Teaming research with education to promote conservation

|  FALL 2007  |  SPRING 2008  |  SUMMER 2008  |

SPRING 2008

Saturday, 07 June
The last day of the official season and it was a great ending. See what you think: While putting up the nets, an Eastern Screech Owl flew into the net. Other highlights included the elusive Yellow-billed Cuckoo and another American Woodcock! We also captured a Black and White Warbler female with a brood patch. We have had a pair Black and White Warblers nesting on the ridge most years. For 5.5 hours of net operation we captured 18 new birds and 15 recaptures which included 12 species of birds.

                     Top 3 birds:

 Owls have modified feathers of the leading edge of their wing which lack barbules that hold the feather. See photo:  

 This feather adaptation allows for the birds to fly silent at night.

Cuckoos are late spring migrants. Enjoy this Yellow-billed Cuckoo! Remember the wings on the YBCU are rusty colored contrasting with its gray back. This characteristic makes for easy ID when the bird is flying. 

Have a great summer and if I have any news about summer banding I will post it here. Take time to help with the Ohio Breeding Bird Atlas if you have not put in some time. It is a worthwhile project. 

Bone up on your fall warblers it will be here sooner than later. 

Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Friday, 06 June
In my opinion today was a scorcher for this latitude. There were still a few surprises to add to the end of the spring season records. The numbers were nothing to get excited about. We had 14 new birds and 17 recaptures of 9 species for the migration site in a little over 5.75 hours of net operation. In conjunction with the migration station, the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship (MAPS) station was run. The MAPS station in Navarre is about 150 yards from the migration station in similar beach ridge habitat. The MAPS station netted 25 new birds and 11 recaptures. Twelve species were captured at the MAPS station birds. 

Prothonotary Warbler

The migration station has a high competition for Prothonotary Warbler nesting territories it seems. There were at least 3 males singing out in the buttonbush swamp and this week there had been one singing in a small slough area near a net. Yesterday we caught a female there. She was caught again in the same area. Today we netted in the vicinity, two after-second year males which could have been many years older than 3 years because they had wing feathers that were spectacular looking with rounded alulas and bright gray on the coverts. They could have been great, great grandfathers or older as fine as they looked. These did not compare with any of the other males we had caught this year. 

Another surprise bird this one is! (quiz bird for today) 

By the way, yesterday’s quiz bird was the bird with yellow legs and black head (black poll) female. If you remember in the fall, the Blackpoll Warbler has yellow pads to its feet which is all that is left of the yellow of its legs and feet in fall. Are you ready for fall warblers? The fun will begin in late August… 

The surprise for the MAPS station was this female Ruby-crowned Kinglet female. This is a late bird! 

                         Migration site species list: 

                        MAPS station species list: 

                *juvenile American Robins are out and about

Stay cool and enjoy the outdoors!
Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Thursday, 05 June
It was really warm this morning with the winds out of the southwest. The Cottonwood trees are releasing their white fluffy seeds. It looked like it was snowing at the station today. However, it did not feel like snow. A warm day today produced 39 birds with 16 recaptures. The catch of the day included 14 species with 5 warblers among the group. About half of the Traill’s Flycatchers keyed out to Willow Flycatchers. This is to be expected since the Willow Flycatcher is a local breeding species. Highlights for the day were White-eyed Vireo and a male Mourning Warbler. We caught a male and female Prothonotary Warbler but the male received all the oohs and aahhs. It would figure. 

The Quiz bird from yesterday was a Tennessee Warbler. I hope you guessed it correctly. The eyeline was very evident.  

Here is another quiz bird for you to not let your brain be stagnant. 

                           Top 5 bird species:

Enjoy the outdoors!
Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Wednesday, 04 June
The day started off really foggy but was better than the forecast just ten miles south of here which had thunderstorms and lightening. You could tell where the warm front was located. Light east winds in the morning turned southwesterly by afternoon. When the winds shift to the south I do not get excited because the number of birds are telling me it is the end of another migration season. Today we beat yesterday’s total by 2 with 23 new birds and 11 recaptures. Thirteen species were captured today including six warblers. Seven warblers were seen or heard at the site. The only warbler added that we did not catch was Common Yellowthroat. We are catching many Gray Catbirds, Yellow Warblers, and Common Yellowthroat females with brood patches which is another sign spring migration is over. We have caught at least two female Prothonotary Warblers with brood patches also. It is great to have Prothonotary Warblers around! Such a treat to see the touch of the sun with its white tail rays flying around the marsh. 

