International help at the marsh Nicole arrives from England

Oh sweet  Canada! Canada Canada!!

Introducing Nicole Blackburn form just outside of Manchester England 

The song of the white throated sparrow is often represented phonetically as  "Oh sweet  Canada Canada Canada !" But a very zealous border guard left poor Nicole almost missing her connecting flight from Toronto to north bay. Some how the phone call from border security to me as I was en-route to North Bay to pick up Nicole had the correct bounce off lake, trees, and rock and found my cell phone as I was travelling through Temagami country, the Bermuda triangle of cell service in the North. The voice at the end of the line  asking me  if I knew Nicole and why she was coming to Canada to band birds!!! After a five minute call of reassurances and that yes banding birds is absolutely an international endeavor  and that we are so excited to have Nicole our first international volunteer come to the marsh. And why would she want to come all the way to Canada to do what to birds??!!?? I was then informed that the delay may have caused Nicole to miss her connecting flight.  Good thing Nicole's lasting impression of Canada will not the broadcasting of" last call for Nicole Blackburn" as she dashed down the halls of Pearson International trying to connect to her jazz flight to north Bay. Always learning who would have known we were supposed to alert border securities  that the marsh was expecting a migrant from across the pond. We now know for next time .

white throated sparrow 1 of 6 we banded today

Nicole's first day at the marsh was a good one we were able to band 179 birds and she was able to get right inside the j trap and help us catch american tree sparrows and red winged blackbirds. The marsh seemed to be welcoming her everywhere as V's of Canada geese honked there hello's sand hill cranes  swooped over and even a curious bittern did a welcoming display for her . It is great to have Nicole here. She brings with her a lot of experience and has clearly been reading up on her birds as she already knows a lot of our boreal birds by sight. We are lucky to have her here for 5 weeks  and if the  numbers we have had so far are any indication we will really need her.  Nicole is being joined by another volunteer intern this time from London Ontario Barb Baginski will be joining us on Friday
Today we managed to catch our 876th american tree sparrow  which is pretty outrageous . Protocol banding begins May first and our first public weekend of banding will be may 6th so hopefully we will be able to introduce you to barb and Nicole and the j trap.  So welcome Nicole hope the rest of your time in Canada  is easier then your first hour!!

Nicole and a red winged blackbird an  after second year male  Nicole is an after 22 year old Zoology graduate. She went to "Uni" in Wales 

Nicole being encouraged by Curtis to cross the beaver dam

Chris Sukha has been so busy banding these days that this is pretty much the only view we get of him

Today's totals

140 American tree sparrows
25 slate coloured junco's
6 white throated sparrows
7 red winged blackbirds
1 purple finch

179 birds banded

A beautiful male american kestrel I banded Sunday evening 

Banded common redpoll travels from Hilliardton to Delta Juntion Alaska and more spring banding

after second year common male common redpoll

It is with great excitement that i can report that a common redpoll that we banded April 14th 2016 was just reported  being recovered in a small community called Delta Junction near Fairbanks Alaska. its a great story and one no doubt I will tell at least a million times  so lets begin.

We often get a few redpolls hanging around in April and on this particular day last year it  was one of 11 that we banded that day and one of 657 that we hand banded  that year. Those that know me will know I am going to talk about serendipity but the following excerpts from the people who found and reported the bird  make the chance seem even more remote. Of course we are all celebrating the knowledge that  our two small places  are connected by the movement of such a small intrepid migrator of the boreal forest . Hopefully one day we too will embark and share a moment on a deck in the western edge of a clearing in the boreal forest.

amazing to think birds this small can migrate so far and survive in the winter

From the bander in Alaska that the bird was reported to.

We had a very large influx of redpolls this year.  By and large, we get larger numbers every other year, coinciding with birch seed production.  They never show up until Christmas, then show in small numbers in half the years, greater numbers in the alternating years.  And this year had lots, even for an "on" year.  And please appreciate that the boreal forest here is huge, with way, way less than 1% of it being occupied by humans.  That the banded bird happened to show up near a small community in the middle of pretty remote, unoccupied forest, and then use a feeder, and then whack the window, and then get found and have its band number recorded, requires an unlikely sequence of events.


