Presque Isle State Park Bird Banding

Sixth and Final Week of Spring Banding 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Mon, 26 Jun 2017 22:33:00 +0000

Female Cape May Warbler.

The final week of spring banding 2017 coincided with Memorial Day weekend again this year. We were quite pleasantly surprised with the turnout that we saw at the banding station both in terms of the number of birds banded as well as the number of visitors that stopped by. After what was undeniably a different spring migration than what we are used to here in Erie County, Memorial Day weekend we finally had sunny skies and birds singing nonstop. We were catching later season migrants such as Wilson's Warblers and Empidonax flycatchers alongside species that we would have normally expected to have passed through the park already. It was quite exciting! We also had over 100 visitors stop by the banding station over the holiday weekend, many of whom had never before heard of bird banding and were quite interested in learning about our work. A large part of what we do is public education as it is so very important to get people talking about the issues that face our avian friends as well as the environment in general. After all, we all share the same basic resources such as air and water and so, what is good for one of us is good for all of us.

BIC, Laura-Marie Koitsch, banding a Black-throated Green Warbler.

One of the many highlights of the week was definitely catching not one, but two, Cedar Waxwings. Back when we still did banding in the fall, we banded this species quite often but since we switched over to spring banding only, we haven't handled one of these in several years so, it was a treat.

Long-term volunteer, Frank Frisina, proudly showing off a male Cedar Waxwing

Another highlight of the week was catching a subspecies of Wilson's Warbler that is pretty rare for this area. Wilsonia pusilla chryseola are slightly larger than the subspecies that we see here, plus they are very noticeably bright yellow overall and their forehead is also bright yellow with an orange tinge.

Now compare it to the subspecies that we do see here (Wilsonia pusilla pusilla). Notice the bird pictured below is slightly smaller with an overall olive tinge.

Remember that even though the breeding range of the chryseola subspecies is southwest British Columbia to Southwest California, we caught this bird on migration and birds can take various routes to and from their breeding grounds, some even cross the entire continental US in one-go.

Another highlight was the two fledgling Song Sparrows that we banded on the last day this season. Both parents had been banded in previous years and after we banded the young birds, we took the back to where their parents were waiting for them as they were still being cared for by them.

Sixth Week Totals by Species:

American Redstart: 21

Magnolia Warbler: 60

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: 3

Black-throated Green Warbler: 8

Black-and-White Warbler: 2

Chestnut-sided Warbeler: 8

Nashville Warbler: 1

Northern Parula: 3

Wilson's Warbler: 11

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 1

Yellow-belled Flycatcher: 5

Traill's Flycatcher: 9

Least Flycatcher: 2

Tennessee Warbler: 4

Eastern Wood-pewee: 3

Yellow Warbler: 18

Canada Warbler: 12

Common Yellowthroat: 12

Black-capped Chickadee: 2

Blackpoll Warbler: 22

Black-throated Blue Warbler: 1

Blackburnian Warbler: 9

Bay-breasted Warbler: 2

House Wren: 1

American Goldfinch: 5

Philadelphia Vireo: 3

Red-eyed Vireo: 21

Mourning Warbler: 4

Northern Waterthrush: 2

Ovenbird: 1

Indigo Bunting: 6

American Tree Sparrow: 1

Lincoln's Sparrow: 2

Song Sparrow: 8

(Eastern) White-crowned Sparrow: 1

White-breasted Nuthatch: 1

Tufted Titmouse: 1

Downy Woodpecker: 1

Swainson's Thrush: 7

Gray-cheeked Thrush: 2

Cedar Waxwing: 2

Great-crested Flycatcher: 5

Wood Thrush: 2

Gray Catbird: 26

Northern Cardinal: 1

Baltimore Oriole: 1

Brown Thrasher: 2

Eastern Towhee: 1

Red-winged Blackbird: 4

Yellow-shafted Flicker: 1

Eastern Whip-poor-will: 1

American Robin: 3

The last bird that we banded this spring was this handsome second year male Indigo Bunting.

Banding off of the Peninsula Spring 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Thu, 08 Jun 2017 00:01:00 +0000

This season we spent time banding at sites that were off of the peninsula but, still bordering along Lake Erie. As previously mentioned, we extended our coastal monitoring project to include several sites between the park and the NY border that we thought would be good stopover habitat for the same species that use Presque Isle State Park in a similar manner each spring. We had volunteers walk 100m transects at each site, recording the birds that they both heard and saw. As you may remember, last year we started placing small radio transmitters called nanotags on certain species to see how they were using the park and its resources during the time that they were in the area on the way to their northern breeding grounds. This year, we placed the same type of transmitters on two species, Swainson's Thrush and Blackpoll Warblers, but, instead of tagging them at the park, we tagged the birds at our survey sites. So, not only do we have the data from the surveys that tell us what species are using these various lakeside habitats we also will have the data from us tracking the fourteen birds that were tagged to show us more specifically how these species might be using the habitat.

Blackpoll Warblers have an incredible migration route, especially in the fall. They take off from the east coast and travel almost 7,000 km nonstop out over the Atlantic Ocean until they reach their wintering grounds in South America. Seriously, it's nothing short of amazing! We know of this migration because of modern technology: researchers placed small light-level sensors called geolocators on these birds and then were amazed to discover the journey that they make each year over open water. We're also placing new tech on these birds but, unlike geolocators which absolutely must be retrieved from the bird to get the data (ie, the bird needs to be recaptured) we are using radio transmitters called nanotags that will transmit the bird's unique signal to the nearest receivers until the battery wears out. We are tracking these signals/birds using a handheld device to discover more about their local movements and then there are Motus towers here in PA as well as ones across both Lake Erie and Lake Ontario that will also receive the transmissions as the tagged birds move north to their breeding grounds.

A male Blackpoll Warbler with a small nanotag attached. It's sitting almost right where the wings come together on its back, underneath the body feathers, so you're unable to see it. You can however make out, if you look closely, the thin antenna that protrudes from the tag.

A female Blackpoll Warbler that was tagged at our banding site that happened to also be at the house of our long time volunteer, Michele Rundquist-Franz. Again, if you look closely, you can barely make out the thin antenna coming straight out from the back of the bird.

Dr. Sarah Sargent placing a nanotag on a female Blackpoll Warbler at our Highmeyer Park site.

Making sure that the nanotag fits perfectly on a Swainson's Thrush

Banding off of the peninsula presented us with the opportunity to see species in the hand that we don't routinely catch in the park. Even though Belted Kingfishers can be seen (and heard!) year-round at Presque Isle State Park, we very rarely catch any. So, we were pleasantly surprised to find this breeding female BEKI in the nets our first time trapping at the Glinodo Center.

This species might look a little 'funny' with their head appearing disproportionately large compared to their body but that huge head serves as an anchor for powerful muscles that allow the bird's mandible to operate with some serious force. Believe me when I tell you that this species can not only clamp down hard but also slice up whatever is in its 'grasp' with the saw-toothed edges to its bill. A wiggly little fish or a bander's finger, it's all the same to this species.

Take a good look at their absolutely adorable little feets (very scientific term) and think about the strength that they must have within them to keep the bird upright on a branch.

We also banded species that we do routinely catch in the park such as this female Hairy Woodpecker whose multiple generations of feathers in her wing helped us to age her as a third year bird, which you can see in the first photo. In the second photo, you can see the extent of the vascularization of the skin on her breast, also known as a brood patch, which helps regulate the temperature of her eggs.

We also caught this super handsome Baltimore Oriole at one of our sites that, upon release, proceeded to sit right above us in the closest tree and sing his little heart out for the rest of the morning.

The BIC, Laura-Marie Koitsch, once again enjoying the fact that she finds herself matching the birds that she catches: it's like looking in a mirror!

Plus, with scenery this beautiful, you can see why you really had to twist our arm to get us off of the peninsula!

Fifth Week of Spring Banding 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Thu, 25 May 2017 20:14:00 +0000

(male) Bay-breasted Warbler. In two days, we banded 34 individuals & considering
that we've banded 39 total in the past eight years, that's pretty amazing!

