Pictorial_Highlights

PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS, WEEK OF 5/23-5/28/01

Cool and partly cloudy early AM on 5/28, becoming cloudy, mild, and windy by noon, when nets were closed. We were disappointed again at the near lack of late migrants, however, an Acadian and a Traill's (probable Willow) Flycatcher caught in the same round provided a nice side-by-side photo opportunity. In addition to the browner back color, note the much brighter mouth lining color, more distinctly outlined whitish throat, and somewhat less distinct wing bars in the probable WIFL.

A female Northern Flicker (photo below left) was our 103rd species to band for the spring. The right hand photo shows why the former common name for this species, Yellow-shafted Flicker, is so appropriate.

If you look closely, you will see that the shafts of the secondary wing feathers (the inner three long feather shafts) and the primary coverts (the short, unpatterned feathers above the primaries) are paler yellow than those of the primaries (the seven visible outer long flight feather shafts). These differences tell us that the bird molted its primaries (but not its primary coverts or secondaries) last fall, which, in turn, tells us that it is an SY (or second-year) flicker. Note, also, that one or two of the primary feather shafts has a pinkish cast, sometimes taken as an indication of intergradation with the western "Red-shafted" flicker form, but, in this case, more likely a diet-related plumage variation.

We certainly were not helped by the weather on 5/27. Rain interrupted banding for >1 hr. in the late morning, and gusting winds forced net closing soon after the nets had been reopened following the rain. Nevertheless, our capture rate and species diversity picked up slightly compared to recent days. Highlight for the day was our first Blackpoll Warbler of the season (species #102), a handsome second-year (SY) male (below).

Despite good weather conditions for banding at our site on 5/26, we caught very few birds. In fact, our banding results foreshadowed the coming summer season banding--i.e., we banded no species that don't breed on the Reserve, and we banded our first hatching year (HY) birds of the year (not counting nestling Eastern Bluebirds and Louisiana Waterthrushes, which we band as part of special studies on the Reserve)--a juvenile Song Sparrow (not pictured) and Northern Cardinal (below).

A Mallard (below) was an unusual catch for us on 5/26 and provided us with our 101st species to band for the spring.

Banding results have continued to be comparatively lackluster this week, with the main highlight being the banding of 4 Yellow-bellied Flycatchers, a favorite species of ours, on 5/23; these were our first captures of the species since 5/17, when we banded our first springYBFL.

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