We logged 1,845 net hours of effort
during these four days and banded a total of 319 birds of 51 species, which
is excellent species diversity for our site. In addition, we recaptured
151 previously banded birds. Our best day was 5/17 when we banded
171 birds of 40 species (capture rate of 27.4 birds/100 net-hours) and
processed an additional 55 recaptures. Top ten species banded were
American Goldfinch (40 banded), Cedar Waxwing (37), Magnolia Warbler (30),
Red-eyed Vireo (19), Ruby-throated Hunmmingbird (16), Swainson's Thrush
(14), Rose-breasted Grosbeak (13), Indigo Bunting (9), and American Redstart
(8).
Thanks to fellow banders Greg Baruffi
(VA), Keith McKenrick (Northern PA), Joe Schreiber (MD) for paying us a
working visit this week, to Powdermill staffers Mary Shidel, Pam Ferkett,
and Kristin Sesser, and to volunteer Brent Worls for their assistance this
week.
Of four new species banded for the
season during the period, three were flycatchers, including this Eastern
Wood Pewee. The other flycatchers were Yellow-bellied and Acadian.
We enjoyed a visit from Greg Baruffi,
a MAPS bander from Wincester, VA. Greg is pictured here handling
our fourth Spotted Sandpiper of the season, a SY female. Spotted
Sandpipers can be sexed by a combination of bill and wing measurements
(females are larger than males) and by the amount of spotting on their
underparts (females are more heavily spotted than males). Spotted
Sandpipers can sometimes be aged SY if they have retained juvenal flight
feathers. In the bottom photo below, notice the retained inner three
primary coverts and primary 1.
After a long winter, one of the
pleasures of spring banding is the colorful parade of Neotropical migrants,
especially the brilliantly plumaged adult males of many species, like the
Indigo Bunting (top photo), Scarlet Tanager (middle photo) and Northern
Parula (bottom photo) banded at the end of the week.
Come to think of it, some of the
SY males vied with adults of their species for most brightly colored plumage!
Notice that while this Magnolia Warbler's plumage is very striking, it
has the trademark brownish retained juvenal primary coverts and alula of
an SY bird.
According to Dunn and Garrett (Peterson
Field Guide to Warblers), a conspicuous reddish orange crown is typical
of Yellow Warblers belonging to the "Golden" subspecies group, which is
distributed across southern Florida and the Caribbean. However, this
plumage characteristic is only occasionally observed in adult males of
Northern subspecies like those banded at Powdermill. This ASY male
Yellow Warbler banded on May 17th had much more extensive color in its
crown than we usually see.
This
ASY American Goldfinch banded on May 20th had unusually dark pigmentation
on the wing and tail for a female. That combined with her broad,
very truncate tail feathers supported the age determination.
We banded our first Philadelphia
Vireo on 5/15, and the flight continued with 4 more banded during this
time period. We are already approaching our long-term spring average
for this species (~9), but the greatest spring flight occurred in 1990
when 56 were banded during a gypsy moth outbreak. Countless thousands
of early instar larvae were gleaned by PHVIs and other insectivorous songbirds
from the leaves of willows and other shrubs next to the net lanes.
