Autumn is in the air!

Saturday, August 31 2019

Autumn is definitely here in Fairbanks! The trees are changing colors and dropping their leaves. Which also means our nets sometimes catch more leaves than birds! Capture rates were a little low today due to a Northern Goshawk scaring away a lot of the songbirds in the research area. Once it moves on, we hope the songbird presence will go up once again!

~ Melanie

Friday slow down

Things slowed way down today despite the extra help and additional nets open today. Highlights were a couple of Fox Sparrows, a Boreal Chickadee, and a Hermit Thrush!

Western Palm Warbler!!!

We had a huge day of birds, diversity and surprises! Our first surprises of the day were a pair of adult Rusty Blackbirds - absolutely stately in their fall plumage. A long awaited first-of-season, the Varied Thrush was also in the same net as the Rusties! We've been hearing them for over a week, hopeful that we might have the chance to see the bird up close. The day picked up quickly after these feathered gems and consisted predominately of Orange-crowned Warblers and Myrtle Warblers. One of my favorite birds of the day was a male Hairy Woodpecker that we caught this spring; this handsome fellow is pushing six years old and a year-round resident of Creamer's Field. Despite my genuine woodpecker and chickadee love, one bird in particular captivated us all today: a Western Palm Warbler! This is the 6th in station banding history (28 years!)! Check out this gorgeous Fairbanks rarity, a HY unknown sex Western Palm Warbler:

First-of-season: Avian Pox

We had a busy morning despite the overcast skies and gentle breeze. Luckily, coffee and donuts kept us fueled and warm! 

OCWA with Avian Pox

We captured a hatch-year Orange-crowned Warbler that showed signs of an active Avian Pox infection (photo right). Avian Pox is an avian specific infection caused by a virus that results in growths on the birds skin (particularly around the eyes, ears, feet and legs); some severe infections cause lesions in the respiratory tract. It's one of the oldest known avian diseases and is known to impact >230 birds species. Biting insects like mosquitoes are the predominate vector for the disease, though direct contact with an infected bird or contaminated object (for example, a bird feeder) are also responsible for the spread of the disease. We typically see a few cases of Avian Pox every season and do our best to reduce transmission by cleaning ourselves and our equipment regularly, and after infected birds. The Orange-crowned Warbler we captured appeared to be in good body condition and health despite the active infection on its feet that have already resulted in the partial loss of a couple toes.

Cloudy day, Savannah Sparrow

We had a cloudy and cool day at the station that was punctuated by a couple flocks of Orange-crowned Warblers. We caught our fourth Sharp-shinned Hawk of the season; she was a hatch-year female. Another favorite was a spiffy Fox Sparrow. Before things got busy, we admired a few Savannah Sparrows that ventured into our nets.

Busy weekend and a Brown Creeper!

Crane Festival Visitors!

Brown Creeper

We had a busy weekend of birds and people at the station during the 2019 Tanana Valley Sandhill Crane Festival. The star of the weekend was a Brown Creeper! It was also a hatch-year bird (like our first this season). Thank you to everyone who helped!!!  
Things slowed down today with low bird captures. However, this granted us the time to compare notes with two fellow visiting banders (one from Homer, AK and another who bands on Jekyl Island, GA). We also had a fabulous group visiting from OLLI!

First of seasons: American Tree Sparrow and Ruby-crowned Kinglets!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

American Tree Sparrow

We kept busy today with just shy of 100 birds total for the day; most of which were Orange-crowned Warblers. We were excited to start the day with our first American Tree Sparrow of the season, and we finished the day with another first of season - TWO Ruby-crowned Kinglets!  

Second day of frost

Our second morning of frost was steady and dominated by Swainson's and Gray-cheeked Thrushes. Mushrooms are everywhere and the local red squirrels are busy enjoying the wealth.

First-of-season Fox Sparrow!

Fox Sparrow

We opened the station late due to a lingering rain storm. Luckily, the sunshine came out and transformed our morning into a beautiful day. We were also excited to capture a new first-of-season, a Fox Sparrow! It was a gorgeous after-hatch-year (adult) male. We captured many more adults (approximately 15% of total captures) today, which is unusual; most of our captures consist of hatch-year birds. 

Third Sharpie!

Things slowed down today, but diversity and excitement remained high. The highlight of the day was a gorgeous hatch-year female Sharp-shinned Hawk. She was much larger than the male from last week and had a full crop from a recent meal. Occasionally small raptors like Sharp-shinned and Merlins are attracted to songbirds trapped in mist nets (birds can make up a large portion of their diet). This young female was unsuccessful and likely uninterested in the birds we were capturing since her crop was so full!

Busy busy busy!