   

In some european countries "Poll" apparently means cap hence the name redpoll

I was contacted by a member of the public who lives in Delta Junction, Alaska, a small community about 100 miles outside of Fairbanks.  A mom and daughter observed a redpoll that presumably had struck their window near a feeder and they could see a band on it.  It was still alive, they picked it up, recorded the info, took two photos that aren't real helpful, put it back down, and then it flew away.

This is the furthest band recovery we have had of a bird banded at the marsh and naturally we are very excited . Google maps  indicates that this bird traveled 5,725 km  and it points out that this trek by car would take 63 hours by car. i wonder how long it took the redpoll? Incredible stuff . it is interesting that the day we found out the news we were also putting bands on lingering redpolls at the marsh. Who knows where these birds may wander . hopefully one day we will find out   

Ron Judd with a redpoll amazingly no snow !!!

This email came to me to today while we were out banding at the marsh and doing some training with Melissa Hakojarvi who has been coming out off and on  all winter and helping us band redpolls and grosbeaks today was her second day practicing her skills with sparrows red wings and grackles.  It takes a lot of training to become proficient at taking birds out of nets but Melissa  like many others  are dedicated to learning  and are putting in the hours to become part of the team of extractors at the marsh.

common grackle

Melissa with a song sparrow that was a true challenge she handled like a pro

red winged black bird  retrap we will have yet to look up 

tree sparrow  1 of the 119 banded today  perhaps bound for Alaska!!

today's totals (April 20th)

119 american tree sparrows

11 common grackles

7 red winged blackbirds

5 slate coloured junco's

1 purple finch

1 song sparrow

1 yellow shafted flicker

145 birds banded 

Thanks to Melissa , Ron Judd, and Chris Sukha our bander in charge

April 18th a new one day record for marsh

yellow shafted flicker  the males conveniently have a nice mustache to help us identify gender 

The J trap has been working better then i had ever dreamed so again a big thanks to Rachelle and Sylvain plante. On Tuesday after telling Chris about how many tree sparrows we had  over easter  he had the chance to join us back at the  marsh for a day of banding and we started wondering if we would be able to potentially catch 200 birds . After our first net check and our first trip to the j trap it was evident that we had a chance .. So it ws with Myself , Chris Sukha , Ethan Quinton and Stephanie Allaire  that we approached a record setting day with poise and dignity and a lot of birds finding the net

Stephanie Allaire  continuing her extraction training 

To make a long story short we managed to catch 259 birds surpassing a single day of banding record of 220. However with the new  J trap i think we are going to see new records for many seed eating birds . This will of course need to be taken into account whenver we compare this year with past data even when we compare oit to the old jay trap which never had this kind of success

This bird believe it or not is called a purple finch notice it is oozing purple throughout all of its feathers. Someday someone will explain the  history of this name I am pretty certain it is about a colour blind ornithologist 

Our summary of the days banding totals are as follows 259 birds

236 american tree sparrows
14 slate colored junco
14 red winged black birds
2 common redpoll
1 purple finch
1 common grackle
1 yellow shafted flicker  aka northern flicker

Today April 19th when the rain stopped Chris was back at it  while I was conducting interviews for the marsh intern position. On his own and mostly using the j trap Chris managed to band
the following


90 american tree sparrows
10 slate coloured junco's
2 red winged black birds
2 common grackles
1 common redpoll

for a total of 105 birds  well done Chris !!  364 birds in 2 days and 326 american tree sparrows!! It would have been a slow couple of days without the sparrows.

A reminder that the banding season officially starts may 1st these days are used for training and getting the station up and running which it seems to be doing on all cylinders.

J trap put to use first day of spring banding april 10th

after second year red winged blackbird  actually because of when it was banded we can call it after sixth year!

It has always amazed me that the first red-winged blackbird of the season that we get at the marsh is always banded. They must really love corn because they always know where to find it.  Today history repeated itself and a red winged blackbird with band # 1212-67813 was caught in the j trap with an unbanded bird . My guess is the veteran coaxed the other male blackbird into the net. It turns out that the banded bird was originally captured in the marsh  May 14th 2013 revealing that it is a true migration warrior.  With all the hype around Canada's 150th birthday a common theme i cannot help thinking about is how different the migration is for birds now versus then. When one considers all of the perils birds face now calling them migration warriors unfortunately is an image that easily comes to mind when one considers the gauntlet of highways, wind turbines, skyscrapers with light and window issues for birds not to mention industrial wasteland.  The real point I am trying to make here is the respect I have for a bird that we band at the marsh that can make the migration south and return. This red-winged blackbird has made the trip 4 time s making it a true migration warrior!