Wilson's Warbler female

There are still some female migrants around including Wilson’s Warbler and a male Mourning Warbler was still singing on site too! 

Highlights also include a Gray-cheeked Thrush and a Wood Thrush banded today. 

                  Top 4 birds:

So far I have not heard or seen where the Swainson’s Thrushes or Red-eyed Vireos have gone. They must have gone around us. Powdermill banding station in PA has had normal numbers of birds. I am still investigating where across the eastern US they made their travels north.

Here is a mystery bird we caught today for you to work on! As I have said before there is never a boring moment to be found in nature! 

Enjoy!
Julie Shieldcastle 

_________

Tuesday, 03 June
Today the winds were out of the southeast and even when the direction is slightly favorable I come into the marsh with a mindset that it could be a good day. Well, I am going to have to admit it appears that the majority of the birds went north and spring migration is just about over  L. Today brought 21 new birds with 12 recaptures in 5.33 hours. Yes, it was quiet and slow in the marsh today. A Yellow-billed Cuckoo is still in there taunting us or should I say laughing at us because we have not caught one this spring yet. A Canada Warbler and a Mourning Warbler were among the recaptures that were migrants hanging around to eat a few more bugs before taking off for their northern breeding areas. Five warbler species were captured today with 9 warbler species seen.

The highlight of the day was catching a nice
male Mourning Warbler-quite handsome!

                        The top 5 birds:

Before the season is completely over I must give a big Thanks to all the volunteers who have helped tremendously with this project. With their time and valuable help this monitoring project is possible. Here are a few pictures of the hard-working volunteers. There are around thirty-five volunteers who contribute to the project.

	Volunteers Rod & Pam
Volunteers Dave & Dianne
Volunteers Mark & Ryan
Volunteers Mary & Lee

My hat goes off to them for their hard work! 

As always, find time to appreciate what is in your backyard!
Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Monday, 02 June
The winds were coming lightly out of the southwest this morning. A high pressure system soon took effect creating a light lake breeze. There was not much singing at the site most likely because the females are most of the migrants coming through. Regardless the migrant bird numbers are dropping with only 53 new banded birds and 25 recaptures in 6 ¼ hours of net operation. Seventeen species of birds were banded including 6 warblers. Eight warbler species were seen or heard today. There was still a Black-throated Blue Warbler and a Wilson’s Warbler singing. We are still catching some Gray Catbirds and Common Yellowthroats with some fat reserves so that indicates to me that there are still a few migrants going north. 

Highlights for the day were a nice male Prothonotary Warbler and a Carolina Wren. 

                       Top 4 species:

Another measure of energetic condition that is used by some researchers in wintering or breeding populations is ptilochronology (feather time). When a feather is grown it has dark and light bars. The light bars of the feather are formed or grown at night and dark barring grows during the daytime. The width of dark and light bars is an indication of the condition of the bird when the feather is grown. A dark and light bar represent one day of growth. If the conditions are good for a bird the bars will be thicker or wider. To measure the condition of the bird at the time of feather growth, researchers would pull a feather usually a tail feather, and catch the bird subsequent times to measure if the feather has grown. When the feather has grown the same tail feather will be pulled and compared to the original feather to determine condition of the bird during the growth of the feather. Growth bars can be seen on this tail of a Gray Catbird. 

Enjoy the last days of songbird migration!
Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Sunday, 01 June
The winds out of the west turned to the northeast during the day which did not improve the number of birds. It could be that spring is winding down. It is anti-climatic to have the numbers slow down this quickly. Today we had 72 new banded birds and 23 recaptures including 18 species in 6 hours of net operation. Nine warblers were caught with 13 being seen on the site. 

Highlights for the day were an Eastern Kingbird and a Blue-headed Vireo. 

                      Top 7 birds:

Take time to enjoy nature and you will be better for it!
Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Saturday, 31 May
Strong storms and winds out of the southwest all night gave us hope that maybe today the bird numbers would improve. We had a nice variety of birds to show the Wild Birds Unlimited group visiting the station as well as for the public banding demonstration at the Observatory. 

