a single solitary sandpiper by Sarah Biesemier

A Single Solitary Sandpiper

Sarah with her solitary sandpiper

The past few weeks have been filled with exciting birds and also some exciting events. First up was the Birdies Fore the Marsh Fundraising Golf Tournament on September 8^th, which I must say was an absolute blast and so great to be a part of! Everyone continues to make me believe the stereotype that all Canadians are nice, as I so far have no evidence against it. The Hilliardton Marsh also made an appearance at the New Liskeard Fall Fair a couple weekends ago selling tickets for our Progressive Lottery Fundraiser “Catch the Ace”. If you are local and are looking for a great way to support the marsh while also entering to potentially win some money, you should consider purchasing “Catch the Ace” tickets. Catch the Ace runs each week from Wednesday to Wednesday and as of now is still going on. For more details about the progressive lottery and how to buy tickets, check out the marsh’s website or talk to our expert ticket salesman and marsh volunteer, Mohammad Fahmy, the next time you see him in town.

In other exhilarating marsh news, we banded our 100,000^th bird, a beautiful Western Palm Warbler! It was such an honor to witness the 100,000^th bird banded at the Hilliardton Marsh, and be a part of the center’s history and continued success. Also, our owl banding nights have begun! I have fulfilled a lifelong dream of mine to see a Northern Saw-Whet Owl, and I can’t wait to see more over the next few weeks as they migrate through the area. Hopefully soon we will get to see Boreal and Long-eared Owls as well!

boreal owl waiting to meet Sarah's fingers to date we have not  caught any this fall but hopefully soon

There have been so many exciting things happening at the marsh, we almost forgot to talk about one very exciting bird we recently banded. About two weeks ago on September 6^th, I was fortunate enough to band the marsh’s second ever Solitary Sandpiper! On our first net check that day, fellow volunteer Bronwyn Robinson and I were approaching a mist net we have set up near the edge of the woods. From a distance we saw a bird about the size of a thrush, but with an interesting black and white barred tail that looked similar to a woodpecker’s. As we got closer we could tell it was some sort of shorebird. After quickly extracting the bird, I met up with banding intern Nick Alioto at the other nets and asked him what he thought the bird could be. Nick responded with “All shorebirds look like rocks with legs.”

banded solitary sandpiper 2nd ever !!!

 While he appreciates all birds, raptors, particularly owls, are his favorites and, clearly, shorebirds are not. I thought it was probably some sort of sandpiper, and Nick did mention that it could be a solitary sandpiper (turns out he does know his birds quite well). I quickly glanced at the Sibley App on my phone, and the picture of a Solitary Sandpiper certainly looked like what I had extracted from the net. When we returned to the birdhouse, local legend and head bird bander, Bruce Murphy, looked at the bird and confirmed that we had indeed captured a Solitary Sandpiper in our nets.

The bird we caught on September 6^th was a hatch year bird, meaning that it is a young bird that hatched this past spring or summer. Before capturing our hatch year sandpiper, the marsh had only banded one Solitary Sandpiper before. On May 16^th, 2008, Bruce Murphy banded an older (after hatch year) Solitary Sandpiper. We are able to tell the age based on the plumage differences between adult and younger birds, but are unable to tell the sex of the birds because both male and female Solitary Sandpipers look alike. It was an absolute delight to place a shiny new band on the beautiful green legs of the second of this species to find its way into our nets.

could this banded solitary show up in south america ???

The Solitary Sandpiper (Tringa solitaria) is a medium-sized shorebird, almost the size of an American Robin, with a prominent white eye-ring, greenish legs, dark brown wings and back with small white spots, and a beautiful white and brown barred tail. The first thing I can tell you about Solitary Sandpipers is that the Latin word for this shorebirds genus name, Tringa, comes from the Ancient Greek word trungas, which was a thrush-sized wading bird mentioned by Aristotle. Other shorebirds that belong to the genus Tringa include Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs and Willets.

