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Archived Postings

August 28, 2006 – September 3, 2006

August 28 to September 3, 2006 Migration has shifted in terms of intensity of passage and the species that are moving through. There are far fewer birds observed passing over the lab and the most common species seen earlier in the fall: American redstarts, yellow warblers, ovenbirds, Tennessee warblers, and Swainson’s thrush, are now rarely seen. Yellow-rumped warblers are still moving through, but in somewhat lower numbers, and their passage will continue until late September. But all is not lost….these birds have been replaced by some of the later migrants including orange-crowned warblers, white-crowned sparrows, dark-eyed juncos, American pipits, and Lapland longspurs. Banding through the week has been very slow, with only 58 birds banded. The first fox sparrow, ruby-crowned kinglet, and red-breasted nuthatch of the fall were banded this week. Northern Saw-whet owl banding continued this week with 8 saw-whets banded, indicating that their movement is starting to pick up. I was involved in a discussion with some good friends about the “best” bird we’ve had the opportunity to band. It was a tough discussion to take part in because I could not choose one. Is the “best” bird considered the rarest, the biggest, the prettiest, or the most elusive? Thankfully the conversation quickly turned to which species we’d like to band. That one is easy. I once watched a video of a common nighthawk being banded and it is something I would really like to experience. Common nighthawks are in the goatsucker family (a name based on a myth that they would fly in at night and suck the udders of farmer’s goats). These birds are primarily crepuscular (active at dawn and dusk), but are unfortunately rarely seen around the banding lab. Nighthawks have a gigantic gaping maw of a mouth to catch insects on the wing, which is deceived by a very small bill. On the video, the bird being banded would open up this huge mouth and make a very creepy noise. It would be neat to see in person, and this week, I almost had my chance. One morning a common nighthawk was flushed from the rocks on the shoreline. After it was flushed a second time and was seen landing on the rocks not far away, it was time to try to get a closer look. Common nighthawks have cryptic colouration, which allows them to quite effectively blend in with their surroundings. It took some searching, but finally the bird was found sleeping on the rocks. Things quickly turned from getting a closer look to trying to catch it. First, stalking a bird on rocks is very difficult. Eventually I came within a few feet of the bird and realized the only tool I had to catch this bird was my fleece sweater. I will admit right now that I did not receive very good grades in physics. I threw my sweater over the bird, but it caught the wind and proceeded to gently float down. The nighthawk had more than enough time to wake up, have a drink, call up its family to see how migration was treating them, and fly away. In conclusion, I owe my high school physics teacher a little credit now…he did know what he was talking about.

2010