Powdermill Bird Banding

Fall 2007

Notes and Highlights for
October

Our October 2007 banding total of 3,374 birds was well above the long-term (46-year) average for this month of the year (2,411); similarly, the cumulative fall 2007 banding total through October (6,745 birds banded) also is well above the 46-year average for the same period (5,516). These high totals reflect some very good individual species counts, especially among boreal birds (both irruptive and regular migrants).
With 498 banded in October, American Goldfinch set a new record high total for this month (previous high October banding totals were 487 in 2001, 330 in 1994, and 308 in 2003). Our October total of 496 White-throated Sparrow is the fifth highest ever at Powdermill, behind 701 in October 2001, 646 in 1995, 610 in 1982, and 498 in 1984.

This October's Yellow-rumped Warbler total (394) was tenth overall, very far behind the record high October totals of 915 in 1982 and 818 in 1998. As usual, several of the YRWAs banded in October were ascribable to the much larger and grayer Alaskan subspecies, Dendroica coronata hooveri (photo at left). 369 Purple Finches banded this October is seventh highest (751 were banded in October 2001; 577 in October 1995). This month's banding total for Song Sparrow (233), the species with the fifth highest October banding total this season, placed only fifteenth among October banding totals for all years (highest October totals were 408 in 1983, 354 in 1984, and 351 in 1970). We banded 225 Swamp Sparrows, which is our 3rd highest October total.

Several other species, while not contributing greatly to the month's overall banding total, nonetheless were banded in very good numbers this October compared to average. Examples include Northern Saw-whet Owl (48 banded) and Fox Sparrow (27 banded), both of which set new record high Powdermill totals for October; Magnolia Warbler (38 banded; 3rd highest); Gray Catbird (71; 4th highest); Winter Wren (31; 7th highest); Eastern Towhee (40; 8th highest); and Black-capped Chickadee (133; 9th highest October total).
Our highest daily banding totals this October were on 16 October (379 birds banded), 25 October (265), and 2 October (229). A total of 75 species was banded during the month, with as many as 36 species represented in a total of 96 birds banded on 10/03. As usual, by the end of the month species richness had dropped markedly--for example, only 12 species were represented in our catch of 122 birds on 10/31. These are the species that typically are classified "short distance" migrants. Although most do, in fact, winter within the continental U.S., many have traversed thousands of miles (i.e., a long distance!) in traveling from the far northwestern reaches of boreal Canada and Alaska to Powdermill.

Fall scenery near Crisp Pond
October 20, 2007

There are many to thank this month for help with banding, including our two seasonal banding assistants, Pam Ferkett and Molly McDermott, our regular volunteers Mary Shidel, Lauren Schneider, Dean Thompson, Kristin Sesser, and Katie Barnes, and these visitors: Greg George, Eliza Frazer, Joe Schreiber, Keith McKenrick, Alex Shidel, Jessica Bruland.

As usual, a lot of seasonal banding firsts occurred in October. Pine Siskins have been scarce or absent from our fall banding totals for the past six years, so we were hopeful that the first one of the season, banded on 10/18, would be a harbinger of many more to come. It gave us hope, too, that other "northern" finches, like redpolls and Evening Grosbeaks might make an appearance in our nets after many years of absence. We banded a total of just four PISIs in October, but (stay tuned!) November did produce more siskins and one of the other "hoped for" northern finches.
We banded our first White-crowned Sparrows on 10/06. In this species, strong plumage dimorphism in fall reflects age differences (bright adult pictured above; dull immature below).

Interestingly, in the congeneric (i.e., classified in the same genus, Zonotrichia) White-throated Sparrow, bright and dull-colored birds do not necessarily differ in age or sex; instead, they are simply plumage variants within this polymorphic species.

We banded our first Fox Sparrow of the fall on 10/11, and by the end of the month we'd banded another 26. The flight of this quintessential boreal songbird continued to build from there (details to follow in our upcoming November summary) resulting in a record fall banding total for this species at Powdermill.

This is a closeup of the back plumage of a bird that many people probably would not, at first, think to include on their list of beautiful birds...

But Common Grackles, like this first-of-the-season adult male banded on 10/13, with their oil sheen-like iridescence and bright white eyes certainly have a very striking (yes, even beautiful) appearance. In older field guides, the Common Grackle was separated into two species--Bronzed and Purple--which now are recognized only as weakly differentiated geographic variants. "Purple" grackles were considered to have a more easterly distribution on the Atlantic slope east of the Appalachian Mountains, but intergrades between it and the more westerly distributed "Bronzed" grackle are common in the western Appalachians where Powdermill is situated. The bird pictured below would be best classified as an intergrade, sometimes referred to as yet another form, "Ridgeway's" Grackle, based (this according to my well worn, black-ink signed copy of Roger Tory Peterson's A Field Guide to the Birds [1947 copyright, 38th printing]) on the "broken iridescent bars on the back".

Striking white eyes also are characteristic of Rusty Blackbirds, like this first-of-the-season HY female banded on 10/16.

The eye color of Brown Thrashers changes from pale grayish yellow to bright yellow-orange with age. The photo below shows two HY BRTHs (age confirmed by skull pneumatization and molt limits) that we banded on 10/6. The birds on the left and right evidently hatched later and earlier, respectively, based not only on their eye color difference, but also on differences in the extent of the first prebasic molt, which replaces the grayish juvenal body plumage (more of which is retained on the head of the duller eyed bird on the left).

Bright yellow eyes in Sharp-shinned Hawks are characteristic of immature (HY/SY) birds, like this HY male banded on 10/9; adult (AHY) birds have dark orange to red eyes.

Bright yellow eyes are characteristic of all ages of Northern Saw-whet Owl. We banded our first NSWOs (four of them) on 10/16. We will give many more details and photo highlights of this fall's record NSWO season at Powdermill in our upcoming update for November.

Among the many banding firsts this month were two that provide us with another opportunity to give our website visitors a confusing fall foot quiz. Both birds were even more unexpected than the subject of our first foot quiz--the Sora banded in September.

So, what birds do you think these feet belong to? Hint: look at the size (in relation to the hands holding them) and, of course, the shape of the feet.

[don't scroll down too far if you don't want to see the answer yet!]

Did you guess an American Coot and a Least Bittern?

The Least Bittern was caught in a large mesh net (61mm) between two of our ponds during normal morning banding on 10/05. As you can see, it didn't fly off very far when it was released back onto one of these ponds.

The banding story and the very survival of the American Coot is thanks to Rick and Ann Kunkle, from live just north of the nearby town of Ligonier (Rick is holding the coot in the picture below). They found it grounded but unharmed in a small puddle of water at the bottom of a large roll-off dumpster that had been delivered to their house the day before. After rescuing the bird, they brought it to Powdermill for a positive identification. Afterward, the bird was released on a small pond near where it had been found stranded.

Not exactly a banding first, but a Northern Long-eared Bat in our nets on the morning of 10/3 nonetheless was our first-ever capture of this species. Over the years a half dozen or so species of bats have been captured at dawn or dusk in our bird-banding mist nets. Similar to the Little Brown Bat, but far less common and much less well known, the Long-eared, or Keen's, Bat overwinters in hibernacula that are dominated by Pennsylvania's much commoner overwintering bat species: Little Brown, Big Brown, and Eastern Pipistrelle bats.

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