August 30 - Fall Migration Monitoring

The walk out to the banding lab and to open nets seemed a bit quieter than the day before, but the first round was a different story. It was a virtual repeat of the day before with 30+ birds caught. Thankfully things calmed down a bit afterward and kept steady at 5-10 birds/round, except for a few busier ones. The parade of Yellow Warblers continues, although an increase in Orange-crowned Warblers were noted. Perhaps this means that we are seeing a changing of the guard. Another sure sign that fall is coming shortly is that we caught our first Fox Sparrow of the year. While it may be a while before we see many more of them, that combined with the rain forecast is a sign that summer is coming to an end.



Northern Pintail are noted daily flying in high from the north, presumably migrants, and overall duck numbers are slowly starting to build. The large numbers of swallows present on the weekend (500+) has dissipated slightly with only ~250 around today, comprised of all six of the regularly occurring species. Rain forecast for tomorrow likely indicates a well deserved sleep in for all volunteers, except Tom Plath who will keep the census going strong!

August 29 - Fall Migration Monitoring

Today was quite momentous for two things, one it was our busiest day yet with 175 birds caught, and two, one of our volunteers Nathan proposed to his partner Angie. The busyness of the morning kept us all on edge to find an appropriate moment. Luckily a Red-winged Blackbird was caught and Nathan had Angie band her favourite bird with a special 'band' he had made that asked the magic question. She said yes and took the band instead of the blackbird. Congratulations to Nathan and Angie!


On the bird front, things were busy on pretty much every net run and all around us. After helping get a dozen birds out of net 1 and 2 I wandered over to net 5 only to find everyone else already extracting the 20+ birds that were over there. At that point we split up and started banding to ensure that there would be enough bags to complete the net run. We had a few lulls of 5-10 birds, but usually had about 20 birds back at the station at any one time waiting to be processed. Luckily we had a crack team of extractors who were able to keep up with the onslaught of birds. Variety was not the spice of the day, but if you loved Yellow Warblers it was your day to be at the station as they composed about 120 of the 175 birds caught. Other noteworthy birds included a Rufous Hummingbird (we haven't had many lately), several Warbling Vireos and of course the Red-winged Blackbird. Migration is heading onwards at full-speed right now, who knows what the next while might bring.

Also of note was this Song Sparrow which had a long and narrow bill, I don't know if it represents an abnormal individual or subspecies I have not seen before. Any comments?

August 28, 2010 - Fall Migration Monitoring

What seemed like ideal conditions (clear skies and northerly winds) for overnight migration did not materialize into birds being caught. However, of the 40+ birds captured today only a few were recaptures, indicating that many of the birds that were staging at Iona have moved on.

The day started off calm, but the wind picked up mid-way through the morning resulting in the closing of half the nets. As a result no birds were caught over the last few rounds. But with a few busy rounds early on it ended up a moderately paced morning, with lots of Yellow Warblers and our first wave of Lincoln's Sparrows. We also managed to catch the station's first Western Tanager.



In the sewage lagoons there were now 4 Red-necked Phalaropes and a Wilson's still hanging around. Few other interesting birds were noted in the area.

While I have almost given up with predicting what the next day will bring, the strong winds forecast tonight it will likely be a slower day tomorrow.

August 27, 2010 - Fall Migration Monitoring

The rains early last night likely prevented most migrants from moving last night as today was relatively slow. The first couple of net rounds were quite slow, however, things picked up later on. Yellow Warblers were still the bulk of the catch, but several Trail's Flycatchers, Warbling Vireos, and Common Yellowthroats were caught. A first for us was a hatch-year Red-eyed Vireo that was caught and banded mid-morning. Several Marsh and Bewick's Wrens that have been hanging around for a while were caught as well.



A Merlin and Peregrine Falcon cruised through the area repeatedly terrorizing the swallows, shorebirds and waterfowl in the ponds and lagoons. A early morning visit to the SE sewage lagoon resulted in 3 Red-necked Phalaropes and a Wilson's Phalarope being seen. Swallow numbers continue to be high (in the hundreds) and consist largely of Barn Swallows, though Bank, N. Rough-winged, Tree, Violet-green Swallows and Purple Martin were seen. Fall is definitely on the way now that more migrant waterfowl have shown up, including Northern Pintails, American Wigeon and American Coots were observed in the south pond and possibly a few more Hooded Mergansers.

Hopes are high that with clearer and calmer weather tonight more birds may be present tomorrow morning, we're bound for another big fallout one of these days.