From the numbers captured today it looks like the birds may have continued on north in the strong southwest winds overnight. There are still very few thrushes and Red-eyed Vireos for an average spring. I will have to check with other banding stations to see if they are getting the birds east or west of here. Today produced 126 new birds with 22 recaptures including 32 species in 7.5 hours of net operation. Twelve warblers and one hybrid were captured with 16 warbler species seen and/or heard. 

While I was at the last net putting away a bird I had extracted, a beautiful Brewster’s Warbler (Golden-wing X Blue-Wing) flew into the net right next to me.  It was about a foot away from me and I could see out of the corner of my eye the net bow out. And behold, it was a Brewster’s in the net!

 

Brewster's Warbler

Not only did we have that great catch but a female Hooded Warbler and couple Great Crested Flycatcher graced us with their presence. 

Hooded Warbler, female

                        Top 6 birds:
 

Sand is the substrate the banding station is located on and this morning it looked like a war zone. Last night was the first real warm night making optimum conditions for turtles to lay their eggs. However, the raccoons are also in tune with this annual ritual and had dug up a lot of the nests. Along with the many Snapping Turtles out and about today, we were greeted on the trail by a Blanding’s Turtle. It is always a pleasure to see them since they are endemic to the marsh region. It was a medium size one with a carapace dimension of about 6 inches by 10 inches.  There is always something outside to explore! 

Get out and enjoy Spring!
Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Friday, 30 May
The winds were out of the southwest so I was in great anticipation of a last push of late spring migrants today. It did not turn out to be as big of a day as I had thought. One hundred and eighty-one new birds with 27 recaptures were caught in 7.5 hours of net operation. Most birds that had been hanging around appeared to have left. There is still a large number of warbler species for this time of year counting 14 warblers captured and 17 warblers seen and/or heard.

Highlights for the day included another Olive-sided Flycatcher, Lincoln Sparrow, female Connecticut Warbler, female Purple Finch, female Blackburnian Warbler!, and several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds. The females are bringing up the grand finale…

Blackburnian Warbler, female

As you can see the flycatchers are here!!! 

                         Top 6 birds:

Mourning Warbler, female

The female Mourning Warbler has a gray head and has a split eye-ring which can sometimes be confused with a Connecticut Warbler. Some older female Mourning Warblers have the split eye-ring more defined and can confuse some. As I have said before if it is not a bright complete eye ring then it is a Mourning Warbler.

Enjoy Spring!
Julie Shieldcastle

_________

Thursday, 29 May
So did you guess the quiz bird from yesterday?! It is a female Bay-breasted Warbler. She is still gorgeous in her realm of Bay-breasted Warblers. 

Well one would have thought when the winds died down and were not from the northeast that the birds would be around. Not the case today at the migration monitoring station in Navarre. Not much in numbers but it was still a beautiful day with 85 new banded birds and 37 recaptures. We captured twelve warbler species with 18 species seen/heard. There has been a Black-throated Blue Warbler singing in the same location for over a week. We may get lucky and have a pair stick around for the summer. Thirty species of birds were banded with the highlights being a Connecticut Warbler (for Dave) (however he said since it was a female it does not count; he wants to see a male!—guess it takes a lot to satisfy my volunteers), White-throated Sparrow, and a nice looking Cedar Waxwing. 

A little influx of Yellow-bellied Flycatchers today but the Gray Catbirds still won out for the top bird of the day! I would still look forward to good bird days tomorrow and Saturday. You may have to look for them amongst the leaves. This helps you to fine tune your eyesight and your hearing!  

                  Top 6 species:

Check out this nice looking female Red-winged Blackbird!

We can only age to After-second Year but I think she is very old with all this color on her face and epaulets (lesser coverts).

Enjoy Spring!
Julie Shieldcastle 

_________

Wednesday, 28 May
Northeasterly winds again at 15 mph do not make for much bird movement into the site. We are waiting on the winds to turn to the south for the second pulse of the last wave to occur here. It only seems like last week it was early spring. Time flies when the birds are moving. It looks like Friday and Saturday will be the days for the second pulse to hit up here.  

A little over 6 hours produced 100 new banded birds with 29 recaptures. This included 23 species with 12 species of warbler being caught. Sixteen warblers were heard at the station with one being a Connecticut Warbler which was on the wish list for bird of capture today but it did not happen. Maybe it will occur tomorrow for my great volunteer Dave. Highlights for the day were an Eastern Kingbird and a couple Philadelphia Vireos. 

                     Top 7 species: