family day fun and everyone still has their fingers

what a great photo by Mark Milton

In Ontario we have a holiday called family day which has meant whenever the weather allows we brings families together at the Hilliardton marsh and band birds and get families outside to make those all important connections to nature .  Richard Louv author of Last child in the Woods  has started to use the term Vitamin N. So Saturday February 18th we  played the role of marsh doctors and tried to give kids a good shot in the arm of vitamin nature. We had approximately 60 visitors that had a chance to see some birds and get a chance to snowshoe and have a chance to eat some bannock.  As we have been reporting the birds are a bit scarce but we did manage to catch and band 5 more evening grosbeaks  bringing our record setting season to 157.  What follows is photographs of the day I would like to thanks everyone for bringing their kids out to enjoy the plus 7 Celsius  weather and to all the volunteers that made the day a great success.

feeling safe away from the commotion

Josh and his Mom made us some bird bags which we are always appreciative of thanks so much!!

Vitamin N and they did not feel a thing 

On the trial to bannock

Erin and Kim hard at work

Gee with some bannock

watch the birdie

Hard to find a jacket that a male evening grosbeak can blend in with

Thinking a bird was just released 

banders have more to do then just band birds 

Our campaign to raise funds for the marsh. If you would like to help us help you please visit our website to see how you can get a tax receipt  for making donations to your marsh www.thehilliardtonmarsh.com

evening grosbeaks part 2 The stats

male and female evening grosbeaks 

Well as promised I wanted to look at the stats of evening grosbeak numbers  to try and put our banding season into perspective. When I looked back at the Ontario bird banding journals I only had journals dating back about 12 years which lead to to suggest that the marsh was having a provincial record breaking year.  Fortunately I was able to send send out a request to other Ontario banders  and one of them sent me the historical numbers of evening grosbeaks  banded since 1960.  The first thing I would point out in my defense is that the  numbers show that if you go back to 2002 until present day the maximum number of grosbeaks banded  was 115 which made us feel that we were in great shape. We are currently sitting at 141 grosbeaks banded as of March 13th. I felt that we were making a contribution to helping understand what is happening to grosbeaks moving forward and that the potential for some of these grosbeaks to show up at another banding station or indeed being re-trapped by us in subsequent years would be a worthwhile contribution.  Then I looked at the historical numbers and see that the provincial number of banded grosbeak was  3711 back in 1983.  To put that into perspective the total of banded evening grosbeaks  since 2002 adds up to  823!!!  I cannot imagine  what the size of the flocks must have been for banders to  handle that many birds.  I am headed to the Ontario bird banding  annual conference  at bird studies Canada in Port Rowan  in a couple of weeks and I am looking forward to seeing  some of the banders that were actively catching evening grosbeaks  back when they were so plentiful. The sad news as I mentioned in a previous blog is that there numbers have dwindled to the point that they are now a federal species of concern and perhaps makes the chance to get a band on a bird even more significant for the chance to help track the movements of these boisterous brilliant birds. Try and say that five times fast.  I cannot help but think that the possibility that these birds would be in such low numbers would never have occurred to them when they were banding  so many in the 1980's
     A friend of mine is always pointing out that the last big outbreak of spruce bud worms was in the 1970's and 1980's which perfectly coincides with the the high banding totals that you can look up in the table below . Some may feel that we should not be basing our estimates on populations that were at their peak. This does not however  account for  the fact that grosbeaks are extremely nomadic and will migrate searching either for outbreaks of spruce bud worm or perhaps looking for  feeders with their other favourite food sunflower seeds as feeder watchers will attest to.  One of my concerns about the population dynamics is that is seems unlikely that there should be 50 year  gap between cycles of spruce bud worm outbreaks. Clearly resource management has had an impact on these outbreaks. Perhaps aerial spraying and fire suppression influenced these cycles with a clear impact on the cross Canada population of evening grosbeaks. I for one am glad that they have been listed as a species of concern which will result in a management plan with some suggestion about monitoring  the population moving into the future. I asked Kevin Hannah a Canadian Wildlife Service biologists what he thought about the decrease in population and this is what he sent me. 

