KAISER MAPS SESSION #3

Kaiser MAPS Session for June 26, 2014

Thursday, June 26, 2014.  There was so much rain Tuesday and Wednesday,
June 24, and 25 that 
the regularly scheduled MAPS for Wednesday was cancelled and rescheduled 
for today. All the net lanes had standing water in them. The 
five deer I chased out of the area thought it was a fine place to rest 
and so did the opossum who sauntered across the road near our set up on 
the side of the road. Peggy Keller, Mindy Hettler, Jenna Holzchuch, 
Meghan Oberkircher, and Sue Smith rounded out our banding group. A new 
undergraduate student, Charmaine Merchant, joined us today and will be 
coming each week to get introduced to bird banding.

I am concerned about a big habitat change where two of my nets are 
located. There was a great deal of change when all the Black Alder was 
removed earlier this spring.  Undoubtedly this may have disturbed the
nesting of birds across the street. 
We banded seven new birds and recaptured eleven birds, so not much is 
moving around. Let’s hope the young start showing up the next two sessions.

The photos below show and unusual lack of pigment in the gray catbird 
and an unusual emergence of feathers under the beak in the yellow warbler.


Marian Klik

KAISER MAPS SESSION #2

Monday June 16, 2014. We had a very pleasant day weather wise Monday. Aggie Windig, Peggy Keller, Pat Lovallo, Meghan Oberkircher and Sue Smith Pagano from RIT were all there to help. Andrea stopped by to introduce me to Mindy Hettler, a new volunteer, who also stayed to see how we remove birds from nets, scribe and take nets down. She was not allowed to take birds out or handle them as I think she has to be trained first. She would like to bring her daughter the next few times to get her interested in banding. While checking the nets at 6 am, I was greeted by a deer face to face coming down and around a corner in the bushes at net #2. We both jumped sky high at the confrontation. At least she didn’t run into a net this time. This was the second deer confrontation of the morning. I hit a deer on Rt. 390 N on my way to the MAPS station at 5 am. It demolished my driver side front bumper, hood and air conditioning condenser.

We banded only 8 new birds which included a Blue-winged male and Brown Thrasher female. I had one Carolina Wren escape and bagged one Ruby-throated Hummingbird. There were 10 recaptures. The breeding status list included 41 species of birds that were either carrying food, singing, flying over or banded. Nice variety for the summer residents. No birds fledging just yet. The females are sitting on the eggs and the males are singing as loud as they can. The vegetation of the area has changed a bit since so many bushes have been cut back. I wonder how much this influences the bird nesting. Marian Klik

Dead Creek Vermont MAPS Session #2

Saturday June 14, 2014

It was a very small crew with Henry and Brendan setting up nets and getting the banding tools ready for the day. It’s the smallest crew we ever had  at Dead Creek.   It was cloudy for most of the morning until almost closing time. Henry picked and scribed while  Brendan and I banded and picked.

Dead Creek MAPS Station
Photo by Ryan Kayhart

Ryan got on the scoreboard for top bander. We banded 17 birds which is like our second slowest MAPS period.   Our slowest was July 31,2009 when we had just 11 new birds and  23 retraps reprocessed.

Bird of the day was Song Sparrow with 6 banded.

BIRD OF THE DAY     Song Sparrow
Photo by Ryan Kayhart

Only one Catbird was banded after the previous MAPS period we had 10 banded!  Brendan’s son Quinn helped out some by releasing the birds. The highlight was our second Red-eyed Vireo in the 8 years we have been at Dead Creek.  The last was one was banded June 17,2007 our first year at DCBO.

Red-eyed Vireo   Second in 8 Years
Photo by Ryan Kayhart

Missing in action Rodney Olsen, Lisa Sausville, Ethan Sausville, Warren King, Claire Trombley, Becky Trombley and her famous Chocolate chip cookies!

Ryan Kayhart

HANA MAPS Session Two

 June 14, 2014  Despite an overcast and chilly morning, another successful MAPS session was completed at High Acres. We banded 27 new birds and had 16 recaptures for a total of 43 birds of 15 species. Birds have begun fledging, both a Wood Thrush and Yellow Warbler fledgling were banded.

Similar to last week, the bird of the day came on the closing net run  … an ATY Northern Flicker!