Solitary Sandpipers are special little guys who prefer to be on their own and don’t like to follow to the social norms of all other sandpipers; they are the loner non-conformists of the sandpiper world. Ok, so I’m exaggerating to make a point obviously, but, before one showed up in our nets, I had no idea how unique these sandpipers were. Out of the 85 species of sandpipers in the world, only the Solitary Sandpiper and Green Sandpiper lay eggs in trees instead of on the ground. However, they don’t make their own nests. Instead the Solitary Sandpiper lays its eggs in deserted tree nests built by other songbirds. They usually nest in spruce or other conifer trees, and particularly use the nests of American Robins, Rusty Blackbirds, Eastern Kingbirds, Gray Jays, and Cedar Waxwings. So they are loners, non-conformists, and squatters.

Solitary Sandpipers also differ from other sandpipers in their migration habits. While many sandpiper species migrate in groups, Solitary Sandpipers are usually seen alone during migration, hence the “solitary” part of their name. However, these sandpipers can sometimes be seen in small groups feeding together, and are often found near freshwater ponds and stream edges and more commonly in wooded regions. They breed in woodlands across Alaska and Canada, and migrate down to Central and South America for the winter.

so cute!!

When combining all the facts I’ve learned about Solitary Sandpipers, it starts to make sense as to why a single Solitary Sandpiper showed up in the marsh’s nets. After our Solitary Sandpiper’s parents bred somewhere in the area or further north and raised our bird in an abandoned nest of songbird, our little bird was preparing to make the journey south for the winter, on its own, alone, and solitary in the woodland areas of our freshwater marsh. That’s when we captured the beautiful bird, and gave it a shiny new identification number. If recaptured, this identification number will give us more insight to the life history of this bird. Soon, the Solitary Sandpiper will arrive in central or South America for the winter, and perhaps next spring it will journey back to Ontario and raise its own chicks in an abandoned nest of a songbird.

Bronwyn wrote haikus

So I will write a haiku

We all love haikus

bird banter with boreal bruce podcast about the marsh

Just wanted to let folks know that they can tune into our podcast bird banter with boreal Bruce  this can be accessed via our website. So far we have  recorded 8 episodes and we are learning lots as we progress and hopefully folks can enjoy learning more about the marsh and the birds we are banding . The genesis of the podcast came out of a growing frustration i had with radio interviews that did not give us a chance to get out the details of what we are doing and plus I am a bit of a spaz during interviews so this way i can say um a lot and flesh out a little more  about the birds and the people that make banding at the marsh so much fun and we can convey our research to those who have an interest. So please have a listen to the episodes and rate us if you can so far i have no idea how to do that but I will learn and pass it along . Our very own Ben MacPhearson is the technical whiz behind the scenes  and  I get the chance to interview and banders and chat about exciting  happenings at the marsh. To date the best use of the podcast was a friend who played it to their  2 year old to help them fall asleep. So i know i have at least 2 fans and apparently the parents of the volunteers at the marsh. So please have a listen and please pass along any ideas for future shows or how we can improve upon what we are doing . Episode 8 features an interview with Sarah and Bronwyn 2 of our long term  volunteers at the marsh this fall.


You can find the podcast  form the following link



http://www.thehilliardtonmarsh.com/bird-banter-with-boreal-bruce-podcast

A night in September subtitled owl banding and Haiku at the Hilliardton Marsh

Title: A Night in September by Bronwyn Robinson

Bronwyn Blog author on right  volunteer Mo Fahmy scribing  for Bronwyn as she bands a saw whet

The trees are one shadow cutting jagged edges into the sky. With the chill comes frosted breath and the glitter of constellations long forgotten in the city. The stars watch us pass beneath them, unblinking. They vanish with the blinding flash of a headlamp. Artificial light shines on motes of dust and mist as though the forest is actually the bottom of an ocean. Underfoot, peat moss forms a spongy bed that sucks at boot heels.

Sarah with a saw whet

Something else is wandering between the spindly spruce trees; whatever it is stops as we stop, moves as we move. I can feel its eyes on me, but when I turn there is nothing but the empty path and the bent limbs of trees stretched towards me. There’s nothing there, I think, even though I know that isn’t true. There’s a lot there. My heart beats steady, somehow untouched by the paranoia creeping in on the periphery of my imagination.

Nick with the only long eared we have banded this fall

We reach the nets and I stop thinking of every bad end when I see the first owl.

