• Cold, frosty, frozen net mornings delayed opening almost two hours many days this week, and with the weather these same days rather quickly turning warm and sunny by late morning, it negatively impacted banding totals.  We banded only about half the number of birds caught last week, although our banding effort this week was well more than half of last week's effort.  This week certainly marked the turning point of the fall migration season with respect to diversity, the most speciose day being just 28.   Ruby-crowned Kinglet topped this week's banding list, with 63 banded, followed by Black-capped Chickadee (47), White-throated Sparrow and Song Sparrow (41 each), and Am. Goldfinch (33).

• Pam Ferkett, Trish Miller-Lanzone, Annie Lindsay, Molly McDermott, and Matt Shumar all helped with banding this week.

• We banded three new species this week, the first of these on Wednesday, Oct. 6.  Two Brown Creepers entered our totals, both of unknown age and sex (molt limits in this species are nearly indiscernible because they usually occur among a small number of feathers in the lesser and median coverts and completely pneumatized skulls are unreliable because young bird's skulls can be fully ossified by this time of year.)

• Creepers are specially adapted for their unique bark-gleaning foraging behavior.  Because of this, just about everything on a creeper, from its claws to its beak to its tail feathers, is long, curved, and pointed.   Creepers cling to the sides of trees, spiralling up the trunk by gripping the bark with their long claws and bracing against their stiff tail feathers.  They use their slender, down-curved and pointed bill to snatch small insects, spiders and their egg masses from the tight nooks and crannies in the bark.

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• The other two new species were banded on Friday, October 8.  This hatching year female Dark-eyed Junco, was from our local breeding race, Junco hyemalis carolinensis, based, among other things, on its bluish bill color.

• Also banded on this date was our first Orange-crowned Warbler for the fall, an adult (AHY) male (sex based on the concealed orange crown--slighty revealed for this picture--and its comparatively long wing length of 59mm).  Although we usually manage to catch a handful of OCWA's in both the spring and fall, we sometimes "miss" banding them altogether, so catching this species is always a highlight for us.

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• Also banded on Friday was Lincoln's Sparrow no. 43 for the season--a hatching year bird with partial albinism on one wing.  While we not infrequently see cases of partial albinism (lack of pigment on parts of the body which typically result in wholly or partly white feathers - this most likely caused by a genetic deficiency of the enzyme that produces melanin), this one was very unusual because the albinism was not symmetrical.

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• Compared with last year (which was a particularly cool and wet breeding season for most birds), we have witnessed far fewer bill and leg deformities this season.  In fact, this Eastern Phoebe, banded on Saturday, Oct. 9, with its slightly crooked and hooked bill, was the first noticeable deformity we have observed this season.

• As many bird watchers have observed, this is an irruption (i.e., a periodic, but not necessarily annual, large scale movement) year for chickadees.  Pictured below is one of 17 chickadees banded on Oct. 9, bringing our fall total to 137 (that's a lot of sore fingers!)

• Over the course of 44 fall banding seasons at Powdermill, there has been a handful of very heavy (>250 banded) irruptions of BCCHs, and with much of the flight period for this species yet to come, 2004 may end up being another one of these years.  The biggest flight ever recorded here was in fall 1983, when we banded 490 birds.

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Although not strictly regular in their pattern of occurrence, in the graph below it is evident that there has been at least one heavy irruptive year in most of the three-year spans since banding began in 1961 (>150 chickadees banded in 13 seasons).  Lighter movements (>100 birds) occurred in an additional six fall seasons, suggesting that, on average, a noticeable southward movement in the Appalachians by northern populations of BCCHs occurs every other year or so, a pattern noted early on at Powdermill (Leberman.  1965.  Recent recoveries of chickadees. EBBA News 28:89-91).  Our fall banding totals in non-flight years generally are well below 50.

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• On Sunday, October 10, we netted our 10th Cape May Warbler for the week and our 28th for the season.  This handsome hatching year male.

• We banded him just shortly before we ended the day (and banding week for that matter) with a public banding demo at Powdermill Nature Reserve's Nimick Nature Center.  Guests of all ages enjoyed a brisk autumn day in the Laurel Highlands and the chance to see some familiar, and some unfamiliar, birds beak to nose, all while learning about the process and importance of bird banding in monitoring and conserving bird populations.

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Last Updated on 10/13/04
By Adrienne J. Leppold and
Robert S. Mulvihill