We actually had two beautiful sunny days in a row during the fifth week of spring banding this season; one might have started to suspect that spring was finally here! But, alas, we went right back to strong northwest winds, cooler temps, and yes, rain. We had two days of banding cut short due to rain and one due to strong winds. We did, however, successfully deploy the first set of nanotags on four Blackpoll Warblers and the one Swainson's Thrush that we had tagged the week prior flew north to its breeding grounds. We look forward to receiving its data from the other towers in the Motus network to find out more info such as its date and time of departure as well as what path it took when it left here and even potentially how fast it was flying.

This week we had a Yellow Warbler that we banded as an adult in 2011 return once again
to nest at the park. Because we banded the bird, we know that he was hatched in
2009 OR EARLIER. That's pretty darn awesome for such a small bird.
Good luck, little buddy!

Gray-cheeked Thrush, one of two banded this past week. We don't always catch this
species every year so this was a bit of a treat. As they nest pretty far north in Canada
and winter in South America, we often don't even see them either. I like how Cornell
describes them as a: "shy skulker of the underbrush."

(male) Hooded Warbler. One of three banded this past week.

(male) Blackburnian Warbler. Always a showstopper.

Adult female Black-throated Green Warbler

male Black-throated Green Warbler. A species with a name longer than its body. :)

Oh, the Canada Warbler, such a beautiful species.

Haha the moment that one of our volunteers pointed out that I was wearing the same 'outfit'
as this stunning male Indigo Bunting. Pretty sure that he wore it better though! :)

adult male Indigo Bunting.

This second year male Scarlet Tanager was quite the 'highlight' this week not only because this was the first one that we've ever banded at Presque Isle State Park but also because a large portion of his breast plumage was highlighter yellow.

Week Five Totals Listed By Species:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 1

Magnolia Warbler: 15

Tennessee Warbler: 7

American Redstart: 9

Black-throated Green Warbler: 2

Chestnut-sided Warbler: 3

Northern Parula: 2

Wilson's Warbler: 3

Black-and-White Warbler: 1

Least Flycatcher: 1

Traill's Flyctcher: 1

Blue-winged Warbler: 1

House Wren: 6

Yellow Warbler: 67

Common Yellowthroat: 9

Black-throated Blue Warbler: 12

Bay-breasted Warbler: 34

Cape May Warbler: 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle): 2

Hooded Warbler: 3

Blackpoll Warbler: 11

Eastern Wood-pewee: 1

Canada Warbler: 5

Blackburnian Warbler: 3

Palm Warbler (Western): 2

White-eyed Vireo: 1

Philadelphia Vireo: 3

American Goldfinch: 3

Black-capped Chickadee: 1

Field Sparrow: 1

Ovenbird: 1

Indigo Bunting: 2

Northern Waterthrush: 6

Red-eyed Vireo: 20

Song Sparrow: 2

Swainson's Thrush: 8

Veery: 3

Gray-cheeked Thrush: 2
White-breasted Nuthatch: 1

White-throated Sparrow: 10

White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel's): 1

Brown-headed Cowbird: 1

Great-crested Flycatcher: 1
Rose-breasted Grosbeak: 2

Wood Thrush: 2

Baltimore Oriole: 6

Gray Catbird: 56

Eastern Towhee: 1
Northern Cardinal: 2

American Robin: 3

Yellow-shafted Flicker: 1

Fourth Week of Spring Banding 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Sun, 21 May 2017 21:05:00 +0000

Female Yellow-shafted Flicker being processed during one of our banding demos.

Although the beginning of the fourth week of spring banding this year saw a continuation of the third week's cooler temps as well as some rain, banding finally started to pick up towards the end of the week. Thursday, May 11th was our first 'big' day of the season, where we banded 136 new birds of 25 different species. It had been raining steadily in the morning, so we didn't open nets until after the rains stopped, which was close to 11am. We only had half of our nets open for a short period of time before we learned that there had been a push the night before of migrants. How did we learn this? Haha when the nets began to appear as if they were 'dripping rainbows'. :) Female Ruby-crowned Kinglets were the number one species banded that day followed closely by male Black-throated Blue Warblers and Yellow Warblers. It was a great day! We had four lovely birders up from Pittsburgh who kept us company, fed us delicious snacks, and, in return, they got to see some great birds up close.

On Sunday, May 14th, the winds shifted from southeast to northwest around 8am and down came the birds. And this happened right after a deer had destroyed two of our nets so, needless to say, it was quite a hectic morning! As can happen when the winds shift like that, we got close to 150 birds all at once in the nets. We enlisted the help of the bat researchers who happened to be in the park at the time and we also had the good fortune of having a very experienced bander and his long-time assistant happen upon us as we were trying to get all of the birds out of the nets. They were from Michigan and were in the park birding for Mother's Day weekend and we were very fortunate that they found us when they did. Because of everyone's help, we banded close to 200 new birds of 35 species that day.

The highlight of the week was a second year female Lawrence's Warbler. A Lawrence's Warbler is the more recessive/rare hybridization of a Blue-winged Warbler and Golden-winged Warbler cross usually resulting from a Brewster's Warbler (the more common hybrid) breeding with either a Golden-winged or another Brewster's (1 in 16 chance). We thought it was a Blue-winged Warbler when we were extracting it, so it was quite the pleasant surprise when we looked a bit more close at her during banding.

Another highlight of the week was this Tree Swallow (pictured below) as this was the first one that we've ever banded here in the park.

Below are some other pictorial highlights of the week as well as the total banded by species.

Blue-headed Vireos were one of the species that could be seen in much larger numbers
in the park on May 14th when the winds shifted. We banded more that morning than we
had in the last several years combined.

Western Taiga (Gambel's) White-crowned Sparrow compared to below...

Eastern Taiga White-crowned Species. Here in the park we get both subspecies during migration
although the eastern is more common. Note the complete looking eye line of this bird compared
to the western subspecies, which has an incomplete one with paler lores. It's hard to tell in these
photos but the bird pictured above has a smaller more yellowish bill compared to the larger
pinkish bill of the bird pictured here.

Orange-crowned Warbler, one of three that we banded this week. We can go
several seasons without banding any, so this was a nice surprise as well

White-eyed Vireo. A very feisty surprise in our nets on one of our busier days.

A very handsome male Northern Parula

Tennessee Warblers started showing up at the banding station this week.

Dr. Sarah Sargent demonstrating how a mist net works to a homeschool group.

Bander-in-Charge, Laura-Marie Koitsch, at a banding demo

Fourth Week Totals by Species:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 39

Least Flycatcher: 7

Orange-crowned Warbler: 3

Chestnut-sided Warbler: 12

American Redstart: 7

Northern Parula: 1

Black-and-white Warbler: 13

Nashville Warbler: 5

Magnolia Warbler: 33

Tennessee Warbler: 1

Traill's Flycatcher: 1

Lawrence's Warbler: 1

Blue-winged Warbler: 1

Wilson's Warbler: 3

Hooded Warbler: 3

Tree Swallow: 1

Blue-headed Vireo: 9

Red-eyed Vireo: 1

American Goldfinch: 1

Palm Warbler (Western): 22

White-eyed Vireo: 1

Red-breasted Nuthatch: 1

Warbling Vireo: 3

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle): 5

Yellow Warbler: 60

Common Yellowthroat: 33

Black-throated Blue Warbler: 19

House Wren: 5

Ovenbird: 6

Swamp Sparrow: 4

Northern Waterthrush: 3

Lincoln's Sparrow: 21

Mourning Warbler: 4

Tufted Titmouse: 2

White-crowned Sparrow (Eastern): 13

White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel's): 3

White-throated Sparrow: 58

Song Sparrow: 3

White-breasted Nuthatch: 1

Veery: 9

Great-crested Flycatcher: 4

Hermit Thrush: 2

Swainson's Thrush: 11

Northern Cardinal: 3

Wood Thrush: 4

Gray Catbird: 56

Baltimore Oriole: 2

American Robin: 2
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1

Yellow-shafted Flicker: 1

Blue Jay: 1
Belted Kingfisher: 1

On Mother's Day weekend we were treated to a wonderful opportunity to watch a very hard-working momma in action right at the banding station. This mother raccoon had decided mid-way through our banding session that she was going to mover her babies to what we can only assume was a quieter and all-around better den. She proceeded to climb up the large tree right next to us and retrieve one of her young by the neck, then carry it down the tree, down the path, and onwards to the new den. This was by no means an easy task as those babies were quite large and squirmy but she came back for each one, making sure that they were all safely transferred to their new home. We were all extremely awed by this spectacle and were grateful that we were able to watch them at such a close distance.

