numbers numbers numbers by Sarah bonnett

Our intern Sarah bonnet doing what she love's best banding and releasing birds  data comes second 

Guest blogger Sarah Bonnet is the marsh intern and has take on the job of  making sure all of our dta is accurate and accessible which is a huge job which has earned her the nick name of the " data ferret" as she is  tenacious about our data and is pretty awesome  she will be bringing us updates  hopefully every Monday so that folks with an interest will be able to follow our research and try and help us make sense out of what we are seeing on the ground. First in starts with the data the the conjecture begins . Thanks for taking this on Sarah and now she will reveal what we have been banding over the last month.

Numbers Numbers Numbers

Everyone keeps asking me “what’s the highest we have ever banded for this bird?” closely followed by “are we close to beating that?” And the answer to question number 2 is usually yes. We have a bit of record fever here at the Hilliardton Marsh, and we’re smashing old records. From what I’ve been told, Fall is a wild card and August is crazy, so far it hasn’t let us down. Walking up to nets that have been empty all day and are now filled with 30+ birds is a bit daunting at first, but then exciting to radio back “I have another flock, send help.”

So with all these crazy days, it’s time to let the people know the answers to the questions they have been asking, “Just exactly, how crazy IS August?” and in a quick week by week way, I’ll be keeping you up to date for the remainder of the season.

Now, hang in tight, this is time for playing catch up on the last 4 weeks and I promise not to do it again!

we have been banding a lot of mourning warblers this fall is it a record sarah??

Week 1 Highlights

July 30 to August 6, six standard days banding, two days rained out (one of which Chris was able to get out an band a few birds in the afternoon). We averaged 78 birds banded a day between the 6 standard days.

481 birds banded of 41 species, including an Eastern Phoebe, which is a treat this far North! The birds didn’t seem to be really moving around much yet, with a good amount of very recently fledged young, obvious brood patches and the like. Hinting that our migration season hadn’t quite started yet, but we were happy to get some of our assumed locals. For standard days this week we were able to run all 40 nets with the help of the summer Ranger Crew, HMREC staff, and volunteers! American Redstart took the top spot this week with 48 banded, closely followed by 45 Swamp Sparrows and 37 Alder Flycatcher and White-throated Sparrows. Close race!

Week 1 Totals (481 birds banded, 41 species)

2 Mourning Dove

2 Downy Woodpecker

3 Ruby-throated Hummingbird

1 Eastern Phoebe

3 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

37 Alder Flycatcher

17 Least Flycatcher

6 Common Grackle

8 Purple Finch

10 American Goldfinch

37 White-throated Sparrow

21 Song Sparrow

45 Swamp Sparrow

5 Rose-breasted Grosbeak

9 Cedar Waxwing

17 Red-eyed Vireo

8 Philadelphia Vireo

6 Black-and-white Warbler

30 Nashville Warbler

10 Tennessee Warbler

2 Northern Parula

1 Cape May Warbler

30 Yellow Warbler

1 Black-throated Blue Warbler

1 Myrtle Warbler

6 Magnolia Warbler

18 Chestnut-sided Warbler

7 Ovenbird

2 Northern Waterthrush

6 Mourning Warbler

27 Common Yellowthroat

2 Wilson’s Warbler

48 American Redstart

5 Gray Catbird

1 Red-breasted Nuthatch

4 Black-capped Chickadee

3 Golden-crowned Kinglet

3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

21 Veery

12 Swainson’s Thrush

4 American Robin

cedar waxwing

Week 2 Highlights (August 7 to 13)

Again we were able to run all 40 nets, and many of the same returning faces from the previous week. We had many recently fledged birds again this week, however, we were kept much busier! We were able to band all days of the week, with the numbers picking up! We banded a total of 718 birds of 50 species, averaging 102 birds per day! Highlights included a Virginia Rail caught in the mistnets (making for one very happy Greg Rand) as well as a Sharp-shinned Hawk (making for one very happy Joanne Hamilton). Also we banded 5 Eastern Phoebe’s this week, which was the previous marsh total for ALL TIME, 2017 is officially the record setter now!

American Redstarts retained the lead this week with 111 banded, followed by 96 Alder Flycatchers (they’re making a strong effort!), third place was the Nashville Warbler with 56 banded! Seems we kicked those sparrows out of the top 3!

As of the end of the week, out fall total was 1199 birds banded of 52 species!

