distinct plumage, notice the blue-edged replaced alula covert (A1) sitting atop the green edged retained juvenal A2.
We had a Black-and-white Warbler, HY male, on the 18th, with dark black streaking to the sides
along with our first Blue-winged Warbler of the year, another HY male.
Our first of many Palm Warblers (mostly Western subspecies) also came in on the 18th
and a Wilson's Warbler was captured on the 20th.
He had an extensive cap with some mottled greenish edging indicating HY.
Besides the many Red-eyed Vireos we banded this month, we also banded two Philadelphia Vireos, the first arrrived on the 14th.
The outermost primary (p10) is quite reduced in this species.
On the 18th, Warbling Vireos came in
Their p10 is longer, usually as long or longer than the primary coverts.
We banded three Blue-headed Vireos with the first arriving in our nets on the 24th.
Besides our many Song Sparrows, we had a rather early White-throated Sparrow on the 14th,
a Lincoln's Sparrow
and Swamp Sparrow on the 25th,
and two Savannah Sparrows on the 27th. The first Savannah below had no yellow in the lores
compared to the bright yellow lores of the second one we banded.
Some other interesting birds this month were a HY female Eastern Towhee with some leucism on her back and head
and more surprising, a very young Mourning Dove still in juvenal plumage captured on the 18th.
Thanks to all who helped out this month- Gretchen Putonen, Carolyn Kennedy, Judy Keller, Jessica Rempel and Judith Bruce. The following is a list of birds seen, heard, or banded during this time period.
Total birds: 1120 Total species: 89
Total banded birds: 48 Birds/100 net-hours: 57
| Double-crested Cormorant | |
| Great Blue Heron | |
| Canada Goose | |
| American Black Duck | |
| Mallard | |
| Osprey | Last seen 9/14 |
| Northern Harrier | |
| Sharp-shinned Hawk | |
| Cooper's Hawk | |
| Red-shouldered Hawk | |
| Broad-winged Hawk | |
| Red-tailed Hawk | |
| Black-bellied Plover | |
| Semipalmated Plover | |
| Greater Yellowlegs | |
| Spotted Sandpiper | |
| Whimbrel | |
| American Woodcock | |
| Ring-billed Gull | |
| Herring Gull | |
| Great Black-backed Gull | |
| Common Tern | |
| Mourning Dove | 1 new |
| Eastern Screech-Owl | |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird | 4 new |
| Belted Kingfisher | |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | |
| Downy Woodpecker | 2 new; 2 recaps |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 2 new |
| Yellow-shafted Flicker | 1 new; 2 unbanded |
| Acadian Flycatcher | 3 new |
| Alder Flycatcher | 1 (probable) new |
| Traill's Flycatcher | |
| Eastern Phoebe | 32 new; 9 recaps; 1 unbanded |
| Great Crested Flycatcher | 2 new |
| Eastern Kingbird | |
| Tree Swallow | |
| Barn Swallow | |
| Blue Jay | 2 new; 1 recap |
| American Crow | |
| Fish Crow | |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 15 new; 61 recaps; 4 unbanded |
| Tufted Titmouse | 4 new; 2 recaps |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 5 new |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | |
| Carolina Wren | 6 new; 10 recaps |
| House Wren | |
| Golden-crowned Kinglet | |
| Eastern Bluebird | |
| American Robin | 1 new |
| Gray Catbird | 276 new; 306 recaps; 15 unbanded |
| Northern Mockingbird | 2 new |
| Brown Thrasher | |
| Cedar Waxwing | |
| European Starling | 2 new |
| Blue-headed Vireo | 3 new |
| Warbling Vireo | 2 new |
| Philadelphia Vireo | 2 new; 4 recap |
| Red-eyed Vireo | 38 new; 9 recaps |
| Blue-winged Warbler | 2 new |
| Nashville Warbler | 4 new |
| Yellow Warbler | 8 new; 2 recaps |
| Magnolia Warbler | 3 new |
| Black-throated Blue Warbler | 2 new |
| Black-throated Green Warbler | 1 new |
| Pine Warbler | 4 new |
| Prairie Warbler | 4 new; 1 recap |
| Western Palm Warbler | 9 new |
| Yellow Palm Warbler | 2 new |
| Blackpoll Warbler | 22 new; 1 recap; 1 unbanded |
| Black-and-white Warbler | 1 new |
| American Redstart | 4 new |
| Ovenbird | 2 new |
| Connecticut Warbler | 3 new |
| Common Yellowthroat | 30 new; 5 recaps; 2 unbanded |
| Wilson's Warbler | 1 new |
| Canada Warbler | 1 new |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | 11 new; 4 recaps |
| Northern Cardinal | 11 new; 1 recap; 1 unbanded |
| Eastern Towhee | 13 new; 5 recaps; 1 unbanded |
| Savannah Sparrow | 2 new |
| Song Sparrow | 40 new; 29 recaps; 2 unbanded |
| Lincoln's Sparrow | 1 new |
| Swamp Sparrow | 2 new; 1 recap |
| White-throated Sparrow | 1 new |
| Baltimore Oriole | Last seen 9/2 |
| House Finch | 2 new |
| American Goldfinch | 40 new; 3 recaps; 1 unbanded |
| House Sparrow |
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