Owl banding has begun here at Hilliardton! Our first night, twelve Northern Saw-Whets plunked themselves into our nets and gave us reason to dust off the UV lamps that light their feathers up like twilight. On the second attempt, we snagged a Long-Eared owl with an impressive glower. As the temperature drops, the owls will be many and quick to move through—unfortunate for finger dexterity and exposed noses, but great for capture. Not all of us can be eighty percent poof (looking at you, Saw-Whets). We’re all looking forward to seeing what kind of diversity we’ll find in our nets later in the season. You can come out and join us on Wednesdays for our public owl banding night. The gate opens at 8 PM when all nets have been set.

Bronwym showing how we age owls with the black light. Under the black light young feathers show up as red while older fellow appear white. The pattern of young and old feathers allow us to age an owl in this case we refer to this as a second year owl

To wrap up, I present to you my first ever haiku:

this fair winged whisper

linger, bright eyes in starlight

illuminated

Alternatively:

owls, hooty-hoo-hoo

did you know that nick likes owls

it is cold outside

Mo about to put this owl in a holding box to let its eyes to readjust to the dark before release 

100 000 birds banded at the marsh

western palm warbler #100,000

Perhaps I cannot give you 100,000 reasons I love the marsh but it has been a glorious adventure for the past 23 years. The other night while we were owl banding we took out a couple of photo albums from the first few years at the marsh and there were three people in the owl banding group that were there who had been out helping out while we were in our first two years of banding. It would be to great a test of my memory to make a list of all the people  that have helped out over the years  but we certainly appreciated all of the help. As cliche as it is, we never would have been able to do it without  everyone's help.  Perhaps this winter  when we are not as busy we can occasionally throw some photo's of  volunteers from the past. I know Joanne has pictures on our Facebook site, she labelled  the album "blast from the past" it would be worth a look.

celebrating  the milestone  Sarah B took the palm warbler out of on of the "berm" nets. 

       We started banding in the spring of 1996 and we reached this milestone 23 years later. Now that we are banding in the fall and winter  I suspect it will only take 9 more years  to  add another 100,000 to our numbers. The other big change in the past 23 years is that we  have come to depend on  our long term volunteers and the addition of our trailer means that we can attract highly qualified and highly motivated banders to our station which brings us even more consistency  as we continue to work on our protocol banding approach. The other big change was the creation of HMREC and the dedication of all of the directors who make the marsh possible and who .dedicate hours of work behind the scenes to allow us to carry out all of our research
     One of the things that i really enjoy about banding is that every season is unique and there is always a species or two that surprise us each year and there is always an ebb and flow to the number of  species  as well as the number of individuals banded of a certain species. Nick did a great job discussing the record number of siskins we banded this year  as an example of how after 23 years of banding we are always getting blown away by the birds.
     This year we new we were going to make it to our 100,000 bird  but as the countdown got closer and closer  the drama  grew. We all had our favourite birds that we thought would have been a good candidate  for the record bird. We have also had a lot of conversations about why this milestone was so significant. I do not think any of us would have picked the the western palm warbler,  but when it popped out of the bag I could not have been happier. Inside I was kind of hoping it would be a siskin as I have a soft spot for the siskin, and yet having a neotropical migrant and a bird that is symbolic of the interconnectedness  of the boreal forest to the neotropics made it all the better. Our first year of banding we banded 427 birds our second we jumped  to 555 birds contemplating 100,000 was not remotely something we even thought of . This year we may band 555 siskins!! I have a lot of fond memories of our humble beginnings  but I am also very excited to celebrate this milestone with all the folks the know the marsh is a very special place.

a very proud bunch of banders

     The last thank you goes out to all of our visitors, members and supporters who appreciate the work we are doing and who take the time to care by encouraging us or who bring their kids and grand kids out and support the important research we are doing. I also celebrate the foks who also come out on their own to soak in all in. We appreciate all of you and are always trying to make your visits to the marsh as memorable as we can.  Just so you know we have heard your concerns about the lack of washrooms at the  marsh and we are working on it! Please keep coming to the marsh over and over again and if you would like to learn more about how you can help out please let us know we are always looking for volunteers to help out in fund raising making bird bags learning how to extract birds safely help out in the garden building boardwalks  i think you get the picture. it is all of you that have helped out and those who we have not even met yet that make all the good thing happen at the marsh. So to all those past present and future I celebrate you all 100,000 ways !!!!.........and more to come!!!

leaving the boreal in search of palm trees hopefully we will see this palm warbler again

Also today we retrapped a chickadee that was orginally banded in 2010 making it 8 years old and was also banded the year that one of our directors Shelbey Hearn took the TERRA the outdoor education program that featured banding and teaching banding to kids

shelbey with a chcickadee Shelbey we figutre has extracted over 10,000 birds since this chickadee was banded back in 2010 

   

There and back again a siskin's tale... by Nick Alioto

There and Back Again: A Siskin’s Tale….

