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Week 2: August 8-14, 2008 |
Welcome
to the McGill Bird Observatory weekly report.
Click here for a complete listing of our archives.
Comments or
questions are welcome at "mbo AT migrationresearch.org".
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PICTURE
OF THE WEEK: |
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The numbers below prove that migration is well underway for many species, but there
are others for which this is still very much part of their breeding season. Among this
small group are House Wrens, on (at least) their second brood of the seaason
currently ...
including this scruffy little youngster.
(Photo by Barbara Frei)
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THIS WEEK |
THIS FALL |
2008 TOTAL |
SITE TOTAL |
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# birds (and species) banded |
187 (42) |
374 (45) |
1216 (72) |
14194 (105) |
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# birds (and species) repeat |
47 (14) |
89 (20) |
287 (33) |
2513 (61) |
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# birds (and species) return |
-- |
11 (7) |
103 (21) |
434 (31) |
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# species observed |
71 |
85 |
140 |
194 |
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# net hours |
459.3 |
845.8 |
3758 |
25703.8 |
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# birds banded / 100 net hours |
40.7 |
44.2 |
32.4 |
55.2 |
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Note: table does not include nocturnal banding (owls) |
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Banders-in-charge: Marie-Anne
Hudson, Barbara Frei
Assistants: Sophie Cauchon, Anne Chen, Nicki Fleming, Gay Gruner, Marie-Melissa Kalamaras, Joëlle LaPalme, Helen Leroux, Barbara MacDuff, Mike Mayerhofer, Chris Murphy, André Pelletier, Laurie St-Onge
Notes:
We closed out this week with 187 new birds banded - exactly the same as last week. If our nets hadn’t been closed by rain on a few days though, we’re sure we would have gotten close to 2006’s fall total for the week (225 of 40 spp), though we certainly surpassed last year’s 142 banded of 33 species. Fourteen new species for the season were observed this week: Turkey Vulture, Lesser Yellowlegs, American Woodcock, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Common Raven, Philadelphia Vireo, Hermit Thrush, Brown Thrasher, Magnolia Warbler, Myrtle Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Mourning Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Golden-winged Warbler! These birds bring our season total to 85 species, on par with last year at this time (84 spp) and just behind 2006 (91 spp). Thirteen new species for the season were banded, and four species were banded for the first time in 2008: Great-crested Flycatcher, Eastern Kingbird, Hermit Thrush, and our second-ever Golden-winged Warbler.
Highlights of the week include (obviously) banding the Golden-winged Warbler, having a Gray Catbird coming back to us after being banded as a second-year bird in 2005, chattering baby House Wrens at every turn (which were banded early in the week), and banding a ton of warblers (14 species).
This week’s top 10 banded species is nothing like last week’s, with six species being replaced. American Redstarts took over this week, in numbers that easily beat our previous weekly record of 15 banded in 2007. Other new entries in our top 10 include Red-eyed Vireo, which also appeared in good numbers at this time last year. Canada Warbler and Ovenbird appear half-way down and last on the list, respectively, mirroring 2006’s results from this time period.
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This week’s
top 10
[last week’s rank in brackets]
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#
individuals banded |
mean # individuals observed daily |
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1.
American Redstart (21)
[-] |
1.
Common Grackle (23)
[7] |
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2.
Baltimore Oriole (14)
[3] |
2.
American Crow (17)
[4] |
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3.
Traill’s Flycatcher (13)
[6] |
3.
American Goldfinch (15)
[1] |
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4.
Song Sparrow (12)
[-] |
3.
Black-capped Chickadee (15)
[6] |
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4.
Red-eyed Vireo (12)
[-] |
5.
Cedar Waxwing (14)
[7] |
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6.
Canada Warbler (10)
[-] |
6.
Blue Jay (12)
[9] |
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7.
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (8)
[4] |
7.
American Robin (11)
[2] |
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8.
Black-capped Chickadee (7)
[7] |
8.
Song Sparrow (9)
[4] |
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8.
House Wren (7)
[-] |
9.
Canada Goose (7)
[-] |
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8.
Ovenbird (7)
[-] |
10.
Gray Catbird (6)
[9] |
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Comparatively, the top 10 observed species shows quite a bit more overlap with last week’s numbers, despite being somewhat shuffled. The Common Grackles are starting to flock up a little, but still aren’t anywhere near the giant flocks of past years. The only new species to creep onto the list this week is the Canada Goose, with small flocks starting to appear in or flying over the fields next to MBO
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An impressive rarity, this hatch-year female was only the second Golden-winged Warbler ever banded at MBO.
(Photo by Barbara
Frei)
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