Fall Migration Banding Season Begins in Navarre Marsh

The start of the fall 2014 season has been slow as usual in mid-August; however, we have been fortunate to have a few birds that remind us that migration is occurring. Baltimore Orioles (BAOR), Yellow Warblers (YEWA), Prothonotary Warblers (PROW), and flycatchers are either beginning their southward trek or arriving from northern breeding grounds. We had ten species of warbler between Wednesday 20 August and Sunday 24 August. These include: Northern Waterthrush (NOWA), Black-and-white Warbler (BAWW), PROW, Mourning Warbler (MOWA), Common Yellowthroat (COYE), Cape May Warbler (CMWA), Magnolia Warbler (MAWA), Blackburnian Warbler (BLBW), YEWA, and Canada Warbler (CAWA).

BAWW (female): Note blurry streaks on side and gray face

Adult Male BAWW: Note distinct streaks on flanks and black facial patch

Hatching-Year Male BAWW: Note distinct streaks on flanks and gray face

Hatching-Year Female BAWW: Note blurry black streaks on buffy colored flanks 

 Some Highlights for the time period:

Hatching-Year MOWA: Probably a male with whitish split eye ring

Hatching-Year male BLBW: Note distinct auricular patch on face that helps
identify this as a Blackburnian Warbler.

Take time to enjoy the early migrants. This will be the last few weeks of PROW, BAOR, YEWA, and most flycatchers. Free Public Banding demonstration will be conducted at Black Swamp Bird Observatory on Saturday September 20th and 27th at 10:00 AM. See what birds are in the area and learn why the Lake Erie Marsh Region is so important for them. 

Highlights from April 21-27th

This past week was a roller coaster as far as birds ability to move northward. Strong southerly winds on Friday night through early morning Saturday brought in a few neotropical migrants to start the first wave species off and running. Majority of the wind direction for the week was Easterly off the cold Lake for the Navarre Banding Station which pushes the birds back off the beach ridge. Despite the low volume, we did manage to get some quality for the week highlighted by Solitary Sandpiper (SOSA), Green Heron (GRHE), female Cerulean Warbler (CERW), and three Sharp-shinned Hawks (SSHA).
Hermit Thrushes (HETH), White-throated Sparrows (WTSP), Myrtle Warblers (MYWA), and Ruby-crowned Kinglets (RCKI) were the the dominant species seen.

Warbler species observed or captured this week include: Orange-crowned (OCWA), Nashville (NAWA), Yellow (YEWA), Myrtle (MYWA), Black-throated Green (BTNW), Pine Warbler (PIWA), Western and Yellow Palm (WPWA, YPWA), Cerulean (CERW), Black-and-white (BAWW), Prothontary (PROW), Ovenbird (OVEN), Northern Waterthrush (NOWA), Louisiana Waterthrush (LOWA), and Common Yellowthroat (COYE). Three Louisiana Waterthrushes so far this year is more than we have captured in several years. Our normal for this overflight warbler is usually one, if we are lucky.

To better understand the demographics of a population migrating through this area, understanding age is important to determine. Below is a second year (SY) and and after-second year (ASY) Myrtle Warbler. Using the primary coverts (small feathers covering the primaries or flight feathers) we can age the birds shown below as (left bird) an ASY and right bird as an SY. Primary coverts (replaced only during the basic or summer molt) on the ASY are edged with gray and SY coverts are brownish and off-color from the secondary coverts (replaced in both the basic molt and the alternate or winter molt) that were replaced this winter. The SY bird has maintained its primary coverts since fledging out of the nest last summer.

Two of the three SSHA are shown below with the younger bird (bottom photo) having the yellow/orange colored eye (ASY) and the second identified as an After-third year (ATY) bird with the ruby colored eye. Sex of this species is determine by size/wing chord.

ATY male SSHA with horizontal barring on chest, gray hood and back and ruby colored eye.

ASY female with its horizontal barring on chest, and orange/yellow eyes.

Highlights for the week: showing different poses to show the different colorations on these magnificent birds.

Female CERW

GRHE head

Back of GRHE

This coming Saturday from 10:00 AM - 11:30 AM is a great opportunity to see migrating birds up close at the Free public banding demonstration held at the bird observatory. Take time to get outdoors and experience the migration.

Spring 2014 Passerine Banding has begun!

The weather has been up and down which is the usual for early spring in NW Ohio. A late snow last Tuesday night into Wednesday resulted in us holding off the daily opening of the Navarre station. We officially opened the banding station on Thursday to give the birds time to forage in the colder temperatures.

Kinglets, White-Throated Sparrows (WTSP) and Hermit Thrushes (HETH) were the most common when we started up the daily operation this past week. A few birds of interest have appeared in the daily BSBO Facebook posts but here are some interesting summaries so far. Seven warbler species have been seen or banded at the Navarre Marsh Unit of Ottawa NWR/ Davis Besse Nuclear Power Station property. They consist of Myrtle (MYWA), Black-throated Green (BTNW), Pine (PIWA), Black-and- White (BAWW), Prothonotary (PROW), Ovenbird (OVEN), and Louisiana Waterthrush (LOWA). The Louisiana Waterthrush is an overflight warbler for NW Ohio. It may be found breeding in the southern part of the state and further south.

One of the important pieces of information we gather from this long term data set is an idea of how long some of these birds live. Most songbirds, if they make it past their first birthday (January 1st) will live on average 2-4 years if they are fortunate. So far we have had 24 birds return that were banded in prior years. We have not calculated their ages at this point, but nonetheless, it is interesting to see how many have survived to return to this important habitat. Of course, most of these species are resident and did not make a long migration. However, they did have to withstand an unusually harsh winter here in NW Ohio.

Downy Woodpecker          1
Red-winged Blackbird       8
Song Sparrow                  5
American Robin               5
Northern Cardinal            2
Black-capped Chickadee   3

Here is a tip that can help birdwatchers to age Red-winged Blackbird (RWBL) females.... Here are After-second year (ASY) and Second Year (Hatched last year)(SY):

Female ASY RWBL- note bright orange lesser coverts

Female SY RWBL- note brown or tawny lesser coverts

Their face/throat coloration can also assist in ageing. Yellow face and chin signify a SY female in spring. (Note)-In Fall HY males can look tawny like this as well. Orange on face or chin usually represents an ASY female RWBL.

SY -left Female RWBL
ASY-right Female RWBL

Next week looks to be a good week for bird migration, so take time to go outdoors and experience early spring bird migration. The first wave of Neotropical Migrants usually hits around 24 April so be ready!

For birding predictions, follow Kenn Kaufman's migration blog at: http://cranecreekbirding.blogspot.com/