Week 2 Totals (718 birds, 50 species)

1 Virginia Rail

1 Mourning Dove

1 Sharp-shinned Hawk

2 Hairy Woodpecker

3 Downy Woodpecker

1 Yellow-shafted Flicker

9 Ruby-throated Hummingbird

2 Eastern Kingbird

5 Eastern Phoebe

6 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

95 Alder Flycatcher

33 Least Flycatcher

9 Purple Finch

5 American Goldfinch

20 White-throated Sparrow

1 Slate-coloured Junco

21 Song Sparrow

30 Swamp Sparrow

5 Rose-breasted Grosbeak

29 Cedar Waxwing

25 Red-eyed Vireo

14 Philadelphia Vireo

14 Black-and-white Warbler

56 Nashville Warbler

20 Tennessee Warbler

1 Northern Parula

8 Cape May Warbler

19 Yellow Warbler

2 Myrtle Warbler

8 Magnolia Warbler

35 Chestnut-sided Warbler

2 Bay-breasted Warbler

1 Blackpoll Warbler

10 Ovenbird

4 Northern Waterthrush

20 Mourning Warbler

14 Common Yellowthroat

9 Wilson’s Warbler

10 Canada Warbler

111 American Redstart

3 Gray Catbird

1 Winter Wren

1 Red-breasted Nuthatch

5 Black-capped Chickadee

6 Golden-crowned Kinglet

6 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

14 Veery

17 Swainson’s Thrush

1 Hermit Thrush

2 American Robin

Sarah with  black and white warbler  or a holstein warbler  as some of the kids like to call this bird 

Week 3 Highlights (August 14 to 20)

We were able to band for 6 of 7 days this week, only losing one day to rain, conveniently the day after we all stayed up all night with the MNR Airboat Duck Banding Crew! Which any followers of the blog know that we were crazy excited about the Marsh’s first banded American Bittern during that event! Other highlights this week included 2 more Virginia Rail’s caught in the mistnets, 2 Sora caught by the airboat crew, 2 more Eastern Phoebe (seriously!), our first Savannah and Lincoln’s Sparrows of the fall, and birds just keep on coming! Banded a total of 671 birds of 46 species, not including the ducks banded by the airboat crew. The total for the fall jumping to 1870 birds banded of 59 species!

No one can dethrone our reigning champion! 94 American Redstarts banded in our 3^rd week! Second place was retained by 71 Alder Flycatcher, however, our 3^rd place was beat down by 54 Red-eyed Vireo! (If you read yesterday’s blog, this could be the start of something….)

Week 3 Totals (671 birds, 46 species)

1 American Bittern

2 Virginia Rail

2 Sora

2 Sharp-shinned Hawk

1 Yellow-shafted Flicker

12 Ruby-throated Hummingbird

2 Eastern Phoebe

3 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

71 Alder Flycatcher

32 Least Flycatcher

2 Common Grackle

5 Purple Finch

5 American Goldfinch

1 Savannah Sparrow

13 White-throated Sparrow

12 Song Sparrow

1 Lincoln’s Sparrow

24 Swamp Sparrow

3 Rose-breasted Grosbeak

3 Cedar Waxwing

54 Red-eyed Vireo

16 Philadelphia Vireo

2 Blue-headed Vireo

8 Black-and-white Warbler

48 Nashville Warbler

21 Tennessee Warbler

2 Northern Parula

6 Cape May Warble

13 Yellow Warbler

28 Magnolia Warbler

39 Chestnut-sided Warbler

1 Bay-breasted Warbler

5 Blackburnian Warbler

9 Ovenbird

2 Northern Waterthrush

27 Common Yellowthroat

9 Wilson’s Warbler

12 Canada Warbler

94 American Redstart

1 Brown Creeper

1 Black-capped Chickadee

2 Golden-crowned Kinglet

3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

23 Veery

13 Swainson’s Thrush

 

syr ranger  Jaden Briand with a sharp shinned hawk

Week 4 Highlights (August 21 to 27)

We missed one day due to rain this week, however, it was the busiest week yet! We lost our summer Ranger crew this week, and as such we dropped down to running 35/40 nets, leaving the Rhubarb Nets closed. The Rhubarb Nets are named appropriately for the vegetation growing around them, however, they seem to be much more active in the spring, and haven’t been catching a lot in the fall so far. So with less people available for extracting, we kept them closed. We also experienced some great swarming warblers hitting nets this week. It kept us very busy along with another MNR Airboat Duck Banding night on the 27^th, it was slow, however two Pied-billed Grebes were caught making for a very happy Sarah Bonnett and Nicole Blackburn! We also banded a Baltimore Oriole (making for one very happy Nicole Blackburn) as you loyal readers saw in an earlier blog.

