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WINTER
POPULATION MONITORING |
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Week
3: November 14-20, 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.
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PICTURE OF
THE WEEK: |
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Yes, another American
Goldfinch photo this week. Last week
we suspected the
featured bird was from some distance away; this week we know for
certain it is not
a local individual. That's because for the
first time, we have caught a passerine with
a foreign band.
There is nothing on the band to directly indicate the bird's
origin, but
we have reported the number to the Bird Banding Office
and hope to hear back soon
about when and where it was
banded. (Photo by Marcel Gahbauer)
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Special
thanks to Wildlifers in Baie D'Urfe for donating the seed to stock the
feeders for MBO's Winter Monitoring Program - click
here for
information about the store. |
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THIS
WEEK |
THIS
WINTER |
2005
TOTAL |
SITE
TOTAL |
| #
birds (and species) banded |
37
(5) |
116
(10) |
4075
(84) |
4996
(92) |
| #
birds (and species) repeat |
11
(2) |
48
(5) |
789
(36) |
867
(41) |
| #
birds (and species) return |
1
(1) |
2
(3) |
75
(14) |
75
(14) |
| #
species observed |
16 |
33 |
163 |
169 |
| #
net hours |
5.0 |
43.0 |
5424.1 |
6398.6 |
| #
birds banded / 100 net hours |
740.0 |
269.8 |
75.1 |
78.0 |
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Note: table does
not include nocturnal banding (owls) |
Bander-in-charge:
Marcel Gahbauer
Assistants: Shawn Craik, Barbara Frei, Marie-Anne Hudson,
Betsy McFarlane
Notes:
As has been the norm of late, weather limited us to one morning of
banding this week. Even then, an unexpected burst of flurries
mid-morning caused us to cut it short, contributing to the astronomical rate
of 740 birds per 100 net hours recorded for the day (having more than two
dozen American Goldfinches hit the nets together makes a bigger impact than
usual when the nets aren't open long at all).
With
today's influx, the American Goldfinches have taken a commanding lead for
the season - 64 out of a total of 116 birds banded! Interestingly,
only two of the ones caught this week were banded in previous weeks,
suggesting there is still a considerable migration underway. Most
interesting was a third banded bird which didn't correspond to any of the
band series we have used at MBO - after more than a year, we have finally
caught our first foreign-banded bird! We hope to learn about its
origins next week.
Otherwise,
the past week has been an unremarkable one. The only new species added
to the list for this winter was Common Raven, while others such as Wood Duck
and Golden-crowned Kinglet were absent and have likely left for the
south.
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