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Archived Postings

May 8, 2006 – May 14, 2006

May 8 to May 14, 2006 This week started with two solid days of rain. Even though we do not band in the rain (for the birds safety), we still conduct the normal daily counts because major movements of migrants can occur on rainy days. However, the rain early this week was heavy and accompanied by strong northerly winds. Instead of wasting energy battling wet weather and trying fly against the wind, the migrants sat and waited. It was a good time to be a duck. This all changed on May 11th when the rain stopped and the sun came out. After being idle for two days, the migrants took the opportunity to move. A steady flood of birds flew over the banding station for the first two hours of the morning. At one point, over 400 migrants were observed on a single visual migration count (a five minute period that counts birds that are strictly migrating). Passage of migrants continued for the entire morning, but slowed down considerably after the initial early morning rush. By noon, over 2000 yellow-rumped warblers, 500 tree swallows, 300 chipping sparrows, 450 blackbirds, and 1000 birds that we just couldn’t identify passed over the lab. There were still waterfowl, shorebirds, geese, cranes, gulls and songbirds singing in the forest that needed to be counted too. It was a busy day…..except in the nets. Despite the number of birds seen that morning, not a single bird was captured. This day proved that banding cannot alone determine the magnitude of migration occurring on a given day. Banding in conjunction with the scheduled counts and keeping a keen eye on the sky is the most effective way to monitor the migratory bird populations. The heavy passage of migrants only lasted the one day. The rest of the week was fairly quiet in terms of observed passage, but there was an increase of activity in the forest. With more birds stopping on the breeding grounds and new species arriving on a daily basis, the forest is becoming quite a busy place. A few new species were seen at the banding lab this week, including: least flycatchers, Swainson’s thrush, yellow warblers, palm warblers, black-and-white warblers, ovenbirds, and clay-coloured sparrows. Looking forward to what next week brings.

2010