The wind was still blowing this morning, this time as a strong southerly that kept us warm and kept most of the mist-nets closed. Only two were able to be opened on our first net round and one of those had to be closed when the wind intensified a couple of hours later, leaving us to pin all of our hopes on net 15! After five and a half hours it too had to be closed, having captured two birds for us. The first was a very handsome male Varied Thrush: if you examine the photo below, you can see that his wing feathers are noticeably more brown than his blue-grey body feathers, an indication that this is a young bird, hatched this year, who hasn’t grown in his adult flight feathers. The second was an Oregon Junco, one of the dozens that were counted in and around the banding area this morning.
The strong wind appeared to appeal more to some bird species than to others. A flock of fifty American Pipits spent the morning periodically circling the north field, apparently enjoying practising some synchronized flying, but the Northern Goshawk that flew by was visibly working hard as it tried to find some calm air somewhere so that it could fly south towards the lake. Two Red-tailed Hawks were out riding the wind as well, and could be distinguished from each other by their different colour morphs. The first one, seen on census, was almost entirely dark except for its white wings and tail, which had fine stripes and thick dark edging: the characteristics of a Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk, a distinctive northwestern subspecies. The second was a Western Red-tail that was also dark but not so dark as to obscure its heavy breast-band, and had the eponymous red tail. Red-tailed Hawks come in more subspecies than just these two, and as each subspecies comes in both a light and a dark morph, there’s a wonderful variety of Red-tails out there for birders to spot!
With only one mist-net to keep an eye on, there was little need to stay at the banding station in between net rounds. I was out on a walk, counting Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-crowned Sparrows in the Firs when Sachi radioed to let me know that the American Crows in the north field had some unexpected company – three Black-billed Magpies! Even from a distance, I could see the flashing white of their wings as they followed their corvid cousins. This was the first time that Black-billed Magpies have been observed by the TLBO, and we were not the only people in the valley to see them: we returned home to a message from a friend and neighbour that one of the magpies had stopped by their yard as well this morning! Black-billed Magpies have been reported in the valley only once before, and Alexis Creek seems to be the westernmost point along Highway 20 where they are seen frequently.
The morning ended amid a flurry of raptors, as the Harlan’s Red-tailed Hawk from census perched briefly on the Kestrel Snag and a Merlin took some time out from harassing the Black-billed Magpies to chase a pair of American Kestrels around in the Firs. Sachi took the bal-chatri trap, baited with a mouse from the field house, to try and capture the latter, but the Merlin took up too much of their attention and neither of the kestrels was tempted to take the bait. Bal-chatri traps originated in India and the name is derived from a Hindi term that can be translated as ‘hair umbrella’, referring to the umbrella-like shape of the original traps, which had horsehair snares tied onto them to capture raptors with. TLBO’s bal-chatri is a simple wire box topped with fishing line snares, but the principle is still the same as it has been for hundreds of years: live bait, usually a small rodent or a small bird, is placed inside of the trap, and when a raptor swoops in to try and capture it, its feet become tangled in the snares, giving the falconer or bander time to come running in and grab it. Using a bal-chatri trap can be a very thrilling experience, but as it requires the right raptor, the right mouse, and exactly the right circumstances, its success rate is not terribly high!
To see our eBird list for today, please visit: https://ebird.org/checklist/S150594178.
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Species | Band | Recap |
Varied Thrush | 1 | |
Oregon Junco | 1 |
Daily | Season | ||
Birds Banded | 2 | Total Banded | 832 |
Species Banded | 2 | Standard Banded | 818 |
Birds Recapped | 0 | Species Banded | 53 |
Species Recapped | 0 | Total Recapped | 160 |
Species on Census | 19 | Species Recapped | 17 |
Species Recorded | 38 | Species Recorded | 141 |
That Thrush is too much! In its Halloween colours. I don’t think I’ve ever seen one of those Magpies. Beautiful!
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