POWDERMILL NATURE RESERVE
APRIL 8-14, 2002 BANDING TOTALS
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We banded on six days between 8-14 April.
Weather during most of the week was characterized by seasonable temperatures
(cool mornings and mild afternoons), with scattered showers at the beginning
and end of the week, but with mostly clear, sunny, breezy conditions in
between.
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Best banding day was on Friday 4/12, when 73 birds
of 16 species were banded, most of these being Dark-eyed
Juncos (25 banded) and Ruby-crowned
Kinglets (18). For the week, a total
of 236 birds of 30 species was banded, again led by DEJU
(53) and RCKI
(40), followed by Black-capped Chickadee
(19) and Chipping Sparrow
(16). We banded eight new species for the spring season (see table
below), including two "Yellow"
Palm
Warblers (see photos below table), which brings
to 39 the total number of species banded at Powdermill thus far in spring
2002. Other returning spring migrants seen but not banded this week
included American Bittern,
Common
Snipe,
Yellow-rumped
Warbler,
Blue-gray
Gnatcatcher.
The following table summarizes our banding
(and recapture) totals for this week, for the Spring 2002 season (beginning
1 March), and for the year to date. Photo highlights for the week,
including tips for birders and banders and a special recognition for one
of our assistants, are posted below the table.
SPECIES |
Week
4/08-4/14
Totals |
Running
Spring
2002
Totals |
Running
2002
Annual
Totals |
Mourning
Dove |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Red-bellied
Woodpecker |
0 |
1 |
2 |
Hairy
Woodpecker* |
1 |
1 |
2 |
Northern
Flicker* |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Eastern
Phoebe |
0 |
7 |
7 |
Blue
Jay |
1 |
2 |
4 |
Tree
Swallow* |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Black-capped
Chickadee |
19 |
35 |
39 |
Carolina
Chickadee |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Tufted
Titmouse |
3 |
8 |
9 |
White-breasted
Nuthatch |
2 |
4 |
4 |
Brown
Creeper |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Winter
Wren* |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Golden-crowned
Kinglet |
12 |
25 |
28 |
Ruby-crowned
Kinglet |
40 |
45 |
45 |
Eastern
Bluebird |
0 |
1 |
1 |
American
Robin |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Brown
Thrasher |
1 |
2 |
2 |
European
Starling* |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Cedar
Waxwing |
1 |
6 |
6 |
"Yellow"
Palm Warbler* |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Louisiana
Waterthrush |
0 |
1 |
1 |
Eastern
Towhee |
0 |
1 |
1 |
American
Tree Sparrow |
0 |
0 |
2 |
Chipping
Sparrow |
16 |
21 |
21 |
Field
Sparrow* |
8 |
8 |
8 |
Fox
Sparrow |
5 |
57 |
60 |
Song
Sparrow |
11 |
104 |
107 |
Swamp
Sparrow |
10 |
15 |
15 |
White-throated
Sparrow* |
2 |
2 |
2 |
Dark-eyed
Junco |
53 |
227 |
237 |
Northern
Cardinal |
0 |
3 |
7 |
Red-winged
Blackbird |
10 |
18 |
19 |
Rusty
Blackbird* |
1 |
1 |
1 |
Brown-headed
Cowbird |
1 |
2 |
2 |
Purple
Finch |
9 |
11 |
14 |
House
Finch |
4 |
22 |
36 |
Pine
Siskin |
2 |
4 |
4 |
American
Goldfinch |
15 |
50 |
74 |
House
Sparrow |
0 |
2 |
2 |
Banding
Totals |
236 |
699 |
775 |
Recapture
Totals |
109 |
479 |
1009 |
* new
species for Spring 2002 |
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We banded ten more Red-winged
Blackbirds during the week of 4/8-4/14, all
of them males. Last week we published a photos of an unusually bright
ASY female RWBL.
In the photo strip below (from left to right), the epaulet of that female
is compared to a typical SY male, a brighter SY male, and an ASY male.
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We banded our first Palm
Warblers on 4/11 and 4/13--both were males
of the more easterly "Yellow"
race, which is comparatively very rare west of the main ridges of the Appalachians.
Robert Leberman, Powdermill's principal bander, currently is preparing
a manuscript on the occurrence of the two forms at Powdermill. Briefly,
out of some 1,300 Palm Warblers
banded at Powdermill since 1961, only 50 (4%) have been ascribed to the
eastern race. Both forms are much more commonly and frequently captured
in the fall migration, but "Yellow"
Palm
Warblers comprise more than 30% of all spring
captures at Powdermill, compared to <2% in fall. "Yellow"
Palm
Wablers migrate much earlier in spring than
the "Western"
race--in fact, we have never banded a "Western"
Palm
Warbler on a date as early as the two eastern
race birds were banded this week. Distinguishing features for the
"Yellow" eastern
race are little or no contrast between the yellow undertail coverts and
the lower belly, a yellower lower eye ring, and heavier, more extensive
and more richly colored streaks on the breast and sides. The bird
pictured below is a second year, SY, male.
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In spring, banders are faced with the challenge
of trying to distinguish between second-year (SY; hatched in the previous
calendar year) and after second-year (ASY; hatched at least two calendar
years prior). One useful criterion is tail feather shape, the retained
juvenal rectrices of many SY birds being comparatively more narrow and
pointed than comparable "adult" rectrices.
A few weeks ago we showed the case of an SY Dark-eyed
Junco that had adventitiously replaced
several juvenal rectrices, thereby providing a side-by-side comparison
between retained juvenal and adult-like replacement rectrices. Below
is a photo of a Black-capped Chickadee
showing similar mixed age rectrices. The eight rectrices on the left
side of the photo (the bird's right rectrices 1-6, numbered from the center,
and left rectrices 1 & 2) are adult-like replacement rectrices, while
the four on the right (the bird's left rectrices 3-6) are retained juvenal
feathers. Note the more worn and pointed appearance of the juvenal
rectrices, as well as the much more extensive white edging on the adult-like
replacement feathers. The very fact that tail feathers frequently
are lost and replaced between normal molts is one of the reasons why tail
feather shape must be used with great caution by banders, and only with
other supporting characters (e.g., molt limits), when determining the ages
of birds in hand.
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At the end of this week we bid farewell to our
faithful Research Assistant, Adrienne Leppold,
a graduate in Wildlife Biology at California University of Pennsylvania.
Adrienne began
here as a volunteer banding intern during early spring 2001, during which
time she also assisted with data entry for various research projects.
She took a seasonal position as bander and nest-finder for songbird studies
in southwestern Alaska during the summer and returned to Powdermill in
time to help with our record fall 2001 banding season. Beginning
last fall, and throughout the winter, Adrienne
has assisted us part-time with a major research project--the summarization
and analysis of nearly 300,000 original Powdermill banding records for
a reference publication for banders and avian ecologists on body mass and
wing length variation in more than 125 species of birds. This publication
likely will be the most comprehensive of its kind (easily eclipsing an
earlier compendium of Powdermill body mass data published in 1978 by Mary
Clench and Robert
Leberman (Carnegie Museum of Natural History
Special Publication No. 5), and its completion in the very near future
is thanks largely to Adrienne's
dedicated efforts. Adrienne is
heading off to Alaska again this spring and summer, this time to study
populations of cliff-nesting seabirds. Many thanks, Adrienne,
for all your hard work--we'll see you in October!
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Last Updated on 04/15/02
By Robert S. Mulvihill