Net Results

RRBO is 20 years old!

2012-01-17T14:16:00.000-05:00

The Rouge River Bird Observatory banded its first bird -- a Black-capped Chickadee -- in 1992. Since then, we've banded over 33,000 more birds, conducted thousands of bird surveys, compiled hundreds of thousands of bird records, participated in numerous cooperative research projects, trained dozens of field volunteers...our list of accomplishments goes on. For our 20th anniversary, we'll be

Dearborn portion of the Detroit River CBC, 2012

2012-01-04T13:01:00.001-05:00

The Detroit River Michigan-Ontario Christmas Bird Count was held, as it is each year, on January 1. This was the 35th year for the count, which is centered at I-94 and Warren Ave, and the 18th year that RRBO has coordinated the field work in the city of Dearborn. The day began with mild temperatures which had been the hallmark of the autumn and winter season up to that point. All water was

Keep those silver bracelets coming....

2011-12-28T14:36:00.000-05:00

This Cooper's Hawk is just one of over 33,000 birds of 122 species banded by the Rouge River Bird Observatory on the campus of the University of Michigan-Dearborn since 1992. Our banding program is supported by donors like you. Help us continue this long-term conservation research project by making a contribution today. Donate online or see our website for a mail-in form. Thank you from RRBO!

30% off Birds of Dearborn: One day only

2011-12-06T08:56:00.001-05:00

Publish | Services The Birds of Dearborn, An Annotated Checklist Purchase The Birds of Dearborn, An Annotated Checklist or any other title with 30% off with coupon code WINTERSAVE305. Hurry .

Some holiday gift ideas that support RRBO

2011-11-23T13:15:00.009-05:00

In addition to making a donation, you can support RRBO by shopping. Any time you buy any product from Amazon through RRBO, for example, we get a small commission that goes to support our research. You can always find some recommended books and Amazon search box on the "Shop" page of the RRBO web site and on the right sidebar of this blog. This season, I have a particular book recommendation. It

Former RRBO bander's research in NYT

2011-11-21T12:34:00.000-05:00

Julie Jedlicka was an RRBO bander from 2000 to 2003, when she was a graduate student at the University of Michigan-Ann Arbor. She went on to receive her Ph.D at the University of California, Santa Cruz. She is now at the University of California, Berkeley on an NSF Postdoctoral Fellowship. Her research focuses on ecosystem services and avian conservation potential in northern California vineyards

Fall 2011 banding wrap-up

2011-11-14T12:50:00.000-05:00

Our official fall banding season ended on 8 November. I had really hoped to squeeze in a few more days, but the wind or rain prevented me from doing so. I have posted a full summary with photos and stats on the RRBO web site. Because we had a number of nets that were damaged by deer, instead of trashing them I moved them all into one area and decided to leave them up a little longer. As we have

Myth-busting: Birds, buckthorn, and diarrhea

2011-11-01T17:33:00.002-04:00

[This post is in response to local interest in the effects of buckthorn fruit on the birds that eat it.] For the last 5 or 6 years, my research has focused on the use of fruit by birds in the fall, especially non-native fruit and migratory birds. One of the most abundant fruiting shrubs in my southeast Michigan study area is Common Buckthorn (Rhamnus cathartica), an invasive fruiting tree not

Fall banding: Weeks 8-10

2011-10-24T14:33:00.000-04:00

Good riddance to a wet September. October has been occasionally wet or windy, but overall the weather has been much better. Unlike some Octobers, we have had only two mornings with frost, which can delay us from opening in the morning if the nets get stuck shut. On the downside, deer are mating and they've managed to get in the banding area regularly. One night a buck was presumably chasing a doe

Poison ivy: Breakfast of champions

2011-10-19T11:30:00.003-04:00

Our study of the fruit composition of the diets of fall migratory birds focuses on Catharus thrushes and the super-abundant non-native fruits found in urban areas. However, we do look for seeds in the "samples" (droppings) provided by all the birds we band. This helps us examine which other bird species are eating fruit, what types of fruit they consume, and whether the diets of different bird

Barred Owl in Dearborn

2011-10-11T12:03:00.001-04:00

I get a fair number of calls to help rescue birds from various situations, often inside buildings. Usually they are very common species (European Starlings, in particular, seem to have a knack for falling down chimneys). Often there isn't much I can do but offer advice, which is often sufficient to solve the problem. Late yesterday afternoon I got a message from Jim Barber at the First

Fall banding 2011: Weeks 6 and 7

2011-10-01T19:00:00.000-04:00

The month of September drew to a close on a windy, rainy note -- the 9th full day of banding missed this month due to weather. Notable mid-way through the season is the near total absence of sparrow migration, with only two White-throated Sparrows banded so far, and no noticeable movement of Swamp, Song, or Lincoln's Sparrows. Thrush migration has also been dismal. Gray-cheeked Thrushes are

Geolocators on catbirds

2011-09-22T14:41:00.000-04:00

Geolocators are tiny devices that measure light levels for up to two years. This data can be used to calculate latitude and longitude when compared with sunrise and sunset times and light levels at noon in different geographic locations. They are accurate to about 200 km for latitude, with better resolution for longitude. When mounted on a bird, a geolocator records light intensity data at

