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Archived Postings

August 8, 2005 – August 14, 2005

August 8 to August 14, 2005 The movement of birds did not slow down for the second week of August. Banding through the week was relatively steady and daily banding totals ranged from a high of 74 (August 14) to a low of 9 (August 13) for a total of 339 birds banded. A few new species for 2005 showed up into the mistnets including a warbling vireo, a purple finch, a Connecticut warbler, and two cape-may warblers. When the week was through, the fall banding total reached 1361. The 2005 fall banding season is almost at the halfway mark and we have almost reached the 2004 fall banding total of 1393; so far it’s been a great season. Fall is a great time of year at the LSLBO because the sharp-shinned hawks really keep the banders on their toes. Sharp-shinned hawks are the smallest members of the Accipiter family and a large number pass by the observatory during fall migration. Accipiters are adapted to hunt songbirds in the forest, they are fast and agile. Quite a few sharp-shinned hawks end up in the nets because they spend so much time low in the forest trying to find a meal. The mesh of the mistnets is actually too small to properly contain a sharp-shinned hawk and they can escape fairly easily. Banders have to be on the toes when one is seen in the nets. Capturing a sharp-shinned hawk essentially involves running to the net and closing the net around the bird by hand so it cannot escape, then it can be properly extracted. They majority of sharp-shinned hawks do escape from the nets and far too often one will be seen flying out of a netlane. The few that do get caught is well worth the effort. Not only is the chase exciting, it is fun to sneak up on a net to see if one is actually caught.

2010