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Archived Postings

June 19, 2006 – June 25, 2006

June 19 to June 25, 2006 Summer solstice. I am not well versed on the ancient or modern significance of summer solstice or how different cultures throughout history have celebrated it. For us, it is a great excuse to stay up late around the campfire and enjoy the fact that it really just doesn’t get dark. All celebrations aside, we took advantage of some terrific summer weather to get some field work done. We completed the second round of MAPS where 40 birds were banded at the four stations. We also discovered that baby birds are starting to make their way into this world. A handful of juvenile black-capped chickadees and a juvenile American robin were captured during this weeks MAPS banding. Craving a challenge, we spent some time hunting for elusive Canada warbler nests. We wanted to find as many nests as possible to video record nest behaviour of the adults and to monitor growth rates of the nestlings. Only two nests were discovered after many hours of searching. Both nests were at quite different stages of nestling development, which is interesting. The first nest was found early in the week with the female incubating four eggs. The eggs must have been laid only a few days before the nest was found because the female was still incubating the eggs by the end of the week. The second nest was found mid-week with both parents madly feeding four nestlings. The young had fledged from the nest by weeks end. We were close to finding a third nest, but the young had just fledged. We watched the adults collecting food, they were feeding the nestlings out of the nest; part of the adults post-fledgling care duties. Last year a young boy found a fledgling running on the ground. It was unable to fly because its flight feathers had not fully developed. Concerned with the bird’s wellbeing, he brought it to the banding lab to see if we could help it. We attempted to feed the bird, but it died of stress shortly after he brought it in. Although the boy had nothing but the best intentions, he should have just left the bird alone. Young birds will often leave their nest before they are fully capable of flight; nestlings are sitting targets for predators while in the nest. A disturbance will make them jump out of the nest like popcorn and they scatter everywhere. Ground nesting species tend to fledge earlier because their nests are highly susceptible to depredation. Parents will continue to care for the youngsters even though they have left the nest. The adults had to migrate thousands of kilometers just to have these babies; they won’t give up on their young that easily. Post-fledgling care will continue until the fledglings are capable of handling things on their own. The best thing to do if you see a helpless looking young bird is to leave it alone. It had not been abandoned.

2010