STATISTICS	4/15	4/16	4/17	4/18	4/19	4/20	4/21	Spring 2002 Totals (since 3/01)
Daily Banding Total	--	19	0	0	0	0	0	718
Number of Recaptures	--	15	0	0	0	0	0	494
Number of Species Banded	--	10	0	0	0	0	0	39
No. 12-Meter Nets x No. Hours	--	160	0	0	0	0	0	1840
No. Birds Banded/100 Net Hours	--	11.9	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	#DIV/0!	39.0

GO STRAIGHT TO>> THIS WEEK'S DAILY & RUNNING SPECIES TOTALS

             OR GO TO>>  PREVIOUS WEEK(S) DAILY & RUNNING TOTALS

                          OR>>  CLICK HERE to see a simple list of birds banded TODAY (11/28).

• Wednesday, November 28, 2001:  The rain (welcome here except from the standpoint of our banding) held off for just one day this week, but that enabled us to fit in a "make-up" banding day for the fall 2001 season.  Weather on this date was overcast and unseasonably mild (the warm tempertaures and recent rains even induced a few spring peepers, small tree frogs, to begin calling again!).  Perhaps because we were unable to put out  any banding effort on the preceding three days, our catch (incl. number, diversity, and, especially, rate of capture) using just a few nets was much improved over the last two weeks.   Amy Cunkelman and Adrienne Leppold helped with the banding.

 
• Including this as one more day in our fall (i.e., migration) banding season was warranted.  In addition to members of the usual "winter" bird feeder crowd, our catch included three somewhat late Fox Sparrows and one more, very late Winter Wren for the season.  The WIWR is only the second that we have ever banded after 11/27.  In contrast, we have banded a total of 29 migrant FOSPs after 11/27, including as many as nine on 11/28/70.  Although we generally can expect to encounter more FOSPs at the very end of the fall migration season, of the two species the FOSP is much rarer in winter in the Powdermill area--FOSPs have been observed on just five out of 26 local Christmas Bird Counts compared to 19 out of 26 counts for WIWR.  Speaking of Christmas Bird Counts, this year's Rector, PA CBC will be held on Sunday, December 16--those who would like to participate are invited to meet us at the Powdermill banding office at 7:00-7:30am that morning.

 
• With mostly very dry and/or unseasonably warm weather during this late fall period, we've seen much more cattail "fluff" than cold white "stuff"  flying around, but now that we have run out of November days we really do come to the official end of the fall banding season here at Powdermill.  Check back again soon for a complete statistical summary of fall 2001 (by the end of next week), and regularly throughout the winter season for banding updates (and photos, of course!).

• Sunday, November 25, 2001:  High winds and heavy rains (the latter badly needed in our drought-stricken area)  prevented any banding on what was officially the final banding day of our fall season.  We will continue to post our banding totals on a regular (daily or weekly) basis, and a complete summary of the results of this fall's banding will be available on the web site shortly.

 
• One thing is for certain, our end-of-the-season total of 10,610 birds banded is an all-time high for this station!  As a final (and, we think, fitting) fall photo highlight, we offer this portrait of an adult male American Goldfinch, the species responsible for >15% of our record fall total.  Our total this fall for AMGO (1,643) was itself a record, more than twice our previous high fall total for the species!

• Saturday, November 24, 2001:  Cloudy, very breezy, and unseasonably mild in early AM; becoming too windy for nets by mid-AM (only traps were operated from late AM to early afternoon).  Brian Jones, Adrienne Leppold, Annie Lindsay, Darlene Madarish, Katharine Reineman and Josh Van Buskirk all helped with the banding today.

 
• Despite having an eager crew on hand, all of them anxious to make the most of one of the last banding days of the season, neither the weather nor the birds cooperated.  Only 18 birds of just three species were banded.  Sorry, no photos!

• Tuesday through Friday, November 20-23, 2001:  In the wake of the season's first noisy V's of migrating Tundra Swans, the first banding day of the final week of our fall banding season was blustery and cold, with occasional brief but heavy snow squalls.  Weather for banding on Wednesday and Friday started off very cold (heavy frost) in the early AM, but became sunny and seasonably mild both days by late morning.  Over the course of the last three banding days we received assistance fromAmy Cunkelman, Brian Jones, Carroll Labarthe, andAnnie Lindsay.

 
• As the table above shows, species diversity and banding totals have been persistently low so far this week, something that is unlikely to change through to the official end of the season this Sunday.  With 31 banded so far this week, American Goldfinches continue to make up the bulk of our daily banding totals.  In contrast, we have had no new PIne Siskins or Purple Finches since the end of last week.  Single Fox Sparrows and a trio of Tufted Titmice banded on each of the last three banding days have added some variety to our daily banding lists.

 
• Far and away, however, the banding highlight of our week was one involving this species:

No, we didn't band or recapture and exceptionally late Scarlet Tanager--instead, we received a report on Tuesday that a SCTA we banded previously had been recovered this spring near Freeport, Texas.  This is only our second recovery of a SCTA and our first recovery of any bird from the Gulf Coast of Texas, but these facts alone didn't make this recovery the highlight of our week. Read on...

On May 22, 2001, Ms. Gladys Nipper found a brightly colored dead bird in her yard with a band on its leg.  She did not know what the bird was, but she felt sure that her find was important, so she called everyone she knew who knew anything about birds.  Thanks to her persistence (it took her several days), she finally got the phone number (apparently, through someone at her local County Courthouse!) of the Bird Banding Laboratory in Maryland and, after two tries, she finally spoke with someone who could give her the instructions she needed in order to send the band in for confirmation.

This week we all learned that the banded SCTA she found dead in her yard this spring had been banded here at Powdermill as a second-year male on June 21...

1990!

Although it was banded during the breeding season, and presumably nested in our vicinity year after year, #1431-47680 was never recaptured at Powdermill.   Assuming a June hatching date (in 1989), #1431-47680 was just a couple weeks shy of 12 years of age when it died of unknown causes in an Oyster Creek, Texas backyard.  This exceeds the currently posted national age record for the species (10 yrs., 1 mo.) by nearly two years.

It is remarkable to think that this one ounce songbird was making its twelfth trip back to its Pennsylvania breeding grounds, after wintering each year in South America, possibly as far away as Bolivia!   Our sincere thanks to Ms. Gladys Nipper for taking the time and going to the trouble to report what she suspected from the start was an important find!

That it was, Gladys, that it was!

Go to Current Week Species Totals:

Waterbirds through Woodpeckers

Flycatchers through Swallows

Chickadees through Waxwing

Wood Warblers

Tanager through Finches

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Last Updated on 12/01/01
By Robert S. Mulvihill