Boreal Bruce's Bird Banding Blog : 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.