ATY Female Northern Flicker Photo by Meghan Oberkircher

 

The first American Redstarts were also banded and gave us a nice comparison between SY and ASY male Redstarts.

SY and ASY Male American Redstarts Photo by Meghan Oberkircher

We had another good turnout of volunteers including many RIT alumni.

 

-Meghan Oberkircher

Kaiser MAPS Station Up and Running for 2014 Season!

June 6, 2014.  We banded 26 new birds and 13 retraps.  Meghan Oberkircher  is taking blood samples  for her master’s work at RIT on stress related hormones and chemicals, concentrating on Song sparrows, Catbirds and Yellow warblers.   She has lots of experience at the HANA station and will be a big help.

Cindy Marino gave me a hand and Pat Lovallo dropped by to help after doing a little painting of a closet at the house. We had a beautiful day to work and I am happy to say I am glad I decided to continue the MAPS station for another year.

I used six brand new nets and repaired two old ones to use at my station. Unfortunately, a deer ran right through a new net within on hour of my opening it up. It took me 2 1/2 hours to repair the 3 foot hole it put into the net. I had to stitch in a section from an old net just to fix it. There are many many deer in the area. At least there were no bear sightings.

Marian Klik

HANA MAPS STATION – SESSION ONE – 2014

Friday June 6, 2014

Summer MAPS banding started out at High Acres Nature Reserve with 26 newly banded birds and 12 recaptures. There was a good mix of birds of 13 different species including several Carolina Wrens and bright Yellow Warblers.

The highlight of the day came during the final net run; a surprise tree swallow! This species had never been banded at HANA before, although they are seen all over the site.

Thank you to the seven volunteers who came out to help for the first session, the help was greatly appreciated!

 

Male Yellow Warbler

After Second Year Male Tree Swallow

Photos by Samantha Gonzalez

 

Final Day of Spring 2014 Banding!

Wednesday June 4, 2014.  34 new of 22 species; 4 retraps.

Our total today was 34 with no species being a big winner.  All 22 species were pretty equally represented.

The four recaps today gave us a total of 617 for the spring season.  The total number of birds banded this spring to this date was 3783.

We had enough birds to keep the five banders happy!

SY Male Nashville Warbler
Photo by Peggy Keller

ASY-F Hooded Warbler
Photo by Peggy Keller

Our local photographer, Kathy Habgood, told us about her experience of getting some great photos of the Kirtland’s Warbler.

Thanks to John B for keeping us focused as he scribed for us and Alice V for keeping the net-pickers in order.

Peggy Keller (BIC)

Rain dampens the day

Tuesday June 3, 2014:  4 new birds of 4 species, 0 recaps.  No new species.  Rain spoiled most of the morning, and we just opened a few nets here and there before and after the showers.  While there were lots of birds singing, only a few found our nets.  Tomorrow is the last day of the season, and the winds look good for a final push of lingering migrants.  Stop in and say hello before summer starts!

Cuckoos!

Monday June 2, 2014:  66 new birds.  Bird of the day was Traill’s Flycatcher, with 18 new bands.

We have been hearing and catching Black-billed Cuckoos over the past week, but today we got a big surprise with a Yellow-billed Cuckoo as well!

Yellow-billed Cuckoo
Photo by Peggy Keller

The migration season is winding down, as we are seeing more and more locally breeding birds and birds in breeding condition.  We haven’t had any juveniles yet, but we should start seeing them at our MAPS stations in the next week or two.

“Reg” Britton and Joseph Verdone ‘Remembered’ in Memorial Garden Ceremony

Wednesday, May 28, 2014.  It was a lovely evening, and a large crowd  ‘remembered’  two men in our annual Memorial Garden ceremony.

 

Gordon Reginold Britton –

‘Reg’ served in the United States Navy during World War II. He loved skiing, sailing and spending time on Mudlunta Island in the Thousand Islands. And he always had a great story to tell!

 

Friends and Family Remember ‘Reg’ Britton
Photo by Kathy Habgood

 

 

Joseph Verdone –

Joe was a Kodak chemist. He loved everything outdoors … trout fishing in summer, ice-fishing in winter, gardening, refereeing his girls’ Angela and Jules softball games, and sailing with Barb.  

Friends and Family of Joe Verdone
Photo by Kathy Habgood