Third Week of Spring Banding 2017

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Tue, 16 May 2017 21:37:00 +0000

Our first American Redstart of the season and wow, what a looker!

Our third week of spring banding this year was marked by rain and I mean A LOT of rain. At various points throughout the week, the water from the Bay rose so high that waves were crashing across the road! Our Audubon PA colleague who surveys/monitors for Piping Plovers in the park had to use chest waders to walk out to her survey route, there was that much water. And then, just when we thought Mother Nature had given us enough of a blow, we got freezing temps towards the end of the week including some snow/wintry mix. Needless to say, this was not ideal for the birds that had migrated early into the area nor for the birds that were already nesting. With bird safety always at the forefront of our research, there were several days where we either choose not to band at all or only banded for a reduced number of hours. We were, however, still able to end the week with banding demos for the Festival of the Birds participants.

Monday, May 1st, researchers from Powdermill Avian Research Center came to visit us at our banding station. We always enjoy when other researchers in the same field come to visit us because each visit quickly turns into an ideas/field notes exchange. It just so happened that we caught more (Western) Palm Warblers that day than the one bander has caught where she works over the last several years combined (and they band year round). This allowed her to gain a better insight into the molt patterns of this particular species, a species that is notoriously difficult to age. I oftentimes feel that Palm Warblers are an overlooked species in the spring perhaps because they are not as flashy as some of the other warblers but we are very fortunate that we have rather significant numbers of them because, only a few hours to the southeast of us, they hardly see any. Plus, this species winters in the southern US into Central America and breeds much further north of us in the boreal forests of Canada so, we really only have the few weeks they spend with us on migration to enjoy them in all of their tail-wagging glory.

A very nice looking Palm Warbler wing. Three of its greater coverts
have a rusty edging that you otherwise don't normally see.

Powdermill researchers compare the wings of two (western) Palm Warblers,
trying to determine the age of the birds.

With banding being cancelled due to heavy rains, comes office work:

Registering the wav frequencies of our nanotags

But, with storms, also come beautiful sunrises in the park:

As aforementioned, the week ended with Presque Isle Audubon's annual 'Festival of the Birds'. Despite the rain and cold temps, every participant still left with a smile on their face, whether it was from spotting a rarity in the park during one of the guided tours or from getting to watch bird banding up close during our banding demos. An estimated 140 different species were spotted in the park over the weekend and although that isn't the highest count for a festival weekend (that still stands at 172), it is still a rather significant number for what was otherwise a not-so-great week for migration.

Banding demo on Saturday afternoon.

Dr. Sarah Sargent releasing a banded Yellow Warbler during the Festival.

Visitors watching as we banded the first Common Yellowthroat of the season.

Always a star, but especially during drab weather, is this male Yellow Warbler.
This particular bird was originally banded as an adult in 2014 so we know that
he has made the journey to and from Presque Isle many times over his life so far.

Keynote speaker, Scott Weidensaul, stopped by the banding station both days.
Pictured here with Dr. Sarah Sargent viewing an osprey and its meal with the
banding station in the background. Notice that Sarah has on rain pants and some
participants have on chest waders in the background because, so much rain.

All in all, we had a fun and productive week.

Here are the weekly totals by species:

Magnolia Warbler: 2

Nashville Warbler: 2

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 13

American Redstart: 1

Black-and-white Warbler: 3

Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle): 6

Palm Warbler (Western): 53

Yellow Warbler: 13

House Wren: 4

Black-capped Chickadee: 2

Common Yellowthroat: 2

White-throated Sparrow: 15

Gray Catbird: 9

Wood Thrush: 1

Second Week of Spring Banding 2017 Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 21:58:00 +0000

Our second week of bird banding this spring is still continuing along rather slowly but, we did have some interesting catches that made up for the otherwise slow mornings. The weather has been typical for here; it went from 90F on Thursday afternoon to the low 40s that evening and then, this weekend, we had scattered thunderstorms and high winds that prevented us from safely banding. Haha but like they say: "if you don't like the weather, wait a few minutes."

One of our highlights this past week was definitely this Grasshopper Sparrow as it is a species that prefers open grasslands and prairies and not the woods in which we caught it.

Another unexpected bird was this Red-eyed Vireo, as we usually don't start catching them until around the third week of May!

This male Red-breasted Nuthatch (below) was a treat as he is only the second one that Audubon PA has ever caught here in the park. Plus, they make just as wonderfully cute noises in the hand as they do at your feeder. :)

Black-and-White Warblers returned to the area this past week and we were fortunate enough to catch this handsome adult male:

This Savannah Sparrow pictured below was caught the same day as the aforementioned Grasshopper Sparrow & it is only the seventh ever caught by Audubon PA here in the park & the first since 2011.

And last but certainly not least, the Yellow Warblers have started to return to the park. They were our top species last spring with 324 newly banded individuals; I wonder how many we'll band this year?

Second Week Totals By Species:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 9

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: 1

Brown Creeper: 1

Nashville Warbler: 3

Black-and-White Warbler: 1

Blue-winged Warbler: 1

Least Flycatcher: 1

House Wren: 3

Myrtle Warbler: 6

Western Palm Warbler: 15

Black-capped Chickadee: 2

Yellow Warbler: 1

Red-breasted Nuthatch: 1

Swamp Sparrow: 2

Savannah Sparrow: 1

Grasshopper Sparrow: 1

Red-eyed Vireo: 1

White-throated Sparrow: 30

Tufted Titmouse: 1

Hermit Thrush: 4

Song Sparrow: 4

Northern Cardinal: 2

Eastern Towhee: 1

Gray Catbird: 2

American Robin: 4

Brown Thrasher: 2

Yellow-shafted Flicker: 1

Blue Jay: 4

Fun with Flickers!

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Sun, 30 Apr 2017 21:01:00 +0000

We caught an interesting Northern Flicker this past week. Why did we think it was interesting? Well, take a look for yourself and see if you can figure out why:

Notice anything different/unusual about the wing?

Northern Flickers can be separated into two races. The Yellow-shafted Flicker, which is what we would expect to find here in the eastern part of the country, has, as it's name suggests, yellow feather shafts both in its remiges as well as in its rectrices. The male has a black 'mustache' as seen in this handsome fella below:

The Red-shafted Flicker, which occurs in the more western parts of our country, has, you guessed it, red shafts to its remiges and to its rectrices. The male Red-shafted Flicker has a red mustache instead of the black one that we see here in the east.

Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted Flickers can hybridize where their ranges overlap and, in fact, it is suspected that in some areas, all the flickers there are hybrids. A hybrid flicker can look pretty cool, in this bander's opinion. In the photos below you can see a hybrid male from Colorado that has the red mustache trait of the Red-shafted Flicker but completely yellow shafts on both its wings and tail. Pretty cool, huh?

Back to the original question though, can you see what is so cool about the flicker that we caught this past week? If you said that it has both red and yellow feather shafts, you would be correct! Now, what is so cool about this? Well, for a while, Yellow-shafted and Red-shafted Flickers were considered different species but then scientists realized that they were one in the same and that they frequently hybridized in their overlapping areas. But, for decades now, birds have been showing up far from the hybridization zone possessing both red and yellow feather shafts and there have been several hypotheses proposed over the years on why nearly 1/3 of the eastern population of flickers shows this characteristic. A few researchers, including Bob Mulvihill from the National Aviary, whom some of you might remember as having banded here in the past, had another idea in mind though: perhaps the pigment in their feathers was not a result of hybridization but rather, a result of their diet. Other species here in the east, such as Cedar Waxwings and Baltimore Orioles, have been documented to show orange feathers where yellow ones are usually the norm and so perhaps this was also the case with Yellow-shafted Flickers. Known sources of rhodoxanthin (the carotenoid that produces that deep red hue in the feathers) are few in nature, especially in forms that birds can ingest but there is one in particular that flickers would have access to around here and that is found in the berries of the various non-native honeysuckle bushes that are now unfortunately quite common in the east. But flickers eat mainly ants and pupae you might argue, which is true, but in the fall they forage on berries and other fruits; they also moult their flight feathers in the fall. A coincidence? Probably not.