Dark eyed junco first bird in the j trap

Today Chris Sukha put the final touches on the J trap by installing the j shaped funnels that the birds use as their portal to enter the trap after being able to access food unhindered through the door. The very first bird we caught in the j trap was this dark eyed junco. So for those who are making a list of 2017 marsh trivia you can add that bit to your list. This bird was joined by many american tree sparrows. Chris and I were giddy to see how effective the trap is and the ease effectiveness of the collection box. Banding birds at the marsh has been helped along a great deal thanks to Sylvain and Rachelle Plante, trap builders extraordinaire!

Chris has a lot of respect or the beak of an evening grosbeak but he really should keep his eyes open!!

While we were using the trap we also had three feeder nets up allowing us to capture and band some evening grosbeaks. We are getting close to 200 banded this  year.

two of my favourite banding companions 

For those of you hoping to join us banding please be patient public banding begins  May 1st.  As you can see there is still snow on the ground and as we say goodbye to snow too much traffic on the soft ground would have a negative impact on the grounds and trails so we will let you know when we are open. Despite that research has begun and I will be including updates as the season progresses. Perhaps at some point down the raod with some investment in our tails and other improvements we could open to the public earlier . As always we appreciate all donations  and memberships that allow us to have greater access to the public to see what we are doing at the marsh. I appreciate any and all feedback and ideas on how we can move forward. Needless to say i cannot wait to show people how great the new j trap is, only 18 sleeps !!!!

Bird is the word!

Marsh volunteers to the rescue!!!!!

Sylvain and Rachelle Plante to the rescue !!!

Once again serendipity is in full play at the marsh. Serendipity basically means occurs by chance  and it really has been the story of my life and adds a great story line to some of the things that happen at the marsh. The other thing i know to be true at the marsh is that volunteers are the heart and soul of the marsh. While I am on a moment of self reflection or perhaps confession most people that have seen me at the marsh have never seen me using a tool. That is due to my terrible tool using allergy or just a basic incompetence in the ability to render anything useful out of my efforts. I due however make a great gopher. I can go for almost anything and with careful instruction and description can find a tool that is needed and often welcome  the chance to get away from the project .

prefabbed pieces being placed together

     Well that is quite a preamble to get the real story going here . While we were away at Long point bird observatory during the  the Ontario bird banding  conference in April we were lamenting the the loss of our previous J-trap. The past J-trap that was built by past TERRA students  succumbed to the elements due to lack of funding  poor design, an an adult who was allergic to tools. Last year we did not have a j-trap to help us continue on our research on  red-winged blackbirds and grackles. While we can catch other species  in the trap such as american tree sparrows  and other seed eating birds our specific research goal was to continue with our work on the blackbirds.  To this end  we managed to set aside some funds and are actively fund raising to offset the cost of building a new j trap and while down at long point we took all sorts of measurements on their trap so we could duplicate it when we got home. Come to think of it I was not allowed to use the tape measure  so lets say Mark , Ethan, and Chris took measurements.

Looking inside the trap past the baffles  and waiting for ramp to be put in place

     Shortly after arriving home we were contacted by a couple that had not been to the marsh since their son was quite young and was involved in a youth Saturday program we called marsh" bandits". There son has grown  up and they were looking for a project in the winter to give them something to do before it was time to open the cottage. The best part is that they knew how to use tools. The even better best part is that they had all of the tools  and a big garage to take on the project. It was like ........ well you know serendipity!!!!

Sylvain pondering his next move 

      So in a previous blog we looked at the prefab of the j trap but on Saturday and Sunday the j trap  went up. Now we only have to form the funnels which are in the shape of a "j" which is where the j trap get its name. It is through these entrance funnels that the birds get to the corn and cannot find there way back out. The trap is also designed to funnel birds into a collection box that is designed to sort the smaller birds from larger birds by having three shelves of different sizes that makes sure smaller birds do not have larger birds sitting on top of them. In the end we decided to go with a design used at Prince Edward bird observatory and hopefully we will have a chance to try it out soon.
     I have to admit building  it was a lot of fun and I can tell you a great deal of time and consideration went into the design and how the mesh was installed to make sure that no injury could come to the birds. We purchased all the supply's for the trap at the Earlton Timbermart except the plastic mesh which turned out to be an item only sold at home depot. The other observatories felt it was the best material for the safety of the birds so we had I had to travel to north bay to get this special mesh sometime gophers have to travel long distances!

