2011 Spring Banding Season Breaks Record!

Update from BSBO's Navarre Marsh Songbird Banding Research Station posted by Mark and Julie Shieldcastle:
It has been quite a spring season! We had three good solid waves of spring songbirds this year. Not every year, are we blessed with the right winds and weather that results in the Lake Erie Marsh Region having a "wave trifecta" to produce the volume that each of the migration waves can create.

To review the update of the banding station activity for the last couple weeks you can go to the Navarre banding page of the Observatory website. http://www.bsbo.org/passerine/spring_passerine_migration_monitoring.htm

In a season of highlights, the most significant has to be surpassing the all-time spring banding total for the Navarre banding station, which was first run on a daily basis in 1989. The old record was 10,111 new birds banded in one soring season and we surpassed this on Tuesday May 31st. Final totals for the season will be posted on the website after the station closes on June 4th.

This accomplishment would not have been possible without the great assistance of our passerine technican, Cliff Hoyt, and all of our mighty volunteers. Our hat goes off to the fine work the team has accomplished this spring!

Left - right: Reed Anderson, Julie Shieldcastle, Max Anderson, and Cliff Hoyt

Here are some of the highlights of the past couple weeks:

Female Connecticut Warbler (CONW) left/
Female Mourning Warbler (MOWA) right.
The latter part of May is always the prime time to catch your
glimpses of Connecticut and Mourning Warblers.

 CONW

MOWA male

A nice late May surprise was this Summer Tanager (SUTA).

This is a Second Year male with its splotchiness of gold and scarlet. The top sides of these birds are interesting, and since most do not get an opportunity to see this view, enjoy a molt in progress.

Why not add the best warbler in the land to the highlights?

Female and male Blackburnian Warbler (BLBW)
Can you guess why this four-letter code doesn't fit the norm?

Let's hear it for this girl! 

She is sporting a flash of "Indigo" in her attire.

And since this is the last wave of songbird migration,
we must talk about flycatchers!

Here you see the Acadian Flycatcher (ACFL) - left
and the Yellow-bellied Flycatcher (YBFL) - right.

The ACFL has a light green head and eye ring with an elongated body shape, whereas the YBFL has a rounded head and bright yellow eyering and dark green yellow belly.

To top off the season we had the rare opportunity to catch both a

Black-billed Cuckoo (BBCU) and Yellow-billed Cuckoo (YBCU) 

at the same time! Here are their profiles:
BBCU on the left and YBCU on the right

And here is the top view:

Note the rusty wings on the YBCU (left) and it's larger white tail spots  compared to the BBCU (right). The contrast of the rusty wing color against the gray body on the YBCU and the gray wings and body of the BBCU should make it easier to identify cuckoo species when the bird is in flight, rather than trying to get a good look at the amount of white in the tail of each.

The bird that broke the spring banding total record on May 31st

Male Yellow-Breasted Chat (YBCH)
Cool Bird Banding Fact #117
Male YBCH's have a black mouth lining (as shown inthe photo, above),
while females have pink. Pretty cool, eh?! 

With spring migration all but over, why not get your birding "fix" 

by helping on the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas and pay it forward to Bird Conservation!

For those who aren't on Facebook, the answer to the last blog post was female Cape May Warbler.

First days of Biggest Week in American Birding bring the birds!

Navarre Marsh Banding Station Update, from Research Director Mark Shieldcastle and Conservation Director Julie Shieldcastle: What a week this has been for birds and birdwatchers in the marsh region - THE WARBLER CAPITAL OF THE WORLD! Friday and Saturday alone resulted in 1,858 birds banded! Words cannot describe the volume of birds that poured into the critical stopover of the Lake Erie Marshes.  We are only going to give some of the highlights, that's how good it was!And, there's a lot more birds to come!  You may want to start planning your illness now so you can call in sick next week; the weather looks favorable for the second wave to hit mid-week. 

After banding hundreds of thousands of birds during his career, on Friday, May 6th, BSBO Research Director Mark Shieldcastle banded his first LeConte's Sparrow! Banding allows us to better understand the overall ecology of birds, but it also allows us to appreciate the individual and its fine colors. Take a look at this sparrow!

Can you believe that some people call

sparrows "Little Brown Jobs?!"  

This past week (May 2-8th) brought the second pulse of the First Wave with dominants of Myrtle, Nashville, and Western Palm Warblers. On Friday, May 6th we had 101 species seen or heard in the Navarre Marsh. It is always nice to see the vanguard of some species who are yet to come in great numbers like the Magnolia Warbler (MAWA). Here is one with its First Wave counterpart, the Myrtle Warbler:

We banded so many Myrtle Warblers that one of our fabulous volunteers that spent two full days holding bird bags now thinks her name is "Myrtle".

Here are some of the birds that headlined the week:

Yellow-breasted Chat (YBCH) See that black mouth lining? That makes this a male.  Females have pink mouth lining.  (Isn't that cool?!)  