And, in fact, it was not a coincidence and the study results showing the link between red feathers in Yellow-shafted Flickers and their diet was published just this past fall. If you would like to read more about the study and the findings you can read it here.

First Week Spring Banding 2017 Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Wed, 26 Apr 2017 22:25:00 +0000

We started our banding season earlier than usual this year and because of this, we caught species, like this Golden-crowned Kinglet, that normally would have already moved through our area by the start of season. This was the only male that we banded, the other 8 were females.

Well, the first week of our spring banding season this year was not quite as eventful as the same week last year, where we caught and banded 231 new birds, as we ended the week with 83 newly banded birds.. But, on the other hand, it also was not as slow as the first week in 2015 when we only banded 20 new birds. Below are the totals by species for the week as well as some photo highlights.

First Week Totals:

Golden-crowned Kinglet: 9
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 6
Brown Creeper: 2
Black-capped Chickadee: 4
Carolina Chickadee: 1
Eastern Phoebe: 1
American Goldfinch: 2
House Wren: 1
Western Palm Warbler: 2
Field Sparrow: 1
Myrtle Warbler: 1
American Tree Sparrow: 1
Hermit Thrush: 3
Downy Woodpecker: 1
Song Sparrow: 3
Tufted Titmouse: 1
White-throated Sparrow: 26
Northern Cardinal: 4
Eastern Towhee: 5
Brown-headed Cowbird: 1
Gray Catbird: 1
American Robin: 2
Brown Thrasher: 2
Eastern Whip-poor-will: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 1
Red-winged Blackbird: 1

First warbler banded this season was this male Myrtle Warbler.

Adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk.

American Tree Sparrow banded on 4/23/17, which is a few weeks after we thought that this species had left the park.

A very handsome Western Palm Warbler

Recording the measurements of a Brown Thrasher.

Whip-poor-will, I? Oh yes, I will!

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:52:00 +0000

As mentioned in the previous post, there are researchers here from Texas Tech that are placing nanotags on migratory bats. As bats are nocturnal, the researchers must trap at night and sometimes, in doing so, they happen to inadvertently catch a nocturnal bird in their nets. And this past week, they did just that: they caught an Eastern Whip-poor-Will whilst they were trapping for bats and because they're such awesome guys and we've all taken a blood oath when we joined the Motus project, they brought me this amazing bird to band.

Okay, so I'm joking about the blood oath thing but definitely not about how amazing these birds are! Perhaps you've heard their namesake call which they do continuously on spring and summer nights:

Eastern Whip-poor-wills feed exclusively on insects. They start foraging roughly 30 minutes after sunset and continue until it gets too dark to see their prey. At first light they resume feeding, stopping about 40 minutes before sunrise. When the moon is bright enough, they may hunt all night long. In fact, they are so in tune to the moon that they lay their eggs in phase with the lunar cycle! The chicks hatch on average ten days before a full moon therefore allowing for enough 'light' for the adults to forage for the entire night, capturing an even large amount of insects to feed their newly hatched young. During cold, rainy weather they will not try to forage. Whip-poor-wills can fly almost straight up vertically from a roosting position to catch insects that are often times up to 15 feet off the ground! When in flight, they can also wheel around 180 degrees in between wing flaps!

Whip-poor-wills are awesome birds for so many reasons but did you know that they've experienced a 75% cumulative decline between 1966 and 2015 and are on the 2016 State of North America's Birds' Watch List because of this decline? One of the main causes of this decline is thought to be the loss of open-understory forests. They are also a US-Canada Stewardship species and we're very thrilled to have them breeding here in the park.

Eastern Whip-poor-will banded in South Carolina in 2015.
Check out that HUGE mouth!!

Welcome Back Feathered and Non-feathered Friends!

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 23:03:00 +0000

Hello and welcome back to our long time blog readers as well as a big warm welcome to anyone who is just tuning into this page for the first time.

Last year we had a bit of a crazy spring season here at Presque Isle State Park: we banded 2,080 new birds, which was 811 birds more than the year before that; we had some great recapture rates and amazing recoveries; we caught several species that we don't often catch as well as some that we have never before caught here; and last but certainly not least, we successfully managed our first 'fall out' day where hundreds of birds found their way into our nets at opening when the winds changed direction. Another big thing from last year was that we started placing small radio transmitters on certain species as part of the larger international Motus project that is spearheaded by Bird Studies Canada. In doing so, we were able to discover new info about how some of the birds are utilizing the local area during their migration. With this project, we also had our first Motus tower installed that not only receives transmissions from our tagged birds but also receives transmissions from other animals (birds and bats!) that are tagged elsewhere that happen to be flying overhead. This year we are installing another tower at the landfill and we are once again placing nanotags on 15 birds. There are also bat researchers from Texas Tech University working in the park using the same technology and the same towers. We're all hoping for a great season for our winged comrades, both avian and mammal alike, and are looking forward to the information that we might gain from this new technology that will in turn, help us help them.

We are also working this year on a new coastal migration study that will tie in with the work that we're doing with the radio tagging. This new project aims to assess how migrant land birds use the patches of natural habitat in amongst the houses, backyards, vineyards and farm fields of Erie County, roughly between the city of Erie and the New York State line, and between the Lake Erie shoreline and I-90. We will be conducting 30 short transect surveys of 100 meters long in various patches of habitat, recording the birds that we find during the transect. At several of the patches in which we are surveying, we will also be capturing birds to place the same type of radio tags that we placed on birds in the park last season and then we'll track how long they stay in the patch using a hand held receiver. Hopefully, we will also be able to learn when they leave the area from their transmissions that one of the Motus towers will receive. We are still looking for volunteers to help with this project so, if you live in or near the aforementioned area and would like to help out, please email us at pispbirdbanding@gmail.com

Our Motus results from spring 2016.

Because of the new project, our banding schedule will be slightly different this year. We will be banding at Niagara Boat Launch on Mondays and Fridays. We will be at Fry's Landing on Tuesdays, Saturdays, & Sundays. Wednesday and Thursday we might be banding in the park but we might also be off the peninsula tagging birds for our other project. If you are thinking of stopping by to visit on either a Wednesday or Thursday, your best bet is to check our Facebook page (click here) that day to see where we will be.

Here's to another great season of banding at Presque Isle State Park! We hope to see you all out there.

Spring Banding 2016 Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Mon, 24 Apr 2017 20:18:00 +0000

The 2016 spring banding season had some of the highest capture rates in Presque Isle for Audubon PA but it wasn't just the high totals that impressed us, we also had many significant highlights.

RECAPTURES:

Both of our banding sites in Presque Isle State Park see a high fidelity rate amongst birds that nest there and it is common for us to recapture birds that we banded in previous years. It really is amazing to see Yellow Warblers return year after year and it is not uncommon for many of them to be at least four or five years old upon recpature. This year we even had several that were six years old and two that were at least EIGHT years old! Keep up the good work, friends, as we all love seeing the flashes of yellow around the park each spring.

We also had a few other notable recaps worth mentioning:

One of the early highlights of the season was this male Eastern Towhee originally
banded on 5/7/2010 and recaptured on 4/20/2016, making this bird seven years old!

This Great-crested Flycatcher was also originally banded in May 2010,
making this bird at least seven years old, if not older.

This Warbling Vireo was banded as a 'Hatch Year' bird in August 2011, presumably
having hatched either in or close to Presque Isle State Park. This spring was
also the first time that he/she had been recaptured since being banded.

This Red-eyed Vireo was banded in the fall of 2011, making her at least six years old,
if not older. We recaptured her with the early start of a brood patch so we finally were able to sex her as otherwise the sexes of this species are indistinguishable by plumage.

