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WINTER
POPULATION MONITORING |
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Week
19: March 6-12, 2007 |
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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This grey
squirrel took advantage of several sunflower seeds that were
accidentally spilled
on the snow near the garbage containers. The containers are
used to hold different bird
seeds throughout the winter months. Leaving seeds on the ground
may be our answer to
minimizing the amount of time squirrels spend hanging from and
damaging different feeders!
(Photo by Shawn Craik)
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THIS WEEK |
THIS WINTER |
2007 TOTAL |
SITE TOTAL |
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# birds (and species) banded |
5 (3) |
86 (10) |
24 (6) |
9342 (96) |
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# birds (and species) repeat |
1 (1) |
28 (6) |
7 (2) |
1556 (52) |
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# birds (and species) return |
-- |
6 (1) |
3 (2) |
203 (26) |
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# species observed |
17 |
48 |
29 |
180 |
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# net hours |
6 |
91.0 |
25.0 |
14047.8 |
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# birds banded / 100 net hours |
83.3 |
94.5 |
96.0 |
66.5 |
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Note: table does not include nocturnal banding (owls) |
Bander: Marie-Anne Hudson
Observers and assistants:
Shawn Craik, Gay Gruner, Betsy McFarlane
Notes:
With rising
temperatures possibly indicating that spring is just around the corner,
we managed to squeeze a banding session in at the end of this week,
netting 5 new birds and 1 recap in just under 2 hours. The wind made us
close a little early and made for some very springy nets. We could have
easily doubled the number of birds banded had the wind cooperated – but
there will be plenty of time for that in the coming weeks as we gear up
for the spring season. The Red-shouldered Hawk was calling
intermittently throughout the morning, but our suspicions will only be
laid to rest once we actually SEE it, since we have some extremely
talented Blue Jays in the area. Fortunately the bird was calling from
very high up in the sky, indicating that it was likely our local
breeding pair setting up its yearly territory. Observation highlights
included a Northern Harrier and Herring Gull, the first observations of
these species at MBO for 2007. Shawn would like to warn anyone who may
be considering going for a walk on the site’s ponds – by his experience,
you may get wet!
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