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McGILL BIRD OBSERVATORY |
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Welcome
to the McGill Bird Observatory weekly report.
Click here for a complete listing of our archives.
Banders-in-charge: Simon Duval, Marcel Gahbauer, Lance Laviolette Notes: The first few days of this week overlapped with our banding workshop, with special guest Peter Pyle; for more about this event, click here. On top of that, it was Birdathon week, with Marcel Gahbauer doing his mostly on foot (and with a bit of aid from public transit) in Toronto, the MBO Birdathon team doing theirs entirely on foot at MBO and in the Morgan Arboretum, and the Red-eyed Wearios exploring southwestern Quebec and eastern Ontario; please click on the preceding links for details, and consider donating in support of either effort to help fund the migration monitoring programs at MBO (click here to make a secure online contribution; charitable tax receipts will automatically be issued for all donations of $10 or greater). Now to the "regular" news for the week. Both the number of individuals and species banded this week were roughly average for this time of spring, but much of the activity came in the first half of the week, while the last few days were uncharacteristically quiet for this time of year. Another dozen species were observed for the first time this year: Wilson's Snipe, Willow Flycatcher, Marsh Wren, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Orange-crowned Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Cape May Warbler, Bay-breasted Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, Canada Warbler, Wilson's Warbler, and Scarlet Tanager. We also had a dozen species (many of the same ones) that were banded for the first time in 2010: Eastern Kingbird, Red-eyed Vireo, Gray-cheeked Thrush, Veery, Orange-crowned Warbler, Chestnut-sided Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Blackpoll Warbler, American Redstart, Black-and-white Warbler, Canada Warbler, and Wilson's Warbler.
As indicated by the above caption, one of the highlights of the week was the recapture of an Eastern Kingbird we banded at MBO in 2005. But even more interesting was the recapture of a Northern Waterthrush banded on May 16, 2003 at the Powdermill Nature Reserve in Pennsylvania as a second-year bird, putting this bird within one year of the longevity record for the species.
There was a fair amount of turnover this week with respect to the top species banded. Last week's top five were still around in decent numbers this week, but Yellow-rumped Warblers and White-crowned Sparrows were much less common, while the numbers of Yellow Warbers, Red-winged Blackbirds, and American Goldfinches banded increased. In general there was a modest influx of warblers this week, with Tennessee, Wilson's, Northern Waterthrush, and Common Yellowthroat also all common enough to make the top ten.
The most frequently observed species are the same as last week, except that Common Grackle has replaced Yellow-rumped Warbler. Canada Geese and Cedar Waxwings declined considerably in abundance this week, whereas Cliff Swallow and Ring-billed Gull increased. The top three species are in the same order as last year at this time, though Ring-billed Gulls were much less numerous than in 2009 (43 per day on average, vs. 79), while Cliff Swallows were more abundant (37 vs. 22). The rest of the species on the list are also the same as last year (albeit shuffled around a bit), except for Cedar Waxwing taking the place of Tennessee Warbler. Just two weeks of spring migration left now...
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