"In terms of “normal” levels, I think we’re way below any historic population size. According to the data I’ve seen, based on the Breeding Bird Survey, the Evening Grosbeak population has declined by 86% over the 44 year period from 1970-2014. Much of these declines appear to be from eastern Canada. The most often cited reason for these declines is the control of spruce bud worm and the huge reduction in the size and frequency of outbreaks. Other threats include a loss of habitat due to commercial forestry, mortality from collisions (e.g. windows and cars), and habitat loss/modification due to climate change. As with many species, there’s very little evidence of a direct cause and effect relationship between population changes and these perceived threats, so not exactly a slam dunk in terms of the ultimate causes. There has been, albeit small and localized, a recent increase in spruce bud worm activity in Quebec and parts of Ontario. As a result, there seems to have been some bigger winter “pulses” of this species in the past few years. Perhaps this is a sign of the linkage between this species and bud worms, and signs that populations might be slowly improving. "

      It really is interesting that the last two years we have had our best years for  evening grosbeaks at the marsh and in pockets around the northeast. Again my birder friend mentioned that he saw some flocks of evening grosbeaks in the hundreds one flock potentially near  700 not far from Gowganda. I am curious where the the bud worm outbreaks in Quebec where and how close we are to them. 

      One thing I can say for certain is that  Hilliardton marsh researchers are  excited to have evening grosbeaks this year in the numbers that we do and we will do our best to be part of the research of these beautiful winter finches. The more birds we band the greater the chance for a recovery and adding yet another piece in the puzzle. In addition to the feather isotope study we are helping with I did let the Canadian Wildlife Service know that we have a motus tower  that allows us to track birds fitted with a transmitter so perhaps in the future there are more ways the the hilliardton marsh can help monitor the future health of such spectacular birds. If you have any stories about evening grosbeak numbers historical or otherwise I would love to hear from you. Bird is the word!

Species Number	Species Name	Country or State/Province	Year	Bandings Count	Encounters Count
5140	Evening Grosbeak	Ontario	1960	2,379	133
			1961	375	110
			1962	590	31
			1963	195	25
			1964	435	27
			1965	240	22
			1966	344	27
			1967	0	5
			1968	143	13
			1969	170	15
			1970	13	16
			1971	53	13
			1972	306	14
			1973	46	11
			1974	82	9
			1975	1,019	25
			1976	297	16
			1977	1,647	17
			1978	1,515	19
			1979	1,921	29
			1980	2,175	14
			1981	845	11
			1982	760	9
			1983	3,711	28
			1984	909	12
			1985	1,916	10
			1986	626	1
			1987	531	2
			1988	486	7
			1989	159	2
			1990	539	6
			1991	199	3
			1992	222	2
			1993	215	0
			1994	296	4
			1995	788	2
			1996	279	2
			1997	173	1
			1998	105	1
			1999	79	1
			2000	149	0
			2001	349	0
			2002	80	0
			2003	108	0
			2004	70	0
			2005	54	0
			2006	25	0
			2007	49	1
			2008	20	0
			2009	2	0
			2010	115	0
			2011	56	0
			2012	96	0
			2013	17	0
			2014	14	0
			2015	33	0
			2016	84	0
Totals:				28,104	696

Whats at your feeder?? Do not despair! you are probably doing everything right.

Where ever I travel in the community people are asking me where all the birds are. People  are  feeling frustrated about the lack of birds at their feeders. As I travel to and from the marsh I have seen feeders that are full that have very few birds visiting this bounty that is put out with such expectation.  Birders in the area have been able to  discover 43 different species  as reported on EBIRD which is a growing tool of citizen science that is helping local birders record what species have been seen in our area.

Erin O'rielly and Ron Judd with a redpoll and bluejay this blue jay was origainally banded  last fall

 Despite these birds being seen they are not really showing up at many feeders  but if you are lucky you have a few birds that have found your feeder.  The difference between my home feeders and the marsh feeders is quite dramatic  which may account for why I have been spending so much time at the marsh. At home most of the activity at the feeder has been the joy of seeing chickadees however a goldfinch showed up just the other day.

a lone goldfinch visiting our New Liskeard feeder

Despite  not having many birds  there are always those moments  that capture our hearts. The other day I had a red bellied woodpecker that showed up and if

so lucky to have a red bellied woodpecker  at our feeder this one seems to enjoy corn  as well as suet

that was not exciting enough a piliated  showed up on the same tree I have included  a photo which will be a challenge to find both species  but give it a try.

Look way up and see the red bellied on the same tree at the same time as a piliated woodpecker

     The main reason we are not seeing many birds is that there is either still plenty of seed in the north so dependable species we see in the winter like common redpolls and pine grosbeaks have not arrived  or they went further south in search of food. At the marsh we usually have banded over 300 common redpolls by now  and this year we have only banded 72  so far.  The flock we have  based on the number of retraps we are getting  gives me the feeling we only have one small flock that has found the marsh feeders.

