Pictorial_Highlights_102328

PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS, WEEK OF 10/23/01-10/28/01

Sunday, October 28, 2001:

We opened 51 nets before first light and by the first check of nets, just after first light, we knew it was going to be a "Red-Letter Day!" Below is a photo of just a portion of the catch in a single net that had already been cleared once before during the first net round--most of the 25+ birds visible are PIne Siskins (we ended up banding 61 PISIs)!

The first round netted us exactly 200 birds. Fortunately, we had lots of help, includingSteve Graff, Adrienne Leppold, and Jack, Karyl, and Jessica Merchant. Even Powdermill's Director, Dr. Joseph F. Merritt, our resident small mammal ecologist, converted briefly to field ornithology (try it you'll like it!), and his help with the record keeping on the heels of that first round (while others kept checking nets) really helped to get us off on the right foot. Thanks, Joe!

No one species dominated our catch on this extradordinary banding day--although White-throated Sparrows were the most numerous (75 banded), ten other out of 28 species were banded in numbers >25. With 30 banded, Hermit Thrush (one of them, an HY bird, pictured below) set a new one day record at Powdermill (previous high daily banding totals for this species were23 on 10/7/73 and 21on 10/18/83).

Because of the volume of birds being caught, we closed almost all of our nets beginning at 12:30pm. By 3:30PM, we had banded >500 birds, having continually processed birds (with full data collected for each) at a rate of about 1.3 birds per minute throughout the day. Birds caught later in the afternoon in a few nets left open near the feeders by the banding lab eventually pushed our day's total to 531, which constitutes the third highest daily banding total in the program's 40-year history. Previous high totals were 621 on 10/16/65, 576 on 10/22/82, and 529 on 10/25/95.

In the photo below, Adrienne gets a little giddy when she catches bird no. 530 for the day, the Black-capped Chickadee that gave us third place!

Pictured below are some of the Powdermill banding crew posing outside the banding lab with the last bird (no. 531) of the day--no not the Flamingo (although Joe offered to let us band it!), but another BCCH (being held by Bob Leberman). From left to right are Joe Merritt, Bob Leberman, Adrienne Leppold, and Steve Graff (and look, everyone's still smiling!)

Friday, October 26, 2001:

Northern finches dominated our catch today: we banded 40 Purple Finches and 11 Pine Siskins outnumbered the American Goldfinches (10). Best of all, we banded our first of the "WANTED" species mentioned in yesterday's notes--an adult female Evening Grosbeak turned itself in on our last check of the traps!

It looks as though many banders will find themselves handling numbers of PIne Siskins this fall and winter. For those who may not know, PISIs can be reliably and fairly easily aged using wing molt limits. The first prebasic (i.e., post-juvenile) molt of this species typically includes the lesser wing coverts (i.e., the "shoulder" or epaulet of the wing), most or all median coverts (the upper wing bar, when these feathers are edged), and some (but usually not all) greater coverts (the lower wing bar, again when the feathers are tipped or edged with a contrasting color). Often, a good molt limit will be seen between the few to several retained outer juvenal greater coverts and the few to several molted inner first basic greater coverts.

In the hatching year (HY) PISI whose wing is pictured below, greater coverts 1-7 and 10 (the innermost) are retained juvenal (dull, paler brown with a whitish edge), as are the outer three median coverts, while the inner median coverts and greater coverts 8 & 9 (more lustrous blackish brown, with dark buff edges) have been molted. Note, in general, greater covert #10 molts after at least a few of the adjacent greater coverts have molted. Thus, when only one to a few inner greater coverts have molted, #10 often will be retained juvenal, like the outer greater coverts.

Thursday, October 25, 2001:

Although we forgot to mention it in yesterday's notes, two Evening Grosbeaks were seen and heard calling as they flew over the banding area on Thursday. This is a species that we have not seen or banded in large numbers for many years (last heavy flight was in 1986, and only 10 have been banded here in the last three years). Perhaps this fall EVGRs will follow in the wingbeats of PUFIs and PISIs--that would add welcome interest (if also a bit, or bite, of unwelcome pain) to the late fall/early winter banding period!

Some of you may remember this mugshot posted on our website last fall, when, unfortunately, we didn't get our bird--who knows, maybe this year!

Wednesday, October 24, 2001:
We banded one new species for the fall today, an immature male European Starling. We never catch very many of this species at our station, and we enjoy them almost as though they were a rare species. Surely, its finely spotted, iridescent winter plumage is worthy of some admiration!

Among the 18 Yellow-rumped Warblers banded today were two individuals that likely belonged to the so-called Alaskan subspecies, Dendroica coronata hooveri. Interestingly, we had five individuals of this race on the day last week when we banded our first ever Gambel's White-crowned Sparrow, which also has its origins in far northwestern North America (Alaska and the Northwest Territories to northern Birtish Columbia). D. c. hooveri is much larger and grayer dorsally compared to the nominate eastern race, with the result that male hooveri can have wing lengths (ca. 80mm) never attained by eastern males, and female hooveri often have wing lengths exceeding eastern males. The putative hooveri female banded today (its sex based on its very dull plumage pattern and color) and pictured below was an after hatching year (AHY) bird having an unflattened wing length of 77.5mm (i.e., longer than almost any eastern male Yellow-rumped Warbler).

Tuesday, October 23, 2001:

Although White-throated Sparrows were the order of the day, the banding of an immature White-crowned Sparrow of the usual eastern race afforded us the opportunity to revisit the Gambel's WCSP (a far northwestern subspecies) caught two days ago (see Past Pictorial Highlights for a different photo from that below). In the photos of the Gambel'sWCSP (left) and the eastern WCSP from today (right), the difference in extent of the light area above the eye (the supraloral region) and the bill color (yellowish orange in Gambel's; pinkish in the eastern race) can be directly compared.

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