With another calm, cold and clear night Sachi and Gabe embarked on another night of owling. They would be rewarded for their efforts with some local visitors of two kinds. These would be some members of the Emke family along with five new Northern Saw-whet Owls which they banded and one recapture! The few times that we have recaptured a Saw-whet it has been one that we banded the night or two before and this was another such case. Amongst the five newly banded owls four were hatch-year birds whilst the fifth was a fourth year! Since owls undergo a partial moult in which they only replace some flight feathers each year we can age them based on how many generations of feathers are present as long as the oldest generation is juvenal (moulted out when they were a hatch-year). This can get quite challenging and there are times when we throw up our hands in defeat and take the conservative approach and age them as an after-second-year. These five new additions brings our season total to 57 owls banded in just seven sessions which is our third highest total for the regular season behind 2017 (59 in 12 nights) and 2019 (62 in 11 nights).
A couple of last night’s visitors: Northern Saw-whet Owls
The sun rose on a frosty world as the thermometer read -3°C with a stiff north wind which doubled the chill. Alone I patrolled the net lanes looking for signs of avian life I enjoyed the hues which painted the Niuts as they shifted with each step from cranberry to pink and then to golden before paling altogether with the slow rise of the sun.
At the oxbow I stealthy crept up to the fence line hoping that our friend the Sora was still present but instead I found two Wilson’s Snipe in plain view foraging in the mud. The White-crowned Sparrows along the edges suddenly dove for cover as an immature Sharp-shinned Hawk darted through, departing empty-handed. The two Snipes instead of scattering elected to sink lower into the frozen mud all the while keeping one watchful eye on me with the other trained in the direction that the predator had gone.
Two versions of one predator evasion strategy of Wilson’s Snipe
Census was a chilly affair with a few seasonally exciting birds. The first was our latest record of an American Redstart as it called emphatically at me making it impossible to miss as I neared the entrance to the south field. In the south field a dark smaller Contopus flycatcher who also seemed a bit worried that I might miss it as well, called out its trademark descending “brrreeerrrr” from atop a willow making this also our latest record of a Western Wood-Pewee by two days (previously September 20th in both 2008 and 2010). Along the road the musical trills of a Bohemian Waxwing stopped me in my tracks. Our total of 73 total detections in the past 16 seasons infers that this species is rather common at the TLBO however this is not the case as it has only been detected in eight of the 17 seasons that we have been in operation.
Aptly named: Golden-crowned Sparrow (genus Zonotrichia) with lovely golden hues
Yellow-rumped Warblers were again on the move today as we would enjoy our second highest count of the season with 330 over the course of the morning. The Myrtle subspecies again comprised the lion’s share of the individuals that we were able to identify.
Net hours today were fraught as we were first hampered by frigid temperatures and then later on by the ferocious south wind which still batters our windows as I write. Despite these challenges we would still band four new birds of four species. These came in the form of our 57th Song Sparrow, fifth Golden-crowned Sparrow, fourth White-throated Sparrow and first “Unidentified” Yellow-rumped Warbler of the season. With this meagre haul we now sit at 816 birds banded by standard means which is 28 birds less than where we were at on this day last season.
To see our eBird list for the day, please visit: https://ebird.org/checklist/S150504920
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Species | Band | Recap |
Yellow-rumped Warbler | 1 | |
Song Sparrow | 1 | |
Golden-crowned Sparrow | 1 | |
White-throated Sparrow | 1 |
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Daily | Season | ||
Birds Banded | 4 | Total Banded | 830 |
Species Banded | 4 | Standard Banded | 816 |
Birds Recapped | 0 | Species Banded | 53 |
Species Recapped | 0 | Total Recapped | 160 |
Species on Census | 27 | Species Recapped | 17 |
Species Recorded | 47 | Species Recorded | 140 |
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