New Banding Venues

Since Tom’s banding project for MAPS will finish up this weekend, I emailed Scott Stoleson of the US Forest Service to see if he had projects going on. He does.  In fact, he has three.  They will spend a week at one, then move to the next for a week, then the next, and then [...]

Rictal What?

Whenever you get into a new realm of study, there are so many new words to learn! I borrowed an ornithology textbook from one of our college interns, so I could study up. I’m going to have to return it to her LONG before I can get through even a small fraction of [...]

A Surprise in the Net!

Finding a Sharp-shinned Hawk in the net was certainly thrilling. But when you consider what Sharpies eat, it wasn’t really a surprise… Last Saturday, I was truly surprised by this bird. See if you recognize it:

“They” say…

“They” say that there are no blue feathers. That is, there are no feathers that contain blue pigment. When our brains tell us that we have seen a blue bird, it is the result of physics and a trick of the light… reflection? refraction? I dunno… very complicated.
Whatever the science, [...]

Aging a Bird

Each week, I come home from bird banding saying, “The hardest part about bird banding is…” and then I finish the sentence differently each time. Sometimes I say, “…getting the bird out of the net.” Other times I say, “…identifying the species.” Today I say, “…figuring out the age of the bird.”
Sometimes [...]

A Sharpie

Apparently, Young Naturalist J has been waiting and hoping all summer for a Sharp-shinned Hawk to enter the nets at one of Tom’s banding stations. Well, J… Today was the day, and you weren’t here… Too bad, so sad…
If Tom ever leaves World of Warcraft and posts his pictures, I’ll put one here [...]

Busy, Busy Banding Day!

Monday was pretty much the busiest banding day I have experienced so far. Of course, I’ve only been doing this banding thing since spring… so my experience is limited… But, for example, at one net check, we filled every bag we had; we even put 2 or 3 birds in a couple [...]

Telling Boys from Girls

In species that are sexually dimorphic, it’s pretty easy! The Common Yellowthroat, for example. Remember mother and baby from a previous post?

Now here’s dad:

In Common Yellowthroats, the boys and girls look quite different.
Now here’s a pair that is NOT dimorphic (at least not visually – from a distance):

Red-eyed Vireo
Can you tell the boy [...]

The Flycatchers

When we caught one, Tom said, “Uh oh. Page 219 in Pyle’s.”

Yup. I’m a Flycatcher… But which one?
Until the 1970s there were Traill’s Flycatchers. Since then, there are Willow Flycatchers and Alder Flycatchers. The most reliable way to tell them apart is by their songs and they rarely sing in the [...]

Another Fine Day of Banding

Yesterday, I spent the morning at Allegany State Park with Tom (a.k.a. mon@rch) learning about birds and bird banding. I had been thinking during my drive to the park that it was odd that we hadn’t caught a Red-winged Blackbird, since the habitat seems agreeable for them. “Ask and ye shall receive.” Look [...]