9/9/2015

Today on Wednesday September 9, 2015 our Ornithology class had our second day out at the Ridges. We met at the vans at 6:45, left by 7:00 a.m. and headed to The Ridges. Right from our arrival we heard a White Eyed Veerio repeatedly.We split off into two groups to get all the nets set up. I was in the group with Kelly where we set up nets 1 and 2 in the same place as last time in a side part of a trail that went up an incline and turned surrounded by trees. Net 3 was also placed in the same spot, in the brushy wood area with more open land in front of it and denser behind it. Net 4 was placed along the pond again and then put an additional one along across the wood bridge that was in a much more denser forest area and I believe we named this net 10. The weather was 68 degrees with 20% cloud cover and a bit of humidity. We started a point count at 8:04 at the pond. The blue jays were very vocal this morning, we believed there to be atleast 3 in the forest next to the pond. We heard an American Goldfinch, and a Carolina Wren during the point count and saw a Red Bellied Woodpecker flying. Post point count we still heard and saw many birds. I saw a Tufted Titmouse and a Carolina Chickadee close by the pond and flying around sounding their calls. Some additional bird songs and calls were the Eastern/ Tohee, Eastern Peewee, Crusted Nuthatch and continually the White and also the Red and Yellow White Eyed Veerio and plenty of Blue Jays. We spent a good time watching woodpeckers traveling up and down the trees, and we also observed some American Robins. Our first bird banded was at 8:50 a.m. from net 6. It was a male Northern Cardinal (NOCA), band # 198122224, AHY by P and we saw broken shafts and worn feathers. We went on another bird check, this time I went to the nets set up by the other group. Net 7 was deeper in the forest down by the power line. We had caught a bird in the net but spent a good amount of time calling since we saw so many others around and trying to lure more in. We saw warblers and hummingbirds, and used alarms calls, other bird calls from phones, etc. to try to bring more in. No more flew into the net but we were able to observe them flying around the area. Walking back we also caught a Common Yellow Throat coming from net 6. So for our 10:00 a.m. birds banded, we had the Common Yellow Throat (COYE) with the band number of 275056104 from net 6. Aged AHY and female by plumage and due to coloring we were able to look up information and tell it was a fall adult female in first spring. Also a Northern Cardinal (NOCA) from net 7 with band number 198122225. Due to its black bill and no crest it was deemed a juvenile and also had no pre basic molt and the sex was unknown. Also coming from net 7 was another Northern Cardinal, band number 198122226. It was a female and aged AHY by plumage. I was able to practice my bander's grip on the female cardinal, practice wing cord length and get to experience a cardinals bite for the first time. When the juvenile was released, it did not fly away from us and had some blood exposed when we first took it out. It was put back in the bag and taken to be released around net 7 where it was found. Final bird check and tear down was at 10:45 where three White Eyed Vireo (WEVI) were all caught from net 5. The first one was a recapture, actually banded in my Field Ecology lab the week before. The first bird, the recapture (274029835) was aged HY as we were able to examine its primary and secondary coverts, primary being more dull so able to age as HY by L (molt limit), the eye was also a greyer color and the sex was unknown. The second examined (275056105) was also examined by its coverts, had a greyer colored eye so able to age as HY and sex unknown. This was the same for the third bird examined (275056106). I've started noticing a lot of different calls that I recognize which is interesting and cool, able to watch and examine the birds better such as a few angry tufted titmouse we saw, and working on finding birds through the binoculars at all distances.