It looks like we are back in the beautiful weather. The clear skies and lack of wind made for a very pleasant change from most of the past week. We thought it might bring us a few more birds but the morning was still rather quiet overall. It wasn’t without it’s highlights though as we had several sightings of interest.
As I was opening one of our hawk nets first thing a Marsh Wren gave a couple phrases of song. I got a quick look at him skulking in the willows along the banks of the Homathko before he ducked back into the grass. This was my personal first of the season though Chris twice saw one in August. A little later in the morning Chris spotted a family of Evening Grosbeaks that came close to finding their way into net 1. This species has seen the steepest declines of any widespread songbird in North America in recent decades though I believe the jury is still out on why this is.
Census was steady and Woodpeckers featured strongly as I encountered 5 species including our first American Three-toed of the season. Nearby was also a nice hybrid Red-naped x Red-breasted Sapsucker that looked like it probably had more genes of the former in it.
As far as the banding went, our second adult White-crowned Sparrow of the season was the pick of the bunch. They are always a treat as we see few adults each year. As the morning wound down a flock of Mountain Bluebirds came through foraging actively while slowly working their way southward. We set up an extra net to try to catch them but struck out.
As I have now received several guesses, both here on the blog and through other means, on the quiz I posted Sept. 2 I will now divulge the answers: 1. Hermit Thrush – note the thin eye-ring that doesn’t extend out into the lores (as it does in Swainson’s) and darker breast spotting than similar species. 2. Dusky Flycatcher – the long tail vs short wings rules out Hammond’s (long wing and short tail) and others while the overall colouring is a bit drab for Least and Willow/Alder which would also have a larger headed look. Willow/Alder would also lack the prominent eye-ring. 3. Horned Lark – I was surprised that most people got this one, I thought it was the toughest of the bunch! The overall chunkiness and strongly contrasting upper-part streaking rules out American Pipit as do the black legs, which also rule out pretty much all the sparrows which have fleshy-coloured legs.
Thanks for all the guesses!
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Species | Band | Recap |
Common Yellowthroat | 4 | |
Ruby-crowned Kinglet | 3 | |
Song Sparrow | 3 | |
Lincoln’s Sparrow | 2 | |
White-crowned Sparrow | 2 | |
American Robin | 1 | |
Orange-crowned Warbler | 1 | |
Dusky Flycatcher | 1 | |
Wilson’s Warbler | 1 | |
Fox Sparrow | 1 | |
Golden-crowned Sparrow | 1 | |
MacGillivray’s Warbler | 1 |
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Birds banded | 19 |
Species banded | 10 |
Birds recaptured | 2 |
Species recaptured | 2 |
Species on census | 29 |
Species Total | 46 |
STANDARD TOTAL BANDED | 1220 |
SEASON TOTAL BANDED | 1227 |
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