McGILL BIRD OBSERVATORY

WINTER POPULATION MONITORING

Weeks 14-17:  February 2009

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. 

PICTURE OF THE MONTH:



Common Redpolls are among the four finch species that have been regular visitors to
the MBO feeders this month.  (Photo by Greg Rand)
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THIS MONTH

THIS WINTER

2009 TOTAL

SITE TOTAL

# birds (and species) banded

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18921 (105)

# birds (and species) repeat

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3348 (65)

# birds (and species) return

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454 (32)

# species observed

28

38

28

197

# net hours

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30465.3

# birds banded / 100 net hours

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62.1

Note: table does not include nocturnal banding (owls)

Censusers: Jean Bacon, Tiffany Gilchrist, Gay Gruner, Peter Gruner, Kristen Keyes, Barbara MacDuff, Christine Murphy, Greg Rand

Notes: The cold trend continued into February and again we were not able to band. Our disappointment levels were especially high as 4 finch species (House Finch, Common Redpoll, Pine Siskin and American Goldfinch) were very regularly present in good numbers at the feeders.

Overall, we saw 28 species, raising the site total for 2009 to 30. The three most observed species were European Starling, Common Redpoll and Bohemian Waxwing. Other interesting sightings included Great Black-backed Gull, Brown Creeper, White-winged Crossbill, Northern Shrike and an early Red-winged Blackbird (27 February).

Towards the end of February, the promise of spring was in the air. The angle of the earth to the sun resulted in longer and more intense shadows than the previous months, the piercing song of the Northern Cardinal was audible everywhere, and an American Robin was heard rehearsing its spring song.


The winter landscape at MBO in winter, showing the deep accumulation of snow toward the
north end of Stoneycroft Pond. (Photo by Gay Gruner)

 

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