McGILL BIRD OBSERVATORY

SPRING MIGRATION MONITORING PROGRAM

Week 3:  April 11 - April 17, 2005

Welcome to the McGill Bird Observatory weekly report.  Click here for a complete listing of our archives.  Comments or questions are welcome at mbo@migrationresearch.org

PICTURE OF THE WEEK:


On Tuesday morning a flock of over 40 Cedar Waxwings was feeding on the buckthorn
berries, and 7 individuals got caught in net C2.  The group included all four age/sex classes,
giving us a great opportunity for comparison.  The individual in this photo is a second-year
male, the sex evident from the extensive black on the chin.  (Photo by Marcel Gahbauer)

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  THIS WEEK SPRING TOTAL YEAR TOTAL SITE TOTAL
# birds (and species) banded 17 (8) 36 (10) 95 (17) 1016 (49)
# birds (and species) repeat 5 (2) 5 (2) 39 (2) 217 (17)
# birds (and species) return -- 2 (1) 12 (3) 14 (4)
# species observed 41 54 58 143
# net hours 61.2 176.5 234.5 1209.0
# birds banded / net hour 27.8 20.4 41.8 84.0

Note: table does not include nocturnal banding (owls)

Bander-in-charge:  Marcel Gahbauer
Assistants:  Jean Demers, Christina Donehower, Gay Gruner, Marie-Anne Hudson, Barbara MacDuff, Michael Mayer, Crissy Ranellucci, Clemence Soulard

Notes:  The weather has been glorious over the past week, consistently sunny and pleasant.  However, this stable high pressure system has also been accompanied by steady light north winds, and that has resulted in migration largely stalling.  Early in the week new migrants included Yellow-bellied Sapsucker and Brown Thrasher, and on Saturday our first ever Pied-billed Grebe was observed, but other than that no new arrivals were noted.

Banding this week took place only on Tuesday due to logistical constraints.  We were fortunate to catch part of the flock of waxwings that has been hanging around over the past week, though the Bohemians evaded us.  The rate of capture remains relatively low, but improved over last week, and will likely continue to rise as the diversity of migrants increases and more birds settle into the lower vegetation rather than just flying by overhead. 


The moult of the American Goldfinches continues!  This second-year male caught this
week is again much more yellow than those we've seen previously this year.  However,
patches of old beige feathers remain conspicuous on the crown and (less visible from
this angle) the nape.  (Photo by Marcel Gahbauer)

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