Although it is common for us to recapture birds that we have previously banded, especially those that nest in the park, it is actually not that common for us to recapture birds that other stations have previously banded. This year we had the pleasure of recapturing not one, but TWO male Red-winged Blackbirds that were banded at Long Point Bird Observatory, one in 2014 and one in 2012. What makes this even more unique is the fact that in Audubon PA's history of banding at the Park, we have never recaptured one of their birds, nor they one of ours, despite the fact that they are the closest station to us and band quite a large number of birds each year.

NEW BIRDS:

Going out on a net check really is exciting as you never know what you're going to get. This year we caught several species that we hadn't caught in at least three or more years such as: Acadian Flycatcher, Eastern Wood-pewee, Winter Wren, Blue-headed Vireo and Fox Sparrow.

This was also the first time in Audubon PA's history of banding here in the park that we captured a Pine Warbler

and a Northern Rough-winged Swallow (let alone seven!)

Northern Rough-winged Swallows get their name from the rough barb-like hooks on their outermost primary feathers. Scientists still are unsure of what function these barbs serve but for us banders, we are able to use the direction that the barbs curve to sex these otherwise indistinguishable by plumage birds. We banded five females and two males along with one male Barn Swallow on May 15th.

This is an example of the barbs of a female Northern Rough-winged Swallow
and if you look closely, you can see that they curve slightly upwards.

Golden-crowned Kinglets often move through our area earlier in in the spring and later in the fall than other migrants, ie either before our banding station opens or after it closes. In fact, in Audubon PA's history of banding in the park, we've only banded them one other time and that was in October of 2008 when we caught 35 of them.

Presque Isle is north of the traditional breeding range for the Worm-eating Warbler so it was very exciting to catch two this past spring, which now doubles the total amount of WEWA that we've ever banded here in the Park. Previously, we had banded one in May 2012 and one in May 2013.

Another exciting highlight of this past spring season was the week that we banded 6 accipiters, two Cooper's Hawks and four Sharp-shinned Hawks!

The Sharp-shinned Hawk is named for its sharply keeled, featherless lower legs

As with all accipiters, the immature birds are easily noted by the fact that they are mostly brown, with coarse vertical streaks on white underparts and their eyes are yellow. Adults are distinctly slate/blue-gray coloured above, with narrow, horizontal red-orange bars on the breast and their eyes are red.

When it comes to raptors, most banding stations normally catch immature birds so it was exciting for us to capture an adult male Sharp-shinned Hawk (pictured below). Notice the difference in both eye colour as well as in plumage colour from the immature hawk pictured above.

Besides raptors, we also occasionally capture shorebirds in our mist nets. This year we didn't catch any American Woodcock like last season but we did still catch this beautiful Spotted Sandpiper.

By comparing how extensive the spots are on the breast, we can sex the first bird pictured below as a female and the other bird, who was banded in 2015, pictured below her as a male.

Other interesting things that we saw this season:

Feathers:

This Yellow-rumped Warbler who had almost a perfect heart shape in his one tail feather.

This Black-throated Green Warbler, although its flight feathers were in some of the poorest condition that we have observed on a bird this time of year, it is still amazing to think that this feather damage is not recent and it migrated all the way from its wintering grounds with those feathers.

If you look closely you can see a large cluster of feather mite eggs on the wing of this Red-eyed Vireo. We also saw a large number of Gray Catbirds with ectoparasite activity on their body feathers.

Abnormal Plumage:

In leucistic birds, affected plumage lacks melanin pigment due to the cells responsible for melanin production being absent. This almost always results in all white feathers. Although leucism is inherited, the extent and positioning of the white colouration can vary between adults and their young, and can also skip generations if leucistic genes are recessive. White feathers can also be caused by chromatophore (pigment cell) defects, rather than an absence of melanin-producing cells, which is what we most likely witnessed on this Bay-breasted Warbler pictured below:

‘Dilution’ is another condition that is often grouped under the category ‘leucism’ although in dilution, melanin cells are present (unlike in leucistic birds) but produce less pigment than normal. Pictured below is an adult male Blackpoll Warbler, that showed signs of dilution as he was lacking the yellow-orange hue that distinguishes the legs of that species as well as the dark black feathers in his crown as well as his back.

One of the best examples of abnormal plumage that we saw this year was the White-breasted Nuthatch pictured below, who we recaptured several times at one of our sites.

Haha and then there was the day that we caught this mole digging near one of our net lanes! As they aren't that often seen above ground, it was quite exciting to look at one in the hand, even if it was only briefly as he/she was quite squirmy.

Spring 2016 Banding Totals

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Tue, 07 Jun 2016 22:54:00 +0000

WOW, what another great season!! We banded 2,080 new birds this spring, recaptured 123 unique previously banded individuals and handled 81 different species. As always, a big thank you to our volunteers as well as to everyone that came out or helped support us in one way or another this season, we couldn't have done it without you!

Our top ten species banded in the spring of 2016 are:

Tying for the tenth spot is the Black-throated Blue Warbler. We banded 50 of these birds in 2016 compared to 19 in 2015.

Also tied for tenth place is the Blackpoll Warbler. We banded 50 of these in 2016 compared to 62 in 2015. This was the only species in our top ten that we banded more of in 2015.

In ninth place is the American Redstart with 58 newly banded birds in 2016 compared to 37 in 2015.

In eighth place is the Common Yellowthroat with 71 newly banded birds in 2016 compared to 65 in 2015.

The Ruby-crowned Kinglet came in at seventh place this year with 82 newly banded birds compared to only 2 in 2015!

At number six is the Western Palm Warbler with 133 newly banded birds in 2016 compared to only 19 in the 2015.

In fifth place is the Magnolia Warbler with 136 newly banded birds in 2016 compared to 86 in 2015.

The Myrtle Warbler came in fourth place with a grand total of 150 newly banded birds in 2016 compared to 41 in 2015. This is normally one of our top species banded so it was nice to see it return to the top five this season.

Gray Catbird, with 218 newly banded individuals, came in third this season compared to 217 banded in 2015.

Surprisingly, the White-throated Sparrow came in at number two with 227 newly banded birds compared to 100 in 2015.

And at number one is the Yellow Warbler with 324 newly banded individuals compared to 149 in 2015.

Below is the rest of this season's totals:

SPECIES	2016

ACADIAN FLYCATCHER	2
AMERICAN GOLDFINCH	4
AMERICAN KESTREL	1
AMERICAN REDSTART	58
AMERICAN ROBIN	20
BALTIMORE ORIOLE	10
BARN SWALLOW	1
BLACK-AND-WHITE WARBLER	14
BAY-BREASTED WARBLER	2
BLACK-CAPPED CHICKADEE	2
BLUE-GRAY GNATCATCHER	8
BROWN-HEADED COWBIRD	2
BLUE-HEADED VIREO	1
BLACKBURNIAN WARBLER	12
BLUE JAY	5
BLACKPOLL WARBLER	50
BROWN CREEPER	4
BROWN THRASHER	8
BLACK-THROATED BLUE WARBLER	50
BLACK-THROATED GREEN WARBLER	18
BLUE-WINGED WARBLER	4
CAROLINA CHICKADEE	2
CANADA WARBLER	7
CERULEAN WARBLER
CHIPPING SPARROW	1
CAPE MAY WARBLER	4
COMMON GRACKLE	1
COOPER'S HAWK	2
COMMON YELLOWTHROAT	71
CHESTNUT-SIDED WARBLER	30
DOWNY WOODPECKER	8
EASTERN PHOEBE	1
EASTERN TOWHEE	5
EASTERN WOOD-PEWEE	3
EASTERN WHITE-CROWNED SPARROW	6
FIELD SPARROW	6
FOX SPARROW	1
GREAT-CRESTED FLYCATCHER	7
GOLDEN-CROWNED KINGLET	1
GRAY CATBIRD	218
HAIRY WOODPECKER	2
HERMIT THRUSH	21
HOODED WARBLER	7
HOUSE WREN	13
INDIGO BUNTING	2
LEAST FLYCATCHER	10
LINCOLN'S SPARROW	29
MAGNOLIA WARBLER	136
MOURNING WARBLER	11
MYRTLE WARBLER	150
NASHVILLE WARBLER	38
NORTHERN CARDINAL	14
NORTHERN PARULA	3
NORTHERN WATERTHRUSH	10
NORTHERN ROUGH-WINGED SWALLOW	7
OVENBIRD	13
PHILADELPHIA VIREO	4
PINE WARBLER	1
ROSE-BREASTED GROSBEAK	2
RED-BELLIED WOODPECKER	1
RUBY-CROWNED KINGLET	82
RED-EYED VIREO	25
RED-WINGED BLACKBIRD	4
SLATE-COLORED JUNCO	2
SONG SPARROW	23
SPOTTED SANDPIPER	1
SHARP-SHINNED HAWK	4
SWAMP SPARROW	11
SWAINSON'S THRUSH	35
TENNESSEE WARBLER	6
TRAILL'S FLYCATCHER	11
TUFTED TITMOUSE	2
VEERY	13
WARBLING VIREO	13
WHITE-BREASTED NUTHATCH	3
WORM-EATING WARBLER	2
WILSON'S WARBLER	19
WINTER WREN	2
WOOD THRUSH	10
WESTERN PALM WARBLER	133
WHITE-THROATED SPARROW	227
YELLOW-BELLIED FLYCATCHER	2
YELLOW WARBLER	324
YELLOW-SHAFTED FLICKER	3

	TOTALS
	2081

Spring Season 2016 Fifth and Sixth Week Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Thu, 02 Jun 2016 23:32:00 +0000

The last two weeks of banding this season netted us 648 new birds and 55 species. Below are some pictorial highlights:

The Three Rivers Birding Club from Pittsburgh admiring a Red-bellied Woodpecker.

Releasing a Great-crested Flycatcher

Banding Demonstration

A visitor helping to release a banded bird.

Banding a Yellow Warbler- our top species for this season

A Second Year Male Red-winged Blackbird

Banding a Wood Thrush.

Checking a Yellow Warbler for a brood patch. As we
didn't want to keep birds that were previously banded
off of their eggs for too long, we would record the extent
of their brood patch and release at net

Bay-breasted Warbler, one of only two caught this season.

Wilson's Warbler. One of our later migrants. We banded 18 this season.

Measuring the wing length of a Northern Rough-winged Swallow

Ovenbird. We banded 13 this season.

Black-throated Green Warbler. This species arrived later than usual this season.

Tennessee Warbler. For a few days they were singing
their little hearts out around the banding station.

Our BIC amazed to still be capturing
Magnolia Warblers on the very last day of banding.

Canada Warbler. This season we netted 7, all males.

Mourning Warbler, one of 11 we banded this year

Northern Parula.

Chestnut-sided Warbler.

Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

Our youngest volunteer, Addison, watching the
banding process very intently.

Philadelphia Vireo. This year we caught 4 and before that
we had not banded any since 2013.

Spring Season 2016 Fourth Week Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 19:56:00 +0000

The fourth week of spring banding this season was nothing short of crazy yet fantastic! The weather started out cool but sunny and by Friday we were experiencing winds so strong that they created crashing waves in the Bay and by Sunday it was nothing but periods of hail, snow, and rain throughout the day. And YET, we had three days of over a 100 birds banded and our biggest day yet in Audubon PA's history there with 318 birds banded! In total for the week, we banded 823 new birds of 55 species.

The 'fallout': May 11th started out as any other morning, there weren't any crazy weather fronts moving through and although we did have southerly winds overnight that had turned to northerly ones in the morning, that was nothing too out of the ordinary for here. We didn't even get all of the nets open before they started filling up with birds. The vegetation was filled with Blackburnians, Black-throated Blues, Cape Mays, and Yellow Warblers, the sandy pathway was covered with Palm Warblers and Lincoln Sparrows, and the dirt parking area saw its share of White-crowned Sparrows. It was simply magical to say the least! We are eternally grateful to our long-time volunteer, Frank Frisina, who actually left work that morning as soon as he got the call that help was desperately needed. Even with the two of us, it still took a while to get the nets shut as the birds were hitting the nets faster than we could extract and at one point, we were literally trying not to trip over them as they were practically everywhere. But, all the birds were safely extracted and we processed 250 of them, releasing close to 50 of them unprocessed due to various reasons, and then were able to reopen a few nets mid-afternoon for a grand total of 318 new birds banded.

Thursday and Friday, Tracy Graziano from the Pennsylvania Game Commission came out to record our work as well as interview us for a video that she is creating that documents the partnership between Audubon PA and the PA Game Commission. Stay tuned for a link to that video later this month.
Also on Thursday, we began placing transmitters on birds as part of our project to better understand their movements throughout the area as well as the path that they take as they continue north on their journey. Friday and Sunday we closed early due to strong winds and then Sunday, after sitting at the one site in the intermittent hail, snow, and rain, for several hours we went over to the second site with the goal of specifically trying to catch two more Magnolia Warblers to tag. We had three nets open for less than a half hour and were surprised to discover 20-30 warblers in each net! Talk about an impressive birds per net hour average! Of course, since this was the weekend of crazy weather, the wind kicked up and it started hailing again as we tried to process the birds. Luckily we were able to keep the birds warm and dry in the trusty Subaru and our volunteer, who had already gone home for the day, came back to ferry birds two by two from the car to us to be processed. Haha did I mention yet how awesome our volunteers are?!

All in all, quite an amazing week!

Blue-winged Warbler.

Male Indigo Bunting.

The only photo that I have from our
biggest day. Each of those bags has
birds waiting to be processed. And
there were even more in paper bags
on the table.

We had so many birds on Sunday that both banders were processing.
Where are the birds you may ask? Sitting in the car out of the cold
and intermittent hail storms.

Something about Palm Warblers this year really
living up to their name.

Cape May Warbler.

Tracy attaching a GoPro.

Filming the banding process via a GOPro
attached to the head.

Male Black-throated Blue Warbler.

Net full of warblers! And another 20 or so
from another net hanging in bird bags
on the tree in the background

Male Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Blackburnian Warbler (male)

Spring Season 2016 Third Week Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Wed, 01 Jun 2016 18:42:00 +0000

The third week of spring banding this year saw northerly winds bringing in cooler temps creating a decrease in new arrivals and lower capture rates than the two weeks prior. We banded a total of 132 new birds of 33 species.

Presque Isle Audubon's Festival of the Birds, which is always a fun time had by all, took place over the weekend of May 6-8th. Although we only captured 20 new birds each day, we were fortunate enough that we were still able to have at least one bird to show each group of visitors when they stopped by the banding station. And, boy, what a great group of visitors! Over a 100 people stopped by the banding station between the two days and were treated with up close views of the birds as well as the opportunity to help release some of them. Of course, we don't want to brag or anything, but when esteemed ornithologist, author, and illustrator, David Sibley, stops by your banding station on two consecutive days, one can't help but be quite excited. Yes, yes, he was the keynote speaker for the festival but it was still thrilling to have him stop by, sign some of his books, and release a Palm Warbler.

Banding Demonstration Festival of the Birds 2016

Sibley sharing his knowledge on Palm Warblers.

Checking a Palm Warbler for moult limits.

Children and adults were thrilled to speak with Sibley.

David Sibley holding an appropriately named Palm Warbler

This visitor was so intrigued by the Catbird's whiskers,that she needed to go in for a closer look

Banding Demonstration Festival of the Birds 2016

Eastern White-Crowned Sparrow

Hooded Warbler (male)

Blue-headed Vireo. First one banded since 2013

Please Consider Making A Donation

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Wed, 04 May 2016 23:06:00 +0000

Hello to all of our loyal followers!

As many of you know, Audubon Pennsylvania is a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to conservation. Most of our funding come from grants that we have to apply for each year (and hope to receive!) as well as from private donations. We love what we do here at Presque Isle and we hope that you love it as well. Bird Banding started in the 1960s here and Audubon has been carrying on that proud tradition since 2007. There is a lot of wonderful data involved in such a rich banding history but there is also so much more to find out about the thousands of birds that use Presque Isle each spring along their migratory route. In order to keep banding each season though, we are asking for your help. We try to run the program with as much help from volunteers as possible but we do need to be able to keep at least one professionally-trained bird bander on staff to run the station plus, banding supplies are not cheap. Just this morning, we had a deer run through two nets tearing a four foot wide hole in each of them and rendering them unsafe to use. When things like this happen, it is frustrating and unfortunate because mist nets, which are vital to our research, cost upwards of $100.