Our reigning champion has been dethroned massively this week!! The lead went to a massive effort put forth by 142 Red-eyed Vireo! Followed not even closely by 74 Nashville Warbler, and our former leader in third with 60 American Redstart! The drama in the race this week just doesn’t stop!

Week 4 Totals (811 birds, 47 species)

2 Pied-billed Grebe

1 Downy Woodpecker

17 Ruyby-throated Hummingbird

1 Eastern Phoebe

1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher

40 Alder Flycatcher

22 Least Flycatcher

1 Baltimore Oriole

4 Purple Finch

5 American Goldfinch

18 White-throated Sparrow

1 Chipping Sparrow

1 Clay-coloured Sparrow

11 Song Sparrow

1 Lincoln’s Sparrow

11 Swamp Sparrow

7 Rose-breasted Grosbeak

18 Cedar Waxwing

142 Red-eyed Vireo

30 Philadelphia Vireo

1 Blue-headed Vireo

12 Black-and-white Warbler

74 Nashville Warbler

41 Tennessee Warbler

2 Cape May Warbler

18 Yellow Warbler

7 Black-throated Blue Warbler

3 Myrtle Warbler

53 Magnolia Warbler

43 Chestnut-sided Warbler

1 Bay-breasted Warbler

1 Blackpoll Warbler

2 Blackburnian Warbler

1 Black-throated Green Warbler

8 Ovenbird

3 Northern Waterthrush

25 Mourning Warbler

51 Common Yellowthroat

30 Wilson’s Warbler

2 Canada Warbler

60 American Redstart

1 Gray Catbird

1 Red-breasted Nuthatch

3 Black-capped Chickadee

3 Ruby-crowned Kinglet

22 Veery

9 Swainson’s Thrush

With that, our first month of banding is over, it’ll be interesting to see if the REVI retain that strong push going through right now. Migration is on and we are eager for more!

Sarah Bonnett

Sarah with uour second ever  field sparrow

red eyed vireo's keep marching on guest blogger Chris Sukha

Today's guest blogger is Chris Sukha  thanks for this Chris 

THE RED-EYED VIREOS KEEP MARCHING ON!!!

We at the Hilliardton Marsh and Research and Education Centre have been treated to an amazing number of Red-eyed Vireos this Fall Season. Even today, which actually was a “slow” day by recent standards, had 22 banded, most of them coming from our nets on the River-side of the Marsh, where they enjoy the tall deciduous trees. In fact every day, for the past 5 days, Red-eyed Vireos have been our number-one bird banded! As of today, we have banded exactly 300 Red-eyed Vireos this year, blowing our old year-record of 215, set in 2016, completely out of the water!!!

red eyed vireo young birds have a brown eye  and all the birds banded today were young birds 

Many other “good” birds have been keeping us excited, and the highlight of the day were a flock of 5 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, all in one net! A whole lot of squeaking and biting going on!!!

One of the best things about the Marsh is that the presence of visitors seeing birds in the hand for the first time keeps the experience fresh for us too. Even a common bird, or a recent retrap that was just banded and released, becomes very special for someone seeing it for the first time. It reminds me of the privilege I have; I get to do this every day!

happy day all of these rose breasted grosbeaks were found in one net some years we catch this many in a year but recent years have seen a lot more being banded a harbinger of climate change ??

Here are our totals for August 29^th;

4 Least Flycatchers

6 Alder Flycatchers

1 White-throated Sparrow

4 Song Sparrows

3 Swamp Sparrows

5 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

22 Red-eyed Vireos

5 Philadelphia Vireos

1 Black-and-white Warbler

6 Nashville Warblers

3 Chestnut-sided Warblers

5 Ovenbirds

3 Mourning Warblers

10 Common Yellowthroats

3 Wilson’s Warblers

1 American Redstart

8 Veery

4 Swainson’s Thrushes. Total of 94 birds, of 18 species. Chris Sukha.

Off to check the river nets thanks to Brian Brownlee for the use of his side by side  

