During the week we banded 402 birds
of 63 species--twelve species were new for the season, bringing to 96 the
number of species banded since March 1. Magnolia Warbler (64
banded) was the commonest bird this week, followed by Gray Catbird (36),
Common Yellowthroat (28), Ruby-throated Hummingbird (18), Swainson's Thrush
(16), Indigo Bunting (16), American Goldfinch (156), Yellow warbler (15),
Canada Warbler (13), and Nashville Warbler (11). Our best day May
10, when 100 birds of 36 species were banded.
We appreciate help from these visitors
and volunteers during the week: Margaret Hahn, Cailin O'Connor, Joe
Schreiber, Danilo Mejila, Maria Paulino, Mary Shidel, and Steve Latta.
We banded our first Blackpoll Warblers
of the season: an SY male on 5/10 (top photo below) and an ASY female on
5/16 (bottom photo below).
We banded our first Gray-cheeked
Thrush on 5/15. In the photo below it is pictured on the right with
one of two Swainson's Thrushes banded on the same day. Its gray cheek
is especially evident when seen next to the buffy cheek (and buffy "spectacles")
of a Swainson's; another difference between the species is the more strongly
bi-colored lower mandible of the GCTH.
Despite the lack of any true grassland
habitat in our banding area, we netted another species of grassland sparrow
(recall that two Savannah Sparrows were banded last week), this Grasshopper
Sparrow.
We banded an SY female Yellow-breasted
Chat on 5/11. Sex was determined by her grayish rather than blackish
cheek and less intensely yellow breast. Age was determined by the
distinct molt limit between her outer five molted and inner four retained
primaries (note the much darker shaft streaks on the molted primaries).
An ASY female Mourning Warbler banded
on 5/10 was unusual because she had some black feathering in her throat
and upper breast. Had her age not been precisely known, she might
have been confused as an SY male, although her wing length of 59.5mm fit
much better within the range for females based on our morphometric analysis
of 767 MOWAs (Mulvihill, Leberman, and Leppold. 2004. Relationships
among body mass, fat, wing length, age, and sex for 170 species of birds
banded at Powdermill Nature Reserve. EBBA Monograph No. 1).