Please consider making a tax-deductible donation by clicking on this link: Donate Here. Every little bit counts and we here at Audubon thank you and I'm sure if the birds could speak our language they, too, would thank you.

Second Week Highlights

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Wed, 04 May 2016 22:44:00 +0000

Despite a lot of cool damp weather, we had another pretty decent week here at Presque Isle. We banded a total of 246 new birds of 31 different species. White-throated Sparrows continued to be our biggest catch, with 130 newly banded birds. They have been using the park's resources to fatten up for their journey across the Lake to their breeding grounds and have been quite a joy to watch. The biggest highlight was definitely the amount of raptors that we have banded thus far this season: two Cooper's Hawks and four Sharp-shinned Hawks. They, too, are migrating through the area and we don't often catch any raptors, let alone six, so it has been pretty special.

Immature Male Sharp-shinned Hawk.
Notice the yellow-orangish eye and the
dark brown plumage.

Adult Male Sharp-shinned Hawk. Notice
the red eye and slate gray, almost
blue-tinged plumage.

Long time volunteer, Frank Frisina,
proudly displaying a male Sharp-shinned
Hawk, the first raptor he's ever extracted.

Long time supporter of bird banding at Presque Isle, Sam Stull,
admiring a Sharp-shinned Hawk

Ron Cleaver, a long time reader of our blog
visited us at the banding station and got to
see a female Northern Flicker up close.

Spring Banding 2016 First Week Summary

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Wed, 27 Apr 2016 00:16:00 +0000

Every year we ask Mother Nature to please not drop any more leaves, branches, and/or the entire tree(!) into our net lanes over the winter and every year it seems like we have just as much trimming and raking to do as we did the previous year. This year, however, we will gladly accept yet another fallen tree and overgrown prickly plants because wow, what a first week of banding we had! In between all of the aforementioned maintenance, we were able to get most of our nets up by the end of the week and even with cooler weather over the weekend, we still increased our banding totals from last year by, well, A LOT.

Last year our first week of banding we had 20 birds total. This year we had...drumroll please....
231 newly banded birds!! And, no, I didn't accidentally add an extra digit. We also had 5 recaptures (including an eighth year bird) and handled a total of 26 species.
Below are some of the highlights.

Eastern Towhee originally banded in
2010 as a 'Second Year' bird meaning
that he is in his eighth year!

We banded 87 Yellow-rumped Warblers the
first week- nearly double the amount that
we banded for the entire 2015 banding season.

Pine Warbler-the FIRST ever banded since
Audubon began banding here in 2007.

Male Coopers Hawk

Field Sparrow

Chipping Sparrow

Welcome Back and Hellloooooo Springtime!

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Thu, 14 Apr 2016 18:49:00 +0000

Hello!

I'm sure that ya'll missed our blog posts as much as we missed posting them but I bet I know what we both missed even more than these posts- THE BIRDS!! Well it's that time of year again and we are gearing up towards what we hope will be another exciting season of bird banding here in gorgeous Presque Isle State Park. Last year we caught 71 different species and banded 1,262 new birds so now the question is: will we top that incredible number for this year? Perhaps this is the year when Yellow Warblers will beat out Gray Catbirds for the top spot of number of individually banded birds? Only time will tell but please feel free to place your bets and come join us on our last day of banding where we will tally up the numbers and reward everyone with sugary treats. Of course, though, in order to get to that point we need some warm southerly winds to bring us the birds first!

We will be banding at our two usual locations in the Park again this year, Niagara Boat Launch and Fry's Landing. We hope to knock out most of the maintenance that is required for putting up the nets next week and then we will post a schedule of the days that we will be banding at each site although we will almost definitely be at Fry's on the weekends again. Keep an eye out here and on our new Facebook Page for updates (and be sure to give us a 'like' on Facebook as well!).

We look forward to seeing all of your happy bird loving faces this spring!

Our Bander-in-Charge with a Cerulean Warbler, a bird that is not often
caught at Presque Isle due to it foraging higher up in the canopy.
Any guesses on what unique bird(s) we might catch this year?

2015 Spring End of Season Totals

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Sat, 06 Jun 2015 00:38:00 +0000

Volunteer Sam Stull releasing a Red-eyed Vireo on the last day of spring banding The bird sat there for a few minutes before flying off and singing a beautiful farewell tune. It seemed like a very apropos end to the season.

Whoa, is everyone sitting down?!

The tallies are in for the 2015 spring banding season here on beautiful Presque Isle State Park.

Over the course of six weeks (34 banding days), we banded 1,269 new birds from 70 different species! We netted an additional 35 birds that were not banded for one reason or another (ie, we don't have a special permit for hummingbirds). We also recaptured an additional 90 birds that were either banded in previous years or previously in the same season. This means our grand total for birds processed was 1,387 birds this year. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself (and I do!) :)

Our number one bird band was, as you can probably guess, the Gray Catbird coming in with a whopping 218 newly banded birds. Second Place was, you also probably guessed it, the Yellow Warbler with 150 newly banded birds. Third place goes to the White-throated Sparrow with 100 new birds. A nice surprise was the 86 new Magnolia Warblers we caught this spring as well as the 62 new Blackpoll Warblers. All in all though, it was a great season and each bird is always special in its own way.

The following are the totals for the birds that we banded. They are ordered by band size/how they're recorded in the book- so generally, from smallest to largest.

American Redstart: 37
Wilson's Warbler: 15
Magnolia Warbler: 86
Tennessee Warbler: 5
Black-throated Green Warbler: 9
Chestnut-sided Warbler: 30
Nashville Warbler: 15
Northern Parula: 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: 3
Black-and-White Warbler: 21
Brown Creeper: 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 2
Blue-winged Warbler: 2
Cerulean Warbler: 1
Least Flycatcher: 5
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher: 8
Trail's Flycatcher (Alder/Willow): 20
Black-throated Blue Warbler: 19
Yellow Warbler: 149
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle's): 41
Common Yellowthroat: 65
Blackpoll Warbler: 62
Bay-breasted Warbler: 21
Canada Warbler: 10
Hooded Warbler: 5
Blackburnian Warbler: 8
Warbling Vireo: 3
Palm Warbler (Western): 19
House Wren: 11
Cape May Warbler: 6
American Goldfinch: 1
Chipping Sparrow: 1
Field Sparrow: 1
Eastern Phoebe: 1
Lincoln's Sparrow: 22
Mourning Warbler: 7
Red-eyed Vireo: 17
Northern Waterthrush: 17
Swamp Sparrow: 11
Ovenbird: 9
Indigo Bunting: 1
Dark-eyed Junco: 1
White-throated Sparrow: 100
White-crowned Sparrow: 4
Swainson's Thrush: 27
Gray-cheeked Thrush: 5
Veery: 7
Hermit Thrush: 7
White-breasted Nuthatch: 4
Song Sparrow: 14
Downy Woodpecker: 2
Wood Thrush: 4
Gray Catbird: 217
Brown-headed Cowbird: 3
Eastern Kingbird: 1
Tufted Titmouse: 1
Red-winged Blackbird: 14
Baltimore Oriole: 21
Great-crested Flycatcher: 3
Eastern Towhee: 4
Rose-breasted Grosbeak: 3
Northern Cardinal: 8
Spotted Sandpiper: 1
Hairy Woodpecker: 2
American Robin: 16
Red-bellied Woodpecker: 1
Brown Thrasher: 4
Blue Jay: 4
Northern Flicker: 4
American Woodcock: 1

And, of course, a big THANK YOU to ALL of our volunteers! We couldn't have done it without you. We were especially fortunate this year because we now have three generations of volunteers from the same family helping us and the youngest, Miss Addison, was always eager to help whether it be carry a bird in its bag safely back to the banding table or show her other young friends how interesting birds can be. I wanted to highlight this because children like her are a great example of why we do what we do- her future and the birds future is one in the same and so I felt it appropriate to close the season with photos of both her and the birds. To quote the song that will now be stuck in everyone's head (sorry!): "I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way."