 

banded yesterday our second ever field sparrow  the last one was banded in 2002 this was a hatching year bird suggesting she hatched in the north and was not just blown in from somewhere. While i am not sure if they are common in the south they are very scarce in the north

banded and today's blogger Chris doing what he does best teaching about banding  yet another red eyed vireo

parents sharing a love for nature

while kids under ten cannot hold a bird sometimes they will rest in the hand before continuing their migration 

Orioles and diversity lead the migration story

first oriole banded since may 25 2015 a very welcome sight especially since it is a hatching year bird 

The record breaking pace continues at the marsh with another great week of banding  the 3rd week totals bring us to  a fall total of  1870 birds  represented by 59 species .

a young blue headed vireo always a thrill for us 

the breakdown so far is  481 birds  41 species wk 1
718 birds  50 species week 2
671 birds  46 species  week 3
  for a total of 1870 birds  of 59 species

and so far this week will be our best yet.

jaden with our 5th sharpie of the year which is a lot for us 

I was away with our marsh summer crew doing wetland inspections for ducks unlimited in the north east but while I was away our banding crew was busy and had several good pushes of warblers and were able to band over 100 birds several days and and had a big day Monday of 193 birds!!! So the migration is on and in typical fall migration fashion  we can find many nets are empty then you come upon a net that has 20 birds which reflects the flock nature of the fall migration. It really is a privilege to have the chance to be a part of research of this nature and it always presents more questions then answers.  The other thing I cannot help myself from commenting on is how the support of our donor and marsh members are fostering our ability to do a better job putting volunteers and paid banders into the field to allow us to keep up this critical research into the migration on the edge of the boreal forest.

Aide  with a lifetime moment 

our members event  this picture for me is why we band birds 

black throated green warbler usually a canopy dweller  but wandered low into our nets

Stephanie a Nippissing university student  who is hpoping to do an internship at the marsh with her very favourite a cedar waxwing i think the marsh will be seeing more of this very keen  student 

Nicole Blackburn banded our 21st Oriole caught at the river nets 

duck banding revisited

Nicole From Norwich UK with northern shoveller  have to love that bill

Well I am more interested in talking about birds and banding then my failings as a blogger  but I think I clearly had too many photo's last time and I could not figure out how to  deal with the program so here I go again.
       Last night we had the chance to go duck banding  due to the efforts of the  Ministry of Natural Resources and Forestry air boat program. This program has been running for years and  has had great success not only banding ducks but also banding  some non waterfowl species

Our very own crew member Andrew Aitchison heading out on the airboat

Starting up as a partnership with the the Unites  States Fish and Wildlife Service  the air boat program has had a long run of great success and the Hilliardton marsh is one of the air boats best places to band ducks . The US wanted to get a handle on the harvest rates of ducks but the issue for them is that many of the ducks they wish to harvest breed in the north. So they initially provided the funding for the airboat and crew to capture and band ducks in the north and we happen to live where all of these birds breed . Ducks Unlimited Canada enters the picture in helping to expand the breeding potential of these birds with the construction of the Hilliardton marsh.  We benefit because recently the airboat program has been trying to show its versatility by presenting the opportunity to band some non waterfowl species such as  Sora, Virginia  Rail and very recently  AmericanBbitterns

first ever bittern banded at marsh thanks to the airboat crew

a young sora seen and heard at the marsh rarely banded 

We are extremely grateful to the airboat crew to give us the opportunity to band birds that would not normally wander into our nets  and it shows the versatility of the airboat to be able to survey these other species if that was there mandate. The airboat crew is crisscrossing the north as well as other places in the province that they know waterfowl congregates at night allowing them to put lots of bands on ducks so the duck population can be monitored. Conservationists and hunters in both Canada and the USA should be very happy with the efforts of the crew and celebrate such a long lasting and effective partnership between our governments. Clearly migrating birds are not aware of political borders  and this a program like this is such a beacon of hope as we are trying to help understand the movement of birds across the continent and beyond 

Hired airboat crew and marsh volunteers and local MNRF employees making research happen at the marsh 

.....and the band goes on Chris Sukha with a banded American wigeon

Bittern sweet!!!!! Crew goes duck banding

our first banded American Bittern at the marsh thanks to the air boat crew

fall banding is going really well

Virginia Rail wandered in the net first time ever in a net!!!!!

