• November 24-30, 2003:  The 2003 fall banding season at Powdermill drew to slow close over Thanksgiving week, with just 61 birds of ten species banded (but with many birds, or at least many bites, of one species gobbled down!)  We hope that our fellow banders were satisfied with their own fall banding results and that everyone was satiated by their own holiday repasts!   We will try to write a full summary of our fall banding season within the next few weeks.

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• Although we probably have set no banding records this fall, we did reach a significant milestone for this banding website in the last week of the fall 2003 banding season, when it received its millionth "hit!"  This website was launched in September 2000, and we are very gratified that increasing numbers of banders, birders, and others have found it to be a useful source for information, images, and ideas.  Our sincere thanks to all of you for your interest--we'll do our best to keep you coming back for more!

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• The most commonly banded bird in the last week of Powdermill's fall 2003 season was American Goldfinch (33 banded), followed by Dark-eyed Junco (9).  One notable banding result during the last week of the fall season was the capture and banding of four (!) Red-bellied Woodpeckers, three on 11/28 (only the second time we've ever banded three of this species in one day) and one on 11/30 (with two more caught after the season on December 4).  Even non-migratory birds, like RBWO, undergo seasonal movements, including dispersal of young birds away from their natal territories, and expansion of the home ranges of adults to gain access to more food resources (e.g., bird feeders) in winter.

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Breakdown of the age and sex classes for the six recently banded RBWOs was three males and three females, and three HY birds and three ASY birds.  Pictured below is one of two HY males (top bird, with a red crown) and the single HY female (bottom bird, with a gray crown) banded in the last week of the season.

• November 12-23, 2003:  Our banding activity during the last two weeks has been minimal.  One reason is that we are in the midst of some extensive habitat management (something we try to do every several years to keep habitat in the net lanes as consistent as possible from year to year), which has limited our use of nets around our small pond complex.  Another reason is that the weather has been either too nice to catch many birds when we have had nets open (i.e., unseasonably warm and sunny weather, with virtually no activity at our bird feeders) or too inclement to open nets at all (extremely strong gusting winds and or heavy rains)!  As a result, we haven't kept our loyal volunteers--Randi Gerrish, Carole Shanahan, Annie Lindsay, Carroll Labarthe, and Brian Jones--very busy lately.

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• Torrential rains on Wednesday caused extensive flooding in the banding area, precluding any banding...

...but making fishing easy!

Powdermill's Mike Lanzone grabbed this largemouth bass from the waters
of our flooded driveway and returned it safely to Crisp Pond.

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• We banded our first American Tree Sparrows on 11/16 and 11/22.

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• Our last bird to band during then period covered by this update was our eighth Sharp-shinned Hawk of the season on 11/23, a pale yellow-eyed, streak-breasted immature male.  Brian Jones banded it (top photo), Annie Lindsay processed it (next two photos), and we succeeded in getting a dramatic photo as Brian released it (bottom photo) on this beautiful Sunday afternoon.

• October 29-November 9, 2003:  The pace of fall banding slowed greatly during the last week of October.  Nonetheless, we appreciate volunteers Randi Gerrish, Carroll Labarthe, Mary Helen Chiodo, and Brian Jones, all of whom helped with the banding.  Our only fairly busy banding days during the period covered by this report occurred back-to-back on November 6-7 and were the product of fairly large catches of White-throated Sparrows and American Goldfinches (61 of the former and 77 of the latter over the two days).

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We banded three immature White-crowned Sparrows on those same two days, one of which gave us an initial impression of possibly being the western "Gambel's" subspecies (bird on right in photo below with light lores, banded on 11/6) but which we eventually decided probably was an intergrade between Gambel's and the typical dark-lored eastern race (bird on left in photo below, caught the next day).  The lighter lored bird banded on 11/6 lacked the yellow-orange bill coloration seen on the more clearcut Gambel's that we banded last fall (second photo below).

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• We banded our fourth Yellow-bellied Sapsucker of the season on 11/1, a hatching year (HY) male (incoming red throat feathers mixed with retained brownish head and breast feathers).

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• Although they have been present in the banding area in flocks numbering several hundred birds, we have not had any very big catches of Cedar Waxwings during this late fall period.  A few caught recently were all adults in late stages of their definitive prebasic molt.   Most, like the bird pictured below, were molting "wax to wax," meaning that the old (not yet molted) secondaries had large wax tips, similar to the wax tips on the recently molted or molting secondaries.  In the photo below from left to right are freshly molted tertials (i.e., secondaries) 8 & 7, unmolted (but wax-tipped) secondaries 6 & 5, molting (<1/4 grown) wax-tipped secondary 4 (mostly hidden behind unmolted s5), and molted, wax-tipped secondaries 3 & 2.  Because hatching year (HY) CEDWs ordinarily have no wax tips on their juvenal secondaries, or else very small and thin wax tips, adult CEDWs that are replacing old prominently wax-tipped secondaries with new wax-tipped secondaries are known after second year (ASY) birds (i.e., SY birds would be molting "no wax to wax").

Go to Complete Banding Totals:

Daily Totals    Weekly Totals    Banding Effort/Captures

Daily Totals    Weekly Totals    Waterbirds through Woodpeckers

Daily Totals    Weekly Totals    Flycatchers through Swallows

Daily Totals    Weekly Totals    Chickadees through Waxwing

Daily Totals    Weekly Totals    Wood Warblers

Daily Totals    Weekly Totals    Tanager through Finches