Addison Miller eagerly carrying a bird back to the banding table to be processed. This was a bird that her grandfather, Frank Frisina, just extracted from the net and she is helped by her aunt, Catherine Frisina. Volunteering runs deep in this family and we couldn't be more grateful!

Jessica Miller showing her daughter, Addison, a beautiful Yellow Warbler up close.


Miss Addy showing her friend, Abby, how wonderful birds are (in particular, a male Blackpoll Warbler).

Hope everyone has a great summer and remember, fall will be here before you know it and it will be time to play the warbler guessing game all over again!

Drumrolll please....

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Wed, 27 May 2015 19:10:00 +0000

The 1,300th bird that was extracted from the nets here at Presque Isle State Park and processed this season was a male Rose-breasted Grosbeak. He was caught with his lady friend and they will now forever also be tied together with matching bands bearing sequential numbers.

Did you know? The male Rose-breasted Grosbeak takes a turn incubating the eggs for several hours during the day, while the female incubates the rest of the day and all night long. Both sexes sing quietly to each other when they exchange places. Pretty sweet, huh ladies?

The 1,200th bird to be banded this season was this lovely little lady pictured below: a female Blackpoll Warbler.

Unlike the grosbeaks pictured above, this pretty lady is still on her way up to her breeding grounds in the Canadian boreal forest. Did you know, not only does the male Blackpoll Warbler have one of the highest pitched songs of all birds but they also have one of the most fascinating (and amazing!) migratory routes? Part of their fall migratory route is over the Atlantic Ocean. This route averages 3,000 km (1,864 mi) over open water, requiring a potentially nonstop flight of up to 88 hours. To accomplish this flight, these amazing little warblers nearly double their body mass and take advantage of a shift in prevailing wind direction to direct them to their destination. Impressive!

How I Met Your Mother (Presque Isle Style)

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Sun, 24 May 2015 22:28:00 +0000

As many of you know we don't just catch the migratory birds here at Presque Isle, we also catch a lot of the local breeding population. Some of our recapture data shows the same birds returning to the same banding site around the same time each year. It's pretty amazing that they are that site faithful but it's true, we almost never recapture a bird that was banded at one site at the other site and vice versa. And considering these birds flew all the way from the tropics to nest here, what's a few extra miles, right? Well, apparently it's a lot to them. So, as they are reestablishing territories we often catch two of the same species in the net together. Sometimes it's two males that are still squawking at each other and sometimes it's a male and a female. So I like to think that the latter pair will look back some day and tell their children about that one fateful day that they met in a mist net at Fry's Landing. I'm joking, of course, but it is a lot of fun and very interesting data that we recover from monitoring these local breeders.

A Blue-gray Gnatcatcher pair that was caught together in the net. Because this was a known mated pair that I had been watching build a nest for over a week, when we gave them sequential bands, we also pronounced them husband and wife. Clearly, one of them looks more thrilled than the other.
Photo by Gigi Gerben

Male and Female Baltimore Oriole caught together in the same net. This was taken at Niagara Boat Launch but we have a wonderful view of a nesting pair of orioles at Fry's Landing. Orioles build some of the coolest nests and we'd be happy to point it out to you if you stop by and see us this week!
Photo by Gigi Gerben

Male and female Yellow Warblers. The most common pairs found in the nets.

A typical Yellow Warbler nest

A female Yellow Warbler with a brood patch- with that extensive of a brood patch she is almost surely sitting on eggs. The females use their bare skin to help regulate the temperature of the eggs on which they sit.

Not the best photo but that is actually a photo of a gravid Gray Catbird, ie she is with egg. On average, a catbird will lay four eggs, one on each consecutive day, after which she will sit and incubate them while being fed by the male until the eggs hatch about 12-13 days later.

Let's Talk about the Ladies...

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Thu, 21 May 2015 23:17:00 +0000

We've got some lovely ladies that are passing through Presque Isle State Park right now and I don't just mean our local volunteers! Every spring it seems like most people are very excited to see the male warblers in all their glory and it's true, they do put on their best snazzy outfits for the ladies and hey, who are we kidding, I'm definitely impressed! The males usually move through first so that they can establish territories so that by the time the females migrate to the breeding grounds they basically have their pick of the males. But one thing I have learned from holding a lot of birds in the hand, is that although the females might not always be as flashy and brightly coloured as their male counterparts, they definitely still have a very subtle beauty that I would like to take the time to highlight.

Adult female Black-throated Blue Warbler. She had some of the most vibrant blue I have yet to see on a female BTBW.

Female Blackburnian Warbler

Female Hooded Warbler

Female Tennessee Warbler

Female Cape May Warbler

Haha you got me- not a warbler! BUT one of my favourite girls out there and I can't get enough of that giant insect vacuum mouth. She's a local nesting Great-crested Flycatcher banded in 2014 and recaptured on 5/21/15.

Female Magnolia Warbler. This pretty lady was actually so petite, that I had to remove the band I originally placed on her because it was too large.

Female Black & White Warbler. One of the best smelling warblers hands down due to the amount of time that they spend in and around tree bark.

Two Highlights of the Week

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Thu, 21 May 2015 23:14:00 +0000

So I'd like to take the time to highlight these two birds as they are both very special for different reasons.

First, was a Gray Catbird that was caught on 5/21/15. She was originally banded on 5/7/2010 as an 'AHY' bird. 'AHY' stands for After Hatch Year, which means, at the time of her capture her age was indeterminable but the bander knew they she was at least one year old as all birds celebrate their birthdays on January 1st of each year. That makes this pretty lady AT LEAST six years old! Think of all the obstacles that she probably has overcome just flying from her wintering grounds in Central America to her breeding territory here at Presque Isle State Park for the last six years. That's pretty impressive! She didn't want to pose for a nice photo op, but with her extensive brood patch, I imagine she probably had eggs to get back to so we also didn't want to hold her too long. I think the oldest catbird on record lived to almost 18 years old, so here's wishing this pretty momma many more successful years!

Female Gray Catbird, at least six years old.

The second bird that I'd like to highlight is one that is notable because of how rare it is to even see one in the park, let alone catch one in the nets. And that is the male Cerulean Warbler seen below. Cerulean Warblers spend most of their time higher up in the canopy than almost all other warblers that we see here so that is why it is both rare to see one and to catch one. This young male was banded on 5/11/15 and as we often see returning migrants year after year, let's hope that this handsome fella decides to grace us again with his presence next year!

Second Year Male Cerulean Warbler
Photo by Gigi Gerben

WOW, What a day!

noreply@blogger.com (Presque Isle Bird Banding) — Mon, 18 May 2015 19:53:00 +0000

This past Sunday, May 17th, was our busiest day yet here at the Presque Isle banding station. Over the course of the day, I processed 191 birds, 188 of which were new birds and we got to see 36 species in the hand (18 warblers species!). As always, I could not have done it with the help of the wonderful dedicated volunteers so, thank you!

We always talk about the birds that we're seeing but I wanted to take a moment and talk about the other reason that we band here in the park and that is conservation through public education. I can't even tell you the amount of times a day that people see our 'Bird Banding' sign and come up to the banding table simply to ask 'what is bird banding?' Most of these people are not birders and to be able to show them these wonderful little birds up close makes such a difference- both for the visitors and for the birds. Time and again I hear from people how fascinating it is that such little birds make such epically long journeys and defeat so many odds to return year after year to their breeding grounds; how some of them didn't even realize that these birds existed until now. And, of course, the best moments are watching a child get to hold and release a bird for their very first time. Their sheer joy and excitement is contagious. This is not only our future but the birds future too. So please, take the time to tell people about birds- why you're cuckoo for cuckoos or how terns turn your world upside down. Tell them to take the time to look up in the trees the next time that they're in the park. And please, tell them about our banding station and to visit us here in the park as we would love to show them what we do and why we do it! And to bring their children and grandchildren!!

I will be banding at Frys Landing now every day until the end of season (weather permitting) and I hope to see you out here!

American Woodcock. Although they nest in the park, we don't often catch them in the nets.

Male Mourning Warbler. One of three that we caught on Sunday.

Male Canada Warbler. We caught several of these handsome guys
on Sunday as well.