Monthly Banding Update

May '07 Report (Gina Barton, Coyote Creek Field Station Manager) - All our migrants have gone, and we've captured juveniles representing almost all of our common species of breeding songbirds. We captured 350 birds of 26 species, with approximately 35 birds captured per 100 net hours. Of the birds we captured, we put bands on 233 of them, while 102 were birds we banded previously. We operated nets on 13 days this month, and our banding and field station volunteers donated 309 hours of their time.

Our migrants for May were 113 Swainson's Thrush, 21 Wilson's Warbler, four Yellow Warbler, one Western wood-Pewee, one Western Flycatcher, one Townsend's Warbler, one Orange-crowned Warbler, and one straggling Fox Sparrow. Between 2003-2006, our latest capture of a Fox Sparrow was between April 18 and 27. Often the late stragglers are young birds that don't really know when and where to go, but we banded this bird in October 2005 as a juvenile, making it three years old. Also, the Western wood-pewee was our first capture of this species since September 2003.

New species for 2007 are Western wood-Pewee, Yellow Warbler, and Oregon Junco. We also had a few interesting breeding bird captures. A pair of Downy Woodpeckers had a nest right next to one of our nets, causing them to fly into the nets nine times throughout April and May! Based on ages on original banding dates, the male is five years old and the female is seven years old. We also had a female Brown-headed Cowbird active around the nets. This cowbird was initially banded on May 28, 2006 and recaptured on April 21 and May 30 of this year.

We ended the month with a baby Virginia Opossum peeking out from under Coyote Brush right next to the trailer to see what we were up to. We've also seen the resident gray foxes numerous times and had at least three visits from them at the trailer, peeking in the door and marking a predator patroller's car.