• Saturday and Sunday, 5/19-20, were the slowest banding days (in terms of capture rate) so far this spring season.  No new species were banded, however, recaptures on 5/19 provided our first handlings of two species for the season--American Crow and Great Crested Flycatcher.  Interestingly, this was the first recapture since original banding for both birds, and both set age records for their species for our program (the AMCR was a minimum of  7 yrs. old and the GCFL was at least 8 yrs. old at this recapture--frankly, we don't think the GCFL looks a day over 4!)

Minimum 7 yr. old American Crow (above); minimum 8 yr. old Great Crested Flycatcher (below)

• It was overcast, calm, and mild early AM, with a few sprinkles; warm, but still overcast, and breezy by afternoon on 5/18. Wood warblers again made up about half of the species banded today and, collectively, over half of the total number of birds banded.  Particularly well-represented were Yellow, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Wilson's, and Mourning warblers.  We banded our second Orange-crowned Warbler of the season, a very dull-plumaged (no contrasting color in the crown at all) SY female (photo below).   We were visited at the banding station by noted ornithologist and bander, Dr. George Hall, and his wife from Morgantown, West Virginia.   George has a long tradition of spending a day with us in May (always scheduled by him to be near the height of the wood warbler migration), and he usually brings us good luck--certainly that was the case again this year.  Many thanks, George!

• Out of curosity, what do other banders who study molt make of this female Yellow Warbler that we banded today?

• Right wing (top):  all secondaries, primary covs. 1-6 and their associated primaries,

as well as the alula covert, contrastingly fresher than adjacent wing feathers (i.e., distal alula feathers and primaries 6-9 and their coverts).
• Left wing (bottom):  all secondaries, primary covs. 1-3 (but not any  primaries) and the two proximal alula feathers contrastingly fresher than adjacent feathers of the wing.  Retained primaries showed a fault bar suggesting that they are juvenal remiges.

 
• Is this an odd case of much more extensive than usual first prebasic or first prealternate molt by an HY/SY, or is it an equally odd case of incomplete definitive prebasic molt in an SY??  Alternatively, is it simply a case of a very lucky bird who managed to survive the extensive accidental loss of a large number of wing feathers and subsequently replaced them all adventitiously (Note: all of the bird's rectrices were similar in color, lustre, and wear to the retained primaries)?

• It was overcast, breezy, and rather cool on 5/17. We banded five new species for spring, including Sharp-shinned Hawk (a second-year, SY, male; photo below), Yellow-bellied and "Traill's" flycatchers, and Black-and-white and Canada warblers.   Overall, wood warblers constituted half of the 24 species banded and, collectively, almost half of the total number of birds banded (finally!).

• On 5/16 we caught a female warbler that struck us as being very unusual (possibly a hybrid Blackpoll X Bay-breasted Warbler).  In fact, we could not satisfy ourselves that the bird was one species or the other--it had characteristics of both (e.g., leg color of BBWA/undertail covert color of BLPW; faint bay color on the sides of the breast like a BBWA/faint streaks on the sides like a BLPW; black-streaked green crown (w/o any trace of a chestnut patch) like a BLPW/ duller facial pattern (with indistinct eyeline) like a BBWA, etc., etc.)--and we released it unbanded after extensively documenting it with still and video photography.  Interested paruliphiles can view several images (click here), and we would be interested to hear any opinions about the bird in question.

• Mostly clear and cold (with ice on a few nets) in early AM on 5/15; becoming partly cloudy and mild by late AM; nets were closed at noon due to intermittent rain and the threat of heavy showers. Magnolia Warbler, with ten more banded today (41 total for the season), continues to be the most frequently caught warbler species this spring.  However, it was the capture of one new species for the season that made it a truly EXCITING banding day...

 

 
 
 

Today we caught and banded our fourth ever Swainson's Warbler, a southeastern U.S. and southern Appalachian species whose breeding range is not presently known to extend north into Pennsylvania.   Our previous SWWAs were all caught in mid-May in the years 1985, 1989, and 1992.  One of these (the bird banded in 1989) remained and sang persistently for two weeks during which time it was recaptured twice.  In the past ten years there have been several other records of persistent singing males of this species in our region, and it would seem to be only a matter of time before one of these presumed "overshoot" migrant males succeeds in attracting a mate and providing the first Pennsylvania nesting record for the species.  In fact, the second-year (SY) bird we banded today (photos below) probably was a female based on her comparatively short wing chord (66.0mm; the one known male that we banded had a wing chord of 71.0mm).