Hello, again Marsh followers! I am aware that it has been a few weeks since I have written a blog post and no it is not because I forgot, or because I have an excuse like an ulcer or something, but I can say it is because we were so busy with exciting new birds that I couldn’t decide on the right time to do a blog that would encompass all the highlights! However, as we near the mid-way mark of September I thought this would be the perfect time to give everyone an update on what our team has been up to at the Marsh!

pine siskins

Apart from playing cribbage, watching TV, hanging out, relaxing or sleeping (which is by far my favorite hobby), we have had a very busy September thus far with a total of 1141 newly banded birds of 56 species. Along with a new month brought a new top 10. Yes, I know what you’re thinking, that the Alder Flycatcher has remained in the top spot for the season, but actually, they have been overthrown and even I did not think the 320 Alders from August would be topped so easily, but I guess records are meant to be broken. So, without further delay, the new number 1 banded bird for September and throughout the whole fall season is….. drum roll please……………. the Pine Siskin!!!!!! Well, I guess it was kind of obvious based off of my blog title….

Anyway, to date we have done 471 siskins which have easily landed them the new number 1 spot. Thus, I thought it would be suiting to provide information about the Spinus pinus to all you bird lovers that might not know about this common feeder bird. To start, the Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus) is a common nomadic bird that belongs to the finch family. They are characterized by their slender bill, notched tail and striking yellow edging that explodes in a beautiful flash of yellow when they take flight. It reminds me of the color of a cool crisp lager--maybe that is why I see such beauty in them! They are usually seen in dense flocks that hang around in the top canopy of seed-bearing trees where they often hang upside down from branches trying to completely strip cones bare. If you want to attract them to your feeders they are particularly fond of nyjer seed. If these little guys do find their way to your feeders and you do not see their bright yellow plumages then you will certainly hear their constant call notes as they are not shy to let you know when they have arrived.

At the marsh, they have been showing up in flocks anywhere from 20 to 70+ birds and it has been documented that some siskins will migrate in flocks that sometimes number in the thousands which is truly incredible. We are all astounded by how many there has been since there have not been numbers like this before at the marsh. Soooo like the good biologist I am (or that I tell myself I am), I did a little research to uncover some answers about the Siskins. What I learned is seriously cool, not only from a physiological standpoint but also from an evolutionary one. Pine Siskins it appears to seem to go through some sort of population cycle where some years their numbers are low and other years where they seem to undergo an eruption per se. Although it is not understood why their numbers fluctuate like they do, it would seem that this year is eruptive and when their numbers are this high it causes them to move into southern and eastern North America. Although these cycles seem to be erratic, the movements may not be. Various banding data suggests that some birds fly east-west across the continent while others move north-south. Therefore, by us catching and banding so many it may help to one day help us understand the siskin's migration movements and why they do what they do. There have been no signs of them slowing down and it will be exciting to see how many we can manage to band. Now everyone is probably sick of hearing about siskins and I could go on about these beauties for easily another paragraph but instead, I will give an update on some highlights from September with pictures, followed by a chart of the new top 10 for September thus far.

September highlights include Blue-headed vireo, 

 second ever solitary sandpiper left  yellow-bellied  sapsucker right

Yellow-bellied sapsucker, Solitary Sandpiper, American kestrel, and Gray-cheeked Thrush. Stay tuned for news from our owl banding which kicked off this week along with more news from other members of the “A” team. I hope everyone now has grown to appreciate siskins the way I have. They are seriously unique and deserve to be the focal point of a blog. Until next time keep your nyjer seeders full and stay classy!

