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WINTER
POPULATION MONITORING |
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Week
3: November 14-20, 2006 |
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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Winter banding finally got off to a good start on Sunday.
Among the birds captured was
this male Northern Cardinal, banded at MBO in late August this
year as a juvenile.
(Photo by
Marcel Gahbauer)
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THIS
WEEK |
THIS
WINTER |
2006
TOTAL |
SITE
TOTAL |
| #
birds (and species) banded |
20 (6) |
20 (6) |
4223 (84) |
9276 (96) |
| #
birds (and species) repeat |
8 (3) |
8 (3) |
658 (39) |
1536 (52) |
| #
birds (and species) return |
-- |
-- |
128 (22) |
197 (26) |
| #
species observed |
23 |
39 |
159 |
180 |
| #
net hours |
12.0 |
12.0 |
7546.7 |
13968.8 |
| #
birds banded / 100 net hours |
166.7 |
166.7 |
56.0 |
66.4 |
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Note: table does
not include nocturnal banding (owls) |
Bander-in-charge:
Marcel Gahbauer
Assistants:
Natalia Castellanos, Victoria Chang, Shawn Craik, Jean Demers, Valerie
Francella, Sabrina Gosselin, Gay Gruner, Chris Murphy, Troy Pretzlaw,
Greg Rand, Sabrina Richard-Lalonde, Clemence Soulard
Notes:
It was yet another wet week at MBO,
also unseasonably warm for several days, though cooling down to seasonal
temperatures by the end of the week. The flooding now appears to
be as extensive at this time last fall, which does not bode well for
spring conditions at the site.
Despite the weather, we were finally were
able to get in our first winter banding session on Sunday morning.
To our surprise, a large flock of House Finches has taken residence -
there were close to 50 in the area, a number we haven't seen in nearly
two years. Not surprisingly, they were the most numerous bird
banded that day, with 9 birds, eclipsing our total for the species over
the past 18 months! In contrast, American Goldfinches remain
unusually scarce, as they have been throughout the fall; we hope they
will turn up as the winter progresses. By this time last winter, we had
already banded 64 goldfinches - though to be fair, we had drier weather
and were able to band on several occasions earlier in the season.
The other banding highlight of the day was a
male Northern Cardinal, banded during our Fall Migration Monitoring
Program in late August. It nicely illustrated an interesting quirk
of songbird ageing that applies to this and a few other species in which
individuals of all ages undergo a full moult in the late summer / early
fall. Whereas this bird was easily recognizable as a juvenile at
the time of banding, it has now completed its moult, and is
indistinguishable from older cardinals - i.e., were it not for the band,
we would now be unable to tell its age, despite being able to do so
three months ago!
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