POWDERMILL NATURE RESERVE
PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS
May 5-11, 2003
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Sunday, May 11, 2003: It
was our busiest banding day of the season by all measures: 105 birds
and 36 species banded (four of these new for the season), at a rate of
>50 birds/100 net-hours. Far and away the commonest bird today, with
28 banded, was Magnolia Warbler (an
ASY male pictured below).
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With another eight banded today,
our spring 2003 total for Nashville Warbler
now stands at 72, which already is our fourth highest spring total in 42
years of banding at Powdermill (high totals are 114 in spring 1970; 82
in 1997, and 76 in 1990).
.
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Today we banded our first Philadelphia
Vireo (top photo below) of the season; this
PHVI
can be compared directly with a male Tennessee
Warbler like the one that we banded today
(bottom photo below). Although sometimes difficult to discern in
the field, the difference in bill morphology between these two look-alike
species--the vireo having a thicker bill with a hook on the tip; the warbler
having a thinner, very pointed beak--is very conspicuous when these birds
are in the hand
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Because of their usually brighter
coloration, photos of adult males of many of the songbird species that
we band probably unfairly dominate our web pages--on Mother's Day, especially,
we have strived to mitigate this inequality of coverage with these photos
of female Black-and-white
(top photo below), Prairie
(middle photo) and Blackburnian (our
first of the season; bottom photo) warblers banded today. Happy
Mother's Day!
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Saturday, May 10, 2003:
Like
yesterday, we managed to get only about two hours of banding in from 6:00am
until 8:00am, before heavy thunderstorms forced early closing of the 25
or so nets we had cautiously opened. Like yesterday, we also reopened
some nets in the afternoon for an additional couple of hours of banding.
The difference between yesterday and today, however, was the severity of
the thunderstorms and the volume of rain. Simply put, this morning's
rain was a deluge that quickly flooded the small ponds and streams in the
banding area, making access to many nets impossible for several hours after
the rain had subsided (photos of flooded paths and net lanes below).
The skies were so dark through the early morning hours that it almost seemed
as though there never was a sunrise today! Diane
Pick,
Brian Jones,
and Nathan Tarr helped
with the banding.
The photos below were taken about
eight hours apart, the top photo of each pair shortly after the rain stopped
at about 10:00am, and the bottom photo at about 6:00pm, after most of the
high waters had receded.
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Although we were wary of the forecasted
storms and kept a watchful eye on the local Nexrad radar loop playing on
our computer, there seemed to be heavy bird activity in the banding area,
so we decided to run a small set of close in nets (the Pond
Nets). We made more or less continuous net checks (even as the
storms approached closely with frequent lightning) and closed all of our
nets just as the heavy rains arrived. During these two dark
and stormy hours this morning, with less than 50 net hours of effort, we
banded 38 of the total 49 birds for the day, including two new species
for the spring: two Mourning Warblers
(both adult, ASY, males like the one pictured below)
and this Spotted
Sandpiper (an AHY bird that we sexed as a
female by the very heavy spotting of its underparts and its comparatively
large size--flat wing 110.0mm and bill 26.0mm).
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Very unusual at our banding station
was the simultaneous capture this morning of five Baltimore
Orioles in two adjacent nets (a sixth bird
escaped before it could be removed from the net). The five orioles,
all males, showed a gradient of plumage brightness, ranging from two comparatively
dull second year (SY) males with a fully juvenal tails (top two birds),
to brighter SY males with partly or completely "adult" rectrices (next
two birds), to a "perfect" ASY specimen (bottom bird).
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Friday, May 9, 2003:
Among
the 43 birds of 25 species banded today were three new species for the
spring: Barn Swallow,
"Traill's"
Flycatcher,
and
Tennessee Warbler.
The mid-afternoon net reopening netted us 14 birds out of today's total,
including the aforementioned BARS
and TEWA, a somewhat
late Rusty Blackbird,
and this trio of picture-perfect after second year (ASY) male wood warblers
in full breeding plumage--is May great, or what?!
Top to bottom: Bay-breasted
Warbler, American
Redstart, Chestnut-sided
Warbler
Tuesday-Wednesday, May 6-7,
2003:
A total of 122
birds was banded over the two day period, including seven new species for
the spring. Four of these were wood warblers (Orange-crowned,
Bay-breasted,
Chestnut-sided,
and Canada).
Once again, Nashville (13
banded) topped the list of banded birds. Banding today provided for
some interesting comparisons:
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Last week we posted a photo of a
very handsome ASY male Indigo Bunting
(below left); in striking contrast (below right), today we banded an SY
male that was barely out of its first basic (i.e., winter) plumage!
In fact, the only evidence of prealternate molt was the actively growing
feathers on its head and a few scattered other molting body feathers.
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Since posting photos last week of
a possible hybrid Rose-breasted
X Black-headed Grosbeak (below
left), we have gotten little feedback from banders or birders familiar
with BHGRs in this plumage (ASY female in spring). Although we didn't
have one on hand for comparison at the time, today we banded an ASY female
RBGR (below right), the appearance of which (heavier streaking, less dusky
bill, etc.) reinforced our impression that the bird handled (but not banded)
on May 2 probably was a hybrid.
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Finally, one more interesting comparison
from today's banding was this pair of ASY Yellow
Warblers (female left, male right), caught
together in the same net, and both banded here in a previous year.
Although substantially less brightly colored than her prospective mate,
she exhibited about the heaviest chestnut breast streaking that we have
ever seen in a female YWAR.
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