stats taking stock of spring and fall number at the marsh

Piliated  #4

Banding  at the marsh there are still surprises as some birds just do not want to migrate. Today I banded a late white throated sparrow and a white crowned sparrow. There are at least two white throats as yesterday I caught one that was already banded and today's bird received a brand new fish and wildlife band.  The other species of note was banding 9 more common redpolls taking our  fall number to 100 banded.Which compared to the  number we banded last winter is not a lot but I believe we only banded 30 all last January so we are quite ahead of not only November but what we see in early winters.

This white crown sparrow looks happy in the snow 

Taking a quick glance of our overall totals for Hilliardton marsh researchers our numbers are great. For the second year in a row we were able to band 100 species. This is the fourth fall we have been able to run our fall protocol which has made a substantial difference. The first two years though we plateaued at 92 and 90 species so last year when we managed 100 we thought it might take us awhile to reach that threshold again and yet here we are again. For the entire area though we banded 107 species which really is something.

White throated sparrow

So we had several new species this year that we have never banded before we caught an exciting 4 Broad winged hawks, a LeConte sparrow, and a white winged crossbill, and American Pipit and a bohemian waxwing  which bring the marsh to 157 species overall. As you can imagine it gets harder to band a new species  the more we have banded  so to get five  new species this year was quite incredible.

Other highlights of the year  included the following birds which we do not often catch I have put the overall number  for all years combined  in parenthesis so you can see why I feel they were highlights. The order is as I remembered them: Solitary Sandpiper(2) Sora (13) Virginia Rail ( 10  ) Olive sided Flycatcher (4 ) Eastern Wood Peewee (2)  Scarlet tanager (2) Nelson sharp Tailed Sparrow ( 7  ) Belted Kingfisher  (4) Boreal chickadee (65, we banded 11 this fall  ) Piliated woodpecker  ( 4)

1 of the 11 we boreal chickadees we banded  this year have to at the french name is better
"brown headed chickadee" 

To help put things in perspective I have added the top 20 for the spring and fall and at a glance one can see how different the seasons are with only 9 species being in both top 20's

Spring Top 20

Species	Grand Total
Myrtle Warbler	378
American Redstart	287
Red-Winged Blackbird	285
Wilson’s Warbler	269
American Goldfinch	192
American Tree Sparrow	157
Yellow Warbler	146
Common Yellowthroat	139
Alder Flycatcher	122
Western Palm Warbler	85
Chestnut-sided Warbler	82
Common Grackle	75
Eastern white-crowned Sparrow	66
Least Flycatcher	64
Magnolia Warbler	58
Swamp Sparrow	56
White-throated Sparrow	55
Veery	52
Cedar Waxwing	40
Black and white Warbler	93

Fall top 20

Species	Number of birds banded
Pine Siskin	1592
northern sawwhet owl	361
Alder Flycatcher	324
White-Throated Sparrow	313
Purple Finch	284
Common Yellow throat	261
Red -eyed Vireo	255
Swamp Sparrow	229
American Redstart	228
Nashville Warbler	211
Eastern White Crowned Sparrow	165
Least Flycatcher	156
Swainson's Thrush	115
Tennessee Warbler	110
Ruby Crowned Kinglet	106
Wilson's Warbler	99
Yellow rumped Warbler	95
Common Redpoll	91
Veery	90
Black Capped Chickadee	86

Clearly there is a lot more  to write about but there is only so much one can take in at a time and my hope is that people will find this of interest. I hope to get all of our data from our start back in 1996 on our website and will blog about that when it comes to pass. That will allow  a chance for perspective and those with an interest will be able to see how it all fits together. In addition Nick Alioto wrote a summary of both the spring and fall banding seasons  and we would most certainly like to get folks access to the hard work he did summarizing our seasons . The other purpose of getting this info on the blog is that it makes our numbers accessible to any with an interest in research and for those future researchers who are thinking of being here for a spring or fall banding season. The boreal beckons to you all.

Redpolls are back!!!