Ron judd and visitor kim Adair  with a couple of redpolls

 I celebrate our luck as there are not many people that have redpolls this winter, There is a fellow named Ron Pittaway who gathers information on seed crops on trees and berry producing shrubs and trees to predict what our bird numbers will be every winter and he is usually very accurate based on understanding what food is available in the north. He predicted that we would have very few winter finches so i guess the message for feeder watchers is do not get discouraged  it is just one of those winters  that it is hard to find birds. Even snow buntings a usually dependable bird seem to be in low numbers. So save the money that you would be spending on seed and bank it for another season. Spring is close and i am already looking forward to the migration

The beak of a northern shrike definitely means business

   

Just as numbers at the marsh feeders started to grow this northern shrike showed up which has been keeping birds on the alert as many of you may know shrikes eat smaller song birds although  people have witnessed shrikes taking birds as big as pine grosbeaks . Local Englehart birder Vic Roach told me that he has 2 shrikes at his place  which is double jeopardy for birds at his feeder.

Ethan Quinton banded his first northern shrike an opportunity that not many people get

Snowy owl on the move  even though it is a blur I liked this photo

minus 27 and we want to band evening grosbeaks and snow buntings

male evening grosbeak

As the world best procrastinator  it has seemed to take me forever to sit down and get this blog going again  but I will get to my procrastination issue later! Today it is minus 27 Celsius and Monday  the forecast for today was fine  and we were looking forward to banding  but mother nature had other plans for us. This has afforded me a moment to get the blog going again.

Volunteer Ethan Quinton with a male and female evening grosbeak

         Winter banding has been wonderful as we have been enjoying  a very mild winter in north eastern Ontario with very few days that it has been too cold to band .  We have discovered that we cannot band snow buntings under minus 18 and  we cannot use mist nets under -15 as fingers just stop working below that. Taking chickadees out of nets  when you cannot feel you fingers is just impossible.
      Our  snow bunting banding has been a very slow process this year as it has been difficult to get a large enough flock on corn to band.

snow bunting banding Brie and Melissa

When the flock is too small they seem to be extra skittish and will not linger near food long enough to venture into the traps. Recently  the flock has grown to over  100 birds and we were able to catch 70 birds in 2 days of banding  and more importantly captured three birds that were banded  last year.

Kerns public school super scribe Lily McBride  witness to a returning bird from last year

 I always marvel that birds that can find food anywhere they wish will come back to the same field to feed. We are still waiting to catch our first "foreign" bird  and hopefully that will happen soon. The kids from kerns Public school have been super helpful in helping out with the research and one of the kids Lily was scribing last year and the other day when we caught one of the birds from last year. How cool is that !!!

Emma Buck banded the bird that returned from last year

     Now lets talk about evening grosbeaks a  bird that I have always been excited about, but now my interest has been taken to a new level and I cannot find enough material to read about them. At the marsh our record number of evening grosbeaks banded in a year was 37  and so far this year we have banded close to 130. This has all happened with the use of three mist nets  often just 2  and all these birds have been banded at the marsh.. In one miraculous net check we had 28 birds. For those who have seen evening grosbeaks at their feeders crack open sunflower seeds they may have an idea that those bills require a lot of respect. In banding circles there is a debate on which bird hurts the most when they can grab you with their bills. The 2 top candidates  are cardinals and evening grosbeaks but not having banded too many cardinals I  give the nod to evening grosbeaks with their vise like

 choppers

ouch!!!!

     There is a little bit of irony associated with our big grosbeak year in that federally the evening grosbeak has recently been listed as a species of concern which really means that it is on biologists radar. The species has fallen by 86% between 1970-2014. so you can imagine  that people are a bit concerned . They are know to be irruptive meaning that their population will spike from year to year  but this year at least in our area  the evening grosbeaks seem to be very localized  and we seem to be lucky to have them at the marsh. I know of a few people with feeders that have between 30 and 40 birds in a flock but I know of way more people who have been keeping sunflowers seeds filled to the brim  in their feeders and have not had any evening grosbeaks. I count my home feeder on that list.

Joanne feeling a big bite!! Feel her pain!

     I am going to end here but hope to revisit the evening grosbeak story with some statistics of  birds banded in Ontario. I think it will be a blog that  evening grosbeak lovers will enjoy but may be a bit heavy in stats which may not be for the folks that follow this blog and just look at the photo's which a very good friend confided in me that most people do which I am totally fine with.
Hopefully you are enjoying evening grosbeaks at a feeder near you and if you are I would love to hear about it.  Hoping to be back at the marsh soon so excited about banding in February. can you believe that some people don't like February!!!

Hilliardton marsh banding crew Ron Judd, Joanne , Mark Milton, and Ethan Quinton.