completed  trap 23 feet long 6 feet wide 

      So thanks so much to Rachelle and Sylvain Plante for all of their time  and joy. It is such a pleasure to see a couple having fun together when trouble shooting is  going on. I understand  that putting up wallpaper can be a challenge for couples. I have never  experienced that joy, but figuring out how to finish the mesh so that bird safety and durability goals are satisfied is a challenge. They clearly were having fun and there was lots of laughter throughout the entire project even when Rachelle's feet were wet!!!  The marsh is lucky to have such great people helping us out.
      I thought it was interesting that the first day we were putting up the trap we had no birds  near us but in the final hours a flock of about 100 american tree sparrows found the corn I had been putting on a small square of plywood to attract them to the area. The timing could not be better . The migration is on and we are ready to go !!!

Other side notice the doors o collection box for getting birds out

Banding at long point is better then watching the leafs in the playoffs

Tufted Titmouse  Long point bird observatory it will be many decades before they make their way to the Hilliardton marsh

 So I Finally had a chance to go to long point during the spring migration and what a treat it was. the long point bird observatory is like the banding mecca  it is almost like going to maple leaf gardens . The Air Canada center will never have the same charm for me  and a visit to the gardens like spring migration at long point are journeys that one never forgets. I had the chance to make the journey with long time banding friends Chris Sukha and Ethan Quinton we had the chance to go south for 4 days of banding and the experience was almost indescribable to folks back home. First of all there is no snow . Not only is it like being in a very different biome which it is, it is almost like being in a different country which some northerners would answer , yes it is!!!  The migration is almost three weeks ahead of what we see in Northern Ontario the birds have found long point which is exactly that a point of land poking out into lake Erie providing migrating bird the first landfall to allow them to gather food and strength for the next leg of their journey.

Chris and Ethan at Point Pelee looking for females .........true story

 We had the chance to see and band golden crowned kinglets, brown creepers, eastern phoebe's eastern towhees, northern cardinals and many other species that we  will not be seeing for some time. In addition to the birds , people migrate to Long point  and we had the chance to meet some wonderful people.  Just before we left we had discovered a pine siskin in one of our nets had been banded by a crew at Tadoussac  bird observatory in Quebec. A bird we caught in March had been originally banded the previous September. So we were so excited to meet three people from Tadoussac that were at long point to get a taste of a spring banding season. We now have three new friends from Tadoussac and I am hoping to make another migration in November this time  to see their station and perhaps learn how to band bohemian waxwings.

New friends and Ethan

     While we were down on a rain day we made a trek to Hillman marsh where they have created  ashore bird habitat by creating  a mudflat. An idea we are hoping to copy at our own marsh.  Hillman is just a few flaps away for a bird to point Pelee so we mad e our first journey to this very special

migratory stop over  just a day after a fire had raged through the wetland. luckily it was put out before any damage to the board walk but it was very close .

The only casualty of the walk way were two side rails  whew that was a close call

        Being retired creates the opportunities of a lifetime and on the other hand working is what kept me from having the opportunity to experience a spring banding opportunity at Long point. Next year I have promised myself a longer stay because after all we are three weeks behind  anyway so my arrival back north could be better timed to coincide with the return of the migrants. It was sad to say goodbye to our new friends and I can only wonder if birds in a flock regret having to leave it to forge out on their own. Perhaps that is what all of the excitement  is about the migration to return to the familiar after being away. I certainly am enjoying the familiar call of the returning red-winged black birds  to the hilliardton marsh telling the last of the ice to melt and announcing to all of their travel mates  that they are back and to let the games begin!!!  Needless to say I hardly recognize a spring that the Toronto maple leafs  in the Stanley cup play offs instead of their golf course habitat.  Like other migrants to the Air Canada Center  the chorus of migrants to this frozen wetland can be heard to say go leafs go!!!!!

Hillman marsh flooded mudflat from sprring rain

You turkey!!! point Pelee Carolinian Forest!!!

Towhee

J.D and Audree L'Equipe Tadoussac...La Bus!!!!!

Bella the youngest in the group she is going to be famous one day called it !!!