September 2018 Top 10 Birds:

Pine siskin	471
Nashville warbler	74
Common yellowthroat	68
White-throated sparrow	53
Western palm Warbler	41
American redstart	36
Swamp sparrow	35
Myrtle warbler	33
Swainsons thrush	29
Black-capped chickadee	24

american kestrel

T.G Talks Tussling birds

By Bronwyn Robinson 

Male and female northern parula always exciting to capture and band a parula so far this fall we have banded 10 in the fall after not getting any in the spring 

Sometimes the inability to chill out is distinct to a bird’s personality. Back home in ye olde Brampton, I’ve got two budgies, one of whom has terrible anxiety and despises any beast that isn’t herself, her reflection, or her far more rational sister. Even earlier today we had a male and female Northern parula (shown below), and while the fluffy boy exercised patience, his lady counterpart (the angry blur) gave us heck. Sometimes, however, it’s just their tendency as a species to stress out. There are a few species we band here at the marsh that are more likely to lose their cool than the usual back talking sparrow.

Thrushes, like the Swainsons and Veerys we see a lot of, are prioritized for banding when we bring them in from the nets. While many birds tolerate being handled by us and shown to the public, thrushes are a little less willing, and it’s our job going along the nets, collecting birds and banding them to minimize stress. Catbirds too, like the family of four we had today, are banded first before the warblers and sparrows that don’t mind waiting an extra few minutes.

Another species prioritized for banding is the Canada warbler, like the handsome lad I plucked from the net today, shown below. These little guys have a fabulous speckled collar and bold eye ring that really stands out. Since they’re a species at risk, they’re prioritized in the banding queue, as would any other threatened species we don’t want to hold onto for too long.

Canada Warbler  our banding protocol requires us to band this species at risk first  so far this fall we have banded 21 in the fall after banding 21 in the spring . In contrast we have only banded 1  olive sided flycatcher which is another species at risk

My northern migration from Virginia by Sarah Biesemier

Sarah with the rail she flushed into the net. Super rare for us to catch a Virginia Rail in a net, is it a coincidence that she is from Virginia and she caught a Virginia rail? I think not!  (editors note)

I came to the Hilliardton Marsh relatively new to bird banding, and within a week I have already learned so much about extracting birds from mist-nets, handling songbirds, and identifying the different species that frequent this Northern Jewel. I am originally from Virginia and feel very fortunate to be able to come work in a beautiful part of Ontario and experience a new part of the world. We have a great team of people working at the marsh this fall and besides the occasional “aye” spoken into a conversation or the pronunciation of the word “out” that remind me I’m in Canada, I sometimes forget that I am so far away from home (even if the habitat and bird species are a bit different).

common yellowthroat

So far, one of the most challenging parts of songbird banding for me has been learning to distinguish between the different warbler species that migrate through the marsh. Lucky for me I have excellent co-workers who are teaching me what characteristics to look for, such as the presence of an eyering, coloration patterns, and size, to help identify each bird. Some of the warblers we band at the marsh include, Wilson’s, Nashville, Mourning, Tennessee, Canada, Common Yellowthroat, and Yellow Warblers.

starting from the top  left to right  Nashville warbler, Wilsons warbler Canada warbler, mourning warbler, yellow warbler, Tennessee warbler

This past week I have become acquainted with some of the commonly caught birds this fall, such as Alder flycatchers, red-eyed vireos, purple finches, white-throated sparrows, and pine siskins, and have also had the opportunity to see some not so commonly caught species as well. On our first net check early in the morning a few days ago, I heard the rattling call of a Belted Kingfisher and was shocked to discover that not one, but two kingfishers were in our nets, one male and one female. Female Belted Kingfishers are more brightly colored than the males, and have a blue and a chestnut band across their chests while males only have blue.

fourth and fifth kingfishers ever caught and banded at the marsh, very exciting indeed! Note the beautiful colour of the female. 

Also, the day before the kingfishers found their way into our nets, we caught and banded a Virginia Rail. We have certainly had an exciting past few days at the marsh! I am excited to see what other bird species migrate through the marsh this fall. My plan right now is to learn everything the Hilliardton Marsh has to offer and improve my bird banding techniques. I can’t wait for owl banding season to begin! 

Nick with a broad-winged hawk 

Hello Marsh enthusiasts, lovers, and followers! My name is Nick Alioto and I am the Marsh’s 2018 banding intern and I can’t begin to explain how happy I am to be back at the marsh for the fall 2018 banding season! After working odd jobs throughout the summer which included modeling and landscaping it feels good to back doing what I love!

