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Archived Postings

August 14, 2008 – August 20, 2008

Bird banding has slowed down considerably over the past week at the LSLBO. There were plenty of birds around, but, like the past few weeks, we were unable to catch very many of them. Most of the action took place in the sky with several days of heavy migratory passage. On those busy days, the number of migrating yellow-rumped warblers and pine siskins reached totals of 600 to 700 each. They were not alone. Many other warbler species, such as magnolia warblers, Wilson’s warblers, and palm warblers were moving with them. Fewer American redstarts and yellow warblers were observed, indicating that their peak passage has ended. With so many birds passing through, it is becoming frustrating that we are only able to catch about 10 each day. Even though counting all the migrating birds is important, being able to band them is far more fun. The standard protocol we follow for our monitoring methods dictate that we cannot attract birds into the nets. We follow passive trapping techniques. There is no way that we can lure any of the hundreds of birds passing overhead; they have to fly into the nets on their own. Sometimes, however, we do get a little help. One species that is great for attracting other birds into the nets are black-capped chickadees. Chickadees will make a mobbing call when they are entangled. Other birds respond to the mobbing call and will end up getting captured too. A couple captured chickadees can bring in everything from warblers, kinglets, sparrows, to even woodpeckers. Suddenly, chickadees become a banders best friend. Hunting sharp-shinned hawks will sometimes chase their prey directly into the nets. That is a double bonus because you get two birds. Our first savannah sparrow of the fall was caught this way. It was too bad that the hawk managed to free itself before we got to the net, but the sparrow was left unharmed and ready for banding. Whatever brings the birds into the nets, we sure can use their help. One of the more interesting finds we had was stumbling upon a feeding area for a family group of yellow-bellied sapsuckers. Sapsuckers have a distinct style of collecting their food and they always leave evidence as to which trees they have been using. They peck out a small shallow area of bark from a tree, just deep enough for the sap to run out. The sap attracts a host of insects and then sapsuckers return to eat the insects. Wasps, butterflies, and small flies were all feeding on the sap, a good assortment of bug snack for the woodpeckers. A sapsucker feeding tree can be easily identified by the rows of small squares that have been pecked out. The sapsuckers we were watching used three trees, which they which they diligently returned to. The group consisted of an adult male and at least two juvenile birds. All the birds we saw were banded.

2010