And, here's a touch of the sunshine to chase the clouds away!
Prothonotary Warbler (PROW)

A Second-Year Male Summer Tanager (SUTA)

visited us Saturday May 7th.

Brewster's Warbler (BRWA)-dominant gene cross for

Blue-winged X Golden-winged Warbler.

Everyone at BSBO would like to thank the incredible volunteers who gave so much time and effort to this, and many other projects, this week. Without all of these wonderful people, BSBO would not exist. 

If you can get outside, GO BIRDING! and enjoy the bird bounties of spring in The Warbler Capital of the World! For more information on spring migration visit Kenn Kaufman's Best Bets for Birding and the BSBO Website for the daily banding totals.

***Answer to the last quiz bird for those who are not on FaceBook: female Hooded Warbler.

And so it begins...

From the BSBO Songbird Banding Station in the Navarre Marsh Unit of Ottawa National Wildlife Refuge, Mark and Julie Shieldcastle write: Last week was the start of the spring migration banding season for Black Swamp Bird Observatory's Navarre Station located in the Lake Erie Marsh Region on FirstEnergy property. We've been able to band on only four of the past seven days due to consistent rains. Last Sunday, April 24th, was a precursor to today's activity, with Hermit Thrush (HETH) and White-throated Sparrow (WTSP) leading the first wave on the first good gust of SW winds.
Today however, saw the full-fledged First Wave of migrants hitting the Lake Erie Marsh Region. Fog was setting in this morning with a light lake breeze as nets were opened. By 10:00 AM the winds had shifted to the SE and the skies had cleared. It was apparent that the front had finally made it to the coast. The front had reached to within 50 miles of the lake by day break. Migrants tend to "balloon" ahead of storm fronts resulting in today's excitement. Now that the First Wave has arrived, the "Warbler Capital of the World" will start to earn its moniker.

Myrtle Warblers (MYWA) were flying everywhere once the fog cleared. Thirteen warblers were banded including Western Palm (WPWA), Orange-crown (OCWA), Black-throated Green (BTNW), Black-throated Blue (BTBW), Nashville (NAWA), Cerulean (CERW), Yellow (YWAR), Myrtle (MYWA), Northern Waterthrush (NOWA), Black-and-White (BAWW), Common Yellowthroat (COYE), Pine (PIWA), and Louisiana Waterthrush (LOWA). Two other warblers were heard: Blue-winged (BWWA) and Northern Parula (NOPA).

A total of 369 birds were banded today of 37 species, with one returning Gray Catbird (GRCA), banded at BSBO headquarters in September 2008 as a Hatching year (HY) bird of unknown sex. While not the soul purpose of banding, it is recoveries like this that perk the inquisitive. Was the banding location (about seven miles from Navarre) its home, or where it dispersed to? Does its capture in Navarre indicate the importance of the largest remaining beach ridge? Will it now will search out its home? Were both captures really miraculous and its journey not yet complete? Questions...always more questions... That is why we do what we do.  To understand is to appreciate; to appreciate is to conserve for the future.  

A total of 86 species were seen or heard in the marsh today. Highlights for the day--in addition to the warblers--include: Immature Red-tailed Hawk (RTHA)(going after Blue Jays in the mist net - and, no he didn't get any!), Yellow-throated Vireo (YTVI), Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (YBSA), Least Flycatcher (LEFL), Savanna Sparrow (SAVS), and Purple Finch (PUFI).

Mark Shieldcastle, BSBO Research Director, with immature Red-tailed Hawk. Notice the tail pattern and coloration (no red tail).

No one can deny the beauty of this Yellow-throated Vireo. Note the stout gray bill with a hook at the end.

Top 6 species for the day:

Myrtle Warbler (MYWA)- 198

Western Palm Warbler (WPWA)- 31

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (BGGN)- 21

White-throated Sparrow (WTSP)- 15

Ruby-crowned Kinglet (RCKI)- 13

Hermit Thrush (HETH)- 12

An unbelievable six Pine Warblers (PIWA) were captured. We have never caught more than four total in a whole spring before. Pictured here from left to right are adult female, second-year female (hatched last year), and adult male. Notice the difference in the amount of yellow on each age and sex of the Pine Warblers.



Here are a couple Quiz Bird, from above.
Any guesses?



Most people don't think "beautiful" when they think of sparrows. But, having the bird in hand helps us appreciate the artful arrangement of the field marks  on this Savanna Sparrow. Beautiful, indeed!

  

Have you guessed the Quiz Birds yet? 
The answer is revealed on the BSBO Facebook wall! 
Go [Like] us to find the answer!

With southerly winds forecast overnight, tomorrow looks like another good day for migration. Will there be more "overflight" warblers? Will Myrtle's and Blue-gray Gnatcatchers seem to be everywhere, again?  Will more of the "one ofs" make an appearance. Get out and experience the magic of migration and see if you can answer these questions for yourself. The FIRST WAVE is here!