Bander-in-charge:
Marcel Gahbauer
Assistants: Shawn Craik, Christina Donehower, Kate Earl, Barbara Frei, Gay Gruner,
Marie-Anne Hudson, Jeremy Labrecque, Mark O'Connor
Notes:
At MBO, the seasons are defined more by the movements of birds, rather
than the calendar. As such, the fall season begins at the start of
August, to coincide with the onset of migration by the early warblers,
and ends 13 weeks later as the late sparrows and thrushes are moving
out. In spring, the endpoint is easy to identify as the first week
in June, when the last northbound migrants are expected. However,
the start is more difficult to define - early American Robins and
Red-winged Blackbirds have already been back for a few weeks, but
there's no question that mid-March in Montreal is still more like winter
than spring. The last week of March is typically when a larger
number of species begin arriving, and therefore the spring season at MBO
is defined as the 10-week span from March 28 through June 5. The
formal Spring Migration Monitoring Program (SMMP) will operate daily
this year for 60 days, from April 5 through June 3.
This week we took
advantage of the beautiful sunny and warm weather to set everything up
for SMMP. The 11 core nets have been erected for the season, we've
done a good burst of spring cleaning inside, and we've started to apply
gravel and boardwalks to the wettest parts of the site to make the
walking safer and easier for everyone. Plenty of work remains to
be done as the season progresses, but it's a good start at least.
The birds have already
been streaming in over the past week, with new species added to the
yearly checklist almost daily. Sunday was the best day, with 32
species recorded on census alone, including 4 new arrivals for the year
- Winter Wren, Brown-headed Cowbird, Common Grackle, and Fox Sparrow.
At least two Eastern Phoebes have already been on territory for a few
days, and Song Sparrows have been increasing exponentially (the first
one on Wednesday, 2 on Thursday, 4 on Friday, 8 on Saturday, and 17 on
Sunday). Also of note, at least 9 Wood Ducks are scoping out the
newly enlarged back pond, and a pair of Canada Geese seems to have
already scoped out a territory in there too. The local
Red-shouldered Hawk has been circling low and calling almost daily, and
there have been as many as three others circling above him at once.
Last but certainly not least, we had MBO's second ever Bald Eagle
sighting on Friday, a fourth-year bird with an almost white tail and
head.