Not sure really where to start I have so much data at my finger tips but do not know how to get it from an excel file to this blog . Sarah Bonnet the marsh intern is responsible for organizing all of our data so i think it best that she posts a blog to explain  the significance of everything. So for now I am going to break in town in very simple terms we are catching a lot of birds!!!!!!

Jocelin with a redtstart thanks for the Donation of blakc oil bird seed and cracked corn a big help for us  and much appreciated 

So far we have banded 1323 of 54 species and we are just into our third week. We have had  7 days banding over 100 bird our largest day being 154 on  august 10th and we had our biggest species day so far on the 11th catching 35 different species . We are so very fortunate to have such keen volunteers and hopefully the weather will hold out so that we can keep the research going .

our 9th  phoebe of the year what is going on !!!! That's more than the 5 we had banded in all time before this year and those were in the last 2 years



Well that is it for now just wanted to let you know  we are having a record banding fall and will have more details to follow shortrly


Bird is the word!!!

rain gives us a chance to survey bird boxes catch an uncommon northern bird and update blog

Nicole showing respect for the chompers on a rose breasted grosbeak

Thursday August 3rd  77 birds
Friday August 4 rained out and rained out  Saturday August 5th

Chris however got a chance to get the feeder nets up for about an hour when he had a sunny period while the marsh crew  was away and while the volunteers took a break and went into town. Chris being all alone  and taking car of a few chores at the marsh threw up  the nets and was rewarded by catching a phoebe.   After never having banded a phoebe this is the third year in a row we have managed to band one. We banded three in 2015, 2 last year and another yesterday. While common in the south they are rare in our area and are perhaps another harbinger of the change we are seeing in birds in the north due to climate change.

Patrick Sadler  and Jaden Briand surveying tree swallow boxes at the north cobalt sewage lagoon

The crew had the chance to get to the sewage lagoons and survey bird boxes  as the tree swallows have all but taken off south. While there are a few birds still flying around the lagoons most of them have already scooted south. The survey results were excellent and the tree swallows seem to have taken advantage of the peak in the mosquito and black fly season anecdotally i would say we were over an 85% occupancy rate of the boxes  and the nesting success rate was extremely high as well. We still have to survey the boxes at the marsh but I will post details regarding the swallow  success when we are done.

Jaden checking out a box at the Newliskeard sewage lagoon

Partick and jaden  putting up at box near kern public school one of 22 the kids there  monitor each spring

Banding totals  for Thursday August 3rd

1 downy woodpecker
5 alder flycatcher
1 least  flycatcher
2 common grackle
1 american goldfinch
5 white throated sparrow
5 song sparrow
11 swamp sparrow
3 rose breasted grosbeak
2 cedar waxwing
1 red eyed vireo
4 black and white warbler
4 nashville warbler
1 cape may warbler

3 yellow warbler
1 magnolia warbler
3 chestnut sided warbler
1 ovenbird
2 mourning warbler
3 common yellowthroat
1 wilson's warbler
11 american redstart
1 golden crowned kinglet
1 ruby crowned kinglet
1 veery
2 swainson thrush

77 birds  27 species

cedar waxwing the crew calls them a super hero

oven bird  often we only catch 1 or 2 a spring  however last year we banded 40 in the fall and so far we have banded 9 this fall

so great to have bander in charge Chris Sukha  back

first Wilson's warbler back of the fall perhaps our first migrant of the fall as the other birds we have been catching  are probably local breeders

Marsh Crew member Jaden Briand

Cape may warbler most likely another migrant

black and white  warbler

Marsh Volunteer from Newmarket Joanne Hamilton

Marsh intern Sarah Bonnett

Pete and Sarah with a male and female rosebreasted grosbeak

male Rose Breasted grosbeak

Nicole calm and poised as ever

between net checks 

crew member Andrew Aitchison  with our 5th mourning dove of the fall

The crew checking out  a young golden crowned kinglet

golden crowned kinglet left and ruby crowned kinglet right  we do not catch many Golden crowns in the spring but we make up for it in the fall this was out first of the season

Once again I have to thanks and praise such a great group of volunteers we would never be able to carry out this research without all of the help of such a great group of people. A reminder to the public that the marsh welcomes visitors Monday to Saturday from 8 to 11 if you would like to come out and see the birds for yourself. If you are not local the birds are on their way south and early indications are the migration is going to be good get ready to bird  and band. I will try to keep the blog going as often as I can to keep folks updated on how our migration monitoring is going. Bird is the word .!!