Fall banding 2011: week 5

2011-09-16T13:35:00.000-04:00

Well, things can sure change in a hurry. After probably the dullest first month in 20 years of fall banding came two of the busiest days in RRBO's history. The same stalled low pressure system that was responsible for days of rain and/or wind eased up just enough on Friday, Sep 9 to let us open our nets. Birds that had been pushed west by the weather systems in the prior days were all over the

Fall 2011: Weeks 3 and 4

2011-09-08T08:05:00.000-04:00

As you might imagine, banding has been largely at a standstill. Week 3 was very hot, limiting banding to only a couple of hours in the morning. Week 4 so far has been -- and looks to be -- completely rained out. A low pressure system (the remnants of tropical depression Lee) has been stalled just to our east, unable to move as Hurricane/Tropical Storm Katia moves up the Atlantic. Not much we can

Fall 2011 banding: week 2

2011-08-29T08:16:00.000-04:00

Another very quiet week, with not many migrants around. A higher percentage of the young resident birds that I'm banding have not yet started or are just beginning their post-juvenile molt than I usually see this time of year. This is the replacement of their juvenile plumage into their first winter adult plumage. It's usually in full swing right now. Same with the molt of adults, who typically

Fall banding 2011 begins

2011-08-19T12:45:00.004-04:00

RRBO began the 2011 fall banding season on 12 August. The first week was a "soft" opening, when we put up only a portion of the nets each day, make adjustments, and handle all the young fledglings in the area with some extra TLC. We were also taking some extra time to prepare for a special project, which I'll write about in a future post. Not too many migrants were present. We caught a

Dearborn Goldfinch in Ontario

2011-07-18T09:13:00.006-04:00

RRBO recently received notice that one of the 2500+ American Goldfinches banded here on campus was recovered elsewhere. Only about 1% of small songbirds banded are found away from the place they were banded, so a report of this kind is always interesting. Usually, birds are not found far away, and usually they are dead. This report indicated that the goldfinch in question, a hatching-year male we

Spring migration 2011

2011-06-16T14:31:00.006-04:00

The spring 2011 survey season took place 1 April through 15 June. On campus, regular surveys were conducted on on 50 of the 70 days, with nearly daily surveys between 20 April and 3 June. The surveys recorded 146 species (another 15 were recorded in Dearborn off-campus). This is greater than the previous ten-year average of 130 species, or the five-year average of 133. The peak day was 10 May

NAMC 2011 - Dearborn portion

2011-05-16T09:36:00.004-04:00

Saturday, May 14 was the North American Migration Count. My husband Darrin O'Brien coordinates the count for Wayne County, and as usual we covered the UM-Dearborn campus, as well as some other spots in Dearborn. It was a pretty lousy day weather-wise, and many of the migrants that we enjoyed last week had moved on. Although we were only able to thoroughly cover campus and one of the Ford fields (

Spring migration update

2011-05-13T13:03:00.008-04:00

Spring migration has been terrific the last week, so I hope everyone has had a chance to get out and see some birds. While you can keep up with everything that has been observed on the UM-Dearborn campus and the city of Dearborn on the RRBO Latest Sightings page, I thought I would provide a more detailed update here. The chart below shows the number of species seen on campus each day since 2

Update on the Ross's Goose

2011-04-07T10:03:00.008-04:00

In my last post, I described the discovery of a Ross's Goose on 24 March 2011, a first record for Dearborn. The goose was banded, and we have just received the details from the Bird Banding Lab.This was a nestling male banded on 7 August 2006 in Nunavut. This much I knew from reporting the goose on the Bird Banding Lab's web site. The location, it turns out, is McTavish Point. The geocoordinates

New for Dearborn: Ross's Goose

2011-03-25T19:02:00.005-04:00

In the late afternoon of 24 March, Jim Fowler, Jr. found an adult Ross's Goose on private property, a first record for Dearborn. Several of us were able to see the bird and get some photos, and were hopeful the bird would be present in a more accessible area the next day. Searches all over the city turned up empty, however.The goose was in the company of three Canada Geese, and was approximately

More shade coffee birds and banding: part 2

2011-03-23T14:12:00.001-04:00

In my last post I outlined the first portion of my recent trip to Nicaragua. Here is the next installment.Part 2: Finca El JaguarIn 2009, during our brief stopover in Managua, Nicaragua, my husband and I met Georges and Liliana Duriaux-Chavarría, the owners of El Jaguar, a fantastic cloud forest reserve and coffee farm near Jinotega in the north-central highlands of Nicaragua. We were immediately

More shade coffee birds and banding: part 1

2011-03-21T15:03:00.000-04:00

Readers will recall that my husband Darrin O'Brien and I like to do "working" vacations, where we travel to Latin American countries to do bird banding, bird surveys, and/or insect survey work. Usually, this involves work on coffee farms, as coffee grown in a sustainable manner is critical to "our" migrant birds, and therefore a topic of great importance to me. Last year we went to west-central