This fall we have assembled an “A-Team” to help run the station, led by local legend Bruce Murphy. Some come from far and some from within Ontario (myself included). Needless to say, we have great comradery and it is shaping up to be an amazing fall. Our fall protocol commenced on August 1^st and since then we have been getting up before the crack of dawn to see what feathered friends have stopped over at the Marsh before continuing their journey further south to their respective wintering grounds.

leucistic alder on the right an incredible rarity 

The month of August was very successful for the marsh in terms of both species diversity and total captures. This month we banded 2,759 new birds of 64 species! The most abundant banded bird of August was the Alder Flycatcher (Empidonax alnorun) with 320 being banned which is truly incredible. The reason being is that as you go further south the Alder flycatchers range starts to overlap with the Willow flycatcher and these two species are so similar that banding stations in the south often have to call these flycatchers a “Traill’s” when captured. This a term used by banders which means we are not sure what species we have but we know it is one of the two. However, at the Marsh since we are so far north we are within only the Alders breeding range and therefore we know we are catching them and not Willow. This is unique to only a few banding stations in Ontario. They are also distinguished by their call which has an associated pneumonic which sounds like it is saying “Free Beer”…. now that’s my kind of bird! The highlight among all these Alders was catching a leucistic Alder Flycatcher (See picture below compared to normal Alder). Leucism is defined as the loss of pigment in an animal resulting in pale, white or patchy coloration. In this case, the feathers appear more pale and brown. This is very uncommon among animals and it super interesting to see a bird in hand resulting from this condition. The flycatcher below appears brown in coloration as opposed to being the olive color which is normal for this species. Apart from the Alders this month saw high capture rates of Purple finch, Red-eyed vireo, and many warbler species. I have included a top 10 species banded chart at the bottom of this blog so you can see what birds were most frequently during August.

sarah flushed this beauty into the QEW net  what a find 

Other highlights include catching a Hatching year Virginia Rail on the 31^st (Pictured above) along with being able to band two Broad-winged hawks which were both rehabbed in Sudbury and were then successfully released (Pictures below).

Nick banding a rehab broad-winged a successful release well-done nick! and what a great job by the rehab team at wild at heart in Sudbury

As we enter into September we expect to see another push of migrants as the temperatures continue to drop and we slowly transition into the beauty that fall has to offer. This also means that owl migration will begin shortly and for those of you that don’t know I spent the last year in Northern Michigan as an owl bander and cannot wait to help run the owl protocol here at the marsh and share my knowledge with all of the new crew… Especially Mohammad who knows of my love for the strigids! Until next time stay classy Hilliardton!

Top Ten Species Banded August 2018:

Species	Total Banded
Alder Flycatcher	320
Purple Finch	253
Red-eyed Vireo	233
American Redstart	186
Least Flycatcher	143
White-throated sparrow	139
Common Yellowthroat	130
Swamp Sparrow	97
Veery	85
Nashville Warbler	81

A female belted kingfisher showing her prominent colours on the left we have never caught two kingfishers at once and these two represent the 4th and 5th ever banded at the marsh a very special day indeed!

Bronwyn Robinson blog

This blog is writing itself!” or so Mo says, though everyone is still looking to me to make the announcement: first western palm warbler of the season! Did I take pictures of it? No.

 

beautiful adult black-throated blue warbler 

I make it up to you with a handsome blue-throated blue and incredibly unimpressed northern waterthrush. Both undoubtedly had very strong words to say to me, but they kept it to silent glares. I don’t think my ego could handle it should I spontaneously be able to understand the abuse they’d throw my way. The white-throated sparrows we plucked like fluffy ripe berries from the feeder nets would probably have the worst to say.

Northern water  thrush the thrush that is  a warbler 

In other news, I continue to be humbled by Swainson’s thrushes (meaning my hand was stained blue and I wonder how they manage to hold that much fecal matter for the sole purpose of inking me). I’m also rather envious of the fluff they’re hauling. How could evolution fail us humans? Give me down and feathers. I feel a failure of a bipedal. Even my feet, regardless of whatever armor I equip, leave me wanting. I thought my hiking boots could handle the morning dew but spoilers: I was wrong.

photo of the author