Getting Some Work Done At Carpenter
Stopped in to watch the Friday morning banding at Carpenter Nature Center this morning. I haven't been able to go for a few weeks and I was glad to hang with the guys again. I was able to get two birds with one stone (so to speak) since I took the Wingscapes Camera with me to test out. For the moment, those photos go on their blog.
It started out as a slow morning. It was about ten degrees but we didn't have any snow. With it being that cold, we didn't put up any nets, but set out potters traps.
A squirrel managed to find its way into one of the traps. Ooops! It was very perplexed and alarmed--as were the banders. Some birds can be a little nippy when they are in the hand, imagine what a squirrel can do. Larry got a stick and opened the trap and the squirrel scampered to freedom unbanded.
We did get in quite a few black-capped chickadees. One very exciting bird already had a band and turned out to have been banded in 2002! This tiny guy lasting close to five years in the wild--amazing. By the way, is it me or does this bird's bill look a little big for a chickadee? I can't tell if I'm getting overly paranoid about birds with overgrown bills or if it's normal.
Juncoes were busting out all over. I love dark-eyed juncos, they kind of remind me of little penguins. Something interesting at Carpenter is that they bait all of their traps with black oil sunflower seeds and the juncos still go in. Working at a bird store and with personal experience, I have always found these guys love white millet, sunflower hearts and Nyjer and not black oilers. I wonder if they are actually cracking open the sunflower or if they see seed and just check it out?
There was a minor junco tragedy. When the guys went out to check all the traps, a sharp-shinned hawk was flushed and left behind a freshly killed junco. The bird was banded, so this was one of the few times when a dead bird could be fully documented we have an idea of where its life ended and how old it was. I think this bird was in its second year. Don't worry raptor enthusiasts, the dead junco was put back outside and the sharpie did return for it.
It started out as a slow morning. It was about ten degrees but we didn't have any snow. With it being that cold, we didn't put up any nets, but set out potters traps.
A squirrel managed to find its way into one of the traps. Ooops! It was very perplexed and alarmed--as were the banders. Some birds can be a little nippy when they are in the hand, imagine what a squirrel can do. Larry got a stick and opened the trap and the squirrel scampered to freedom unbanded.
We did get in quite a few black-capped chickadees. One very exciting bird already had a band and turned out to have been banded in 2002! This tiny guy lasting close to five years in the wild--amazing. By the way, is it me or does this bird's bill look a little big for a chickadee? I can't tell if I'm getting overly paranoid about birds with overgrown bills or if it's normal.
Juncoes were busting out all over. I love dark-eyed juncos, they kind of remind me of little penguins. Something interesting at Carpenter is that they bait all of their traps with black oil sunflower seeds and the juncos still go in. Working at a bird store and with personal experience, I have always found these guys love white millet, sunflower hearts and Nyjer and not black oilers. I wonder if they are actually cracking open the sunflower or if they see seed and just check it out?
There was a minor junco tragedy. When the guys went out to check all the traps, a sharp-shinned hawk was flushed and left behind a freshly killed junco. The bird was banded, so this was one of the few times when a dead bird could be fully documented we have an idea of where its life ended and how old it was. I think this bird was in its second year. Don't worry raptor enthusiasts, the dead junco was put back outside and the sharpie did return for it.
Labels: banding, Carpenter Nature Center, retraps
posted by birdchick at 8:56 PM
9 Comments:
Since you knew the dead bird was likely going to get eaten when you put it out, did you remove the band? I'm just wondering if a band on a smaller bird would harm a larger bird who ate it.
~Other Sharon
Juncos seem to be eating spilled sunflower seeds on the ground under my feeders. I don't feed millet or any of the filler stuff, so the sunflower must be what they are eating.
I don't think that a raptor would eat a band, do you Sharon? Since bands are on the legs, they would just leave it?
A big owl might, if it just gulped it whole? And it would come out with the pellet?
The whole foot was cut off with the band attached (that's what you're supposed to do according to US Fish and Wildlife).
Hawks and falcons don't usually eat the feet since they tend to rip pray apart, but I bet owls ingest bands since they tend to swallow prey whole. It just comes out in the pellet.
Sharon-
Did you post something once about differentiating downies and hairies (males) by the way the red looks on the back of their heads?
Hi Lynne,
I just had someone else ask me about that the other day. Here's a link to that post:
http://www.birdchick.com/2006/01/morning-at-hyland-park.html
My Juncos - here in California - seem to love whatever I put down on the ground. They eat sunflower seeds in the shell or out, the crappy seed that the chickadees reject and toss on the ground, they will even jump up to my platform feeder and eat my suet dough. They seem to be pretty willing to eat anything! When a squirrel pulled down my thistle feeder (in a rage that it wasn't full of sunflower seeds), they converged in amazing numbers and cleaned that up too. And, were joined by Varied Thrush, Spotted Towhees, and Hermit Thrushes who gobbled it all up too!
I have dark-eyed juncos eating black-oil sunflower seeds here, too (SW Ohio.) Not just the ones on the ground, but they will also get up on a platform feeder for them. I haven't seen them at a tube feeder, but they check out the spillage under every feeding station in my yard, as well as eating white millet when I offer it. I haven't seen them on my suet dough yet.
~Kathi
I use pellets in my ed. programs, from our ed. birds. But to find a "wild" pellet with a band in it would be cool!
Juncos? Is that what I am seeing at the feeders these days?
I am in NW Ohio. Only see them in the Spring and Fall.
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