• The spring season at Powdermill, while arbitrarily defined by the first of March, is most notably marked by the arrival of Fox and Song Sparrow migrants.  Despite the capture of our first Fox Sparrow on March 5th (photo below), March banding didn't really distinguish itself from the last three months of winter until the 19th when 10 new Song Sparrows, a few Fox Sparrows, and our first real flight of Dark-eyed Juncos were banded.  It's usually just our anticipation of spring migration that always makes March seem slow to get going, but with only 109 birds banded this month, less than half the total from last year, our sense that spring migration was slow to arrive in SW PA this year was quantifiable.

• While March 19th brought us our first good capture of spring migrants, the little critter in the photo below that we also "caught" that same day in the sink at the banding lab put up quite a fight (literally) to grab our attention and interest.  And that it did, who knew there were scorpions in Pennsylvania?!

Well, as we thought, there aren't scorpions in PA.  But, there are pseudoscorpions, and this tiny  Chernetid is just one of over 350 species in North America.  Pseudoscorpions are so named because, like true scorpions, they have enlarged pincer pedipalps, but the short, oval abdomen lacks a tail or stinger.  Only about 2mm long, we couldn't help but appreciate this beast's aggressive approach at taking on the world.  After capture, we transferred it outside for release in the leaf litter so it could continue its hunt for a meal of small flies, ants, and mites.

• On March 26th, after their having been back in the banding area since the second week of March, we finally caught our first Red-winged Blackbird--no surprise, an adult male.

• Also banded on the 26th was this second year male House Finch.  A commonly discussed topic on this website is the ageing and sexing of House and Purple Finches.  Unlike Purple Finches, immature HOFI males acquire their red/orange plumage in their first year of life, alleviating possible confusion of a young male with an adult female, as is often the case with Purple Finches.  The plumage of male House Finches can also be helpful in distinguishing between adults and immatures, i.e. ASY and SY this time of year.  While we always encourage the use of molt limits as the primary ageing technique, scattered yellow or orange patches, as seen on the forehead of the bird in the photo below, is a typical characterisitc of a SY bird.

---

• Finally, the song of the first Eastern Phoebe is popularly known as the harbinger of spring to many Pennsylvanians.  Normally returning by mid March, the latest arrival date ever cited for the Ligonier Valley was March 28th (The Birds of the Ligonier Valley, Robert C. Leberman, 1976).  The first phoebe song this year at Powdermill was heard on March 21st, but we barely squeezed our first EAPH capture into this month with the banding of this second year bird on the 31st.  In the wing photo below, the outer two greater coverts are retained juvenal feathers, i.e. the molt limit is between GC 2 and 3.

.
Incidentally, since his retirement in December 2003 as senior bird bander at the station, Bob Leberman, who began the banding program here at Powdermill in 1961, has been working on writing the second edition of The Birds of the Ligonier Valley, covering records from 1976 to the present.  We look forward to its printing in 2006 as part of the celebration of Powdermill Nature Reserve's 50th anniversary.

Last Updated on 4/02/05
By Adrienne J. Leppold