It was another busy day at the station dominated by flocks of Yellow-rumped Warblers. Orange-crowned Warblers and Swainson's Thrushes followed up in second and third most captured. We captured our first Gray-cheeked Thrushes several days ago, but have only captured a small number of individuals so far. Check out this feathered brown-eyed beauty:

Hatch-year male Sharp-shinned Hawk

Laurel with the Sharpie!

We started late today due to morning rain showers, and didn't catch many birds once we opened. We did capture another male Sharp-shinned Hawk, but this one was a hatch-year instead. How cool!

Big Day - 155 birds!

The rain cleared and the morning began with the chorus of hundreds of Sandhill Cranes alighting the fields of Creamer's. Most of our captures were Yellow-rumped Warblers, but we had several stunning Orange-Crowned, Yellow and Wilson's Warblers. Check out this particularly spiffy Yellow Warbler:

Stormy August Skies

Heavy rain showers resulted in banding operations being canceled for the day. This is our 6th cancellation due to rain this season.

Two first of seasons! Sharp-shinned Hawk and Hairy Woodpecker!

Ellen with the HAWO

We had a great morning. The clouds cleared and incoming rain held off while we operated the station. Most of the morning's captures were Swainson's Thrushes and made of the bulk of the days captures. We caught several adult birds today including a beautiful Orange-crowned Warbler. We also caught two new birds for this fall: a Sharp-shinned Hawk and a Hairy Woodpecker! The Sharp-shinned Hawk was a feisty second-year male migrating south. The Hairy Woodpecker was a beautiful hatch-year female who may stay at Creamer's all winter long. 

Here comes the rain again

The rain returned today, which provided us with ample opportunity to catch up on data management. It looks like the next few days will continue to be wet and gray. Hopefully the clouds will break and allow us to open the station soon.

Swainson's Thrushes galore!

The overwhelming bulk of our captures were Swainson's Thrushes today. Based on the dark purple stains appearing on all their bags, we're pretty sure they've been enjoying the copious chokecherry fruits around the station.

You are my sunshine

We had a fabulous day of weather and birds! Thanks to all for the wonderful help this weekend!

First-of-season: Gray-cheeked Thrush!

We had our first day with over 100 captures! We also captured our first Gray-cheeked Thrush of the season!

The sun takes care of the rain

We were surprised by another rainy morning and after delaying for many hours cancelled banding operations for the day. 

First-of-season: Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker!

Creamer's Field was cloaked in cool fog this morning, but bloomed into a gorgeous and warm afternoon. We captured another 'first-of-season' today: a Yellow-shafted Northern Flicker! Five woodpecker species occur in Interior Alaska. The Northern Flicker is the largest and only migratory species; this Yellow-shafted subspecies migrates to the eastern US for the winter months. It also does most of it's foraging on the ground and even perches on horizontal branches like a songbird!

Don't count your birds before the last net run

Today was a pretty spectacular day in many regards (it's important to remember there are many "types" of spectacular). In the most ordinary kind of spectacular day, we were able to operate a full day without getting rained on. This is a victory for a Fairbanks banding station in August. Prepared to settle for just this one thing, we were content with our steady but rather low number of birds throughout the day. The spectacular meter jumped up a notch to pretty-stoked spectacular with the capture of a Spotted Sandpiper in net 12! It's the first Spotted Sandpiper in banding station history! (Okay, now we've reached historical spectacular. And yes, there are more levels).

More than pleased, we all settled in to preparing for the end of the day. And this is where it went all wrong. I bet you've heard the phrase: don't count your chickens before they hatch. Turns out there's another birdy no-no: don't count your birds before the last net run. One of our fun moments of the day is guessing how many birds we've captured/banded, only we never do this until we're done. Today I thought I'd be ambitious and total our numbers and discuss guesses before heading out on our closing net run; this is something I thought would work out fine since activity slows throughout the morning and we weren't having a busy day. We even had the gall to joke and laugh that we could get slammed while closing. We really did think we were in the homestretch.

You've probably guessed it by now. We jinxed ourselves forwards, backwards, up, down, and every-which way.

 It happened like this: Net 1 was the first net encountered; an amused chuckle and call on the radio let us know someone wanted to change their guess for the day. Then I happened upon net 19 with a smattering of birds, oh and so did 18. Hmm. We briefly discussed the possibility of more bags. When we arrived at the 20s we called in for reinforcements with a desperate plea for bags. This was a pretty tough request since the water levels at the 20s were flirting with the lips of knee boots. Turns out that nets 3 and 5 were also full of birds, so everyone was busy. Together we waded through the 20s and were ready to venture into deeper waters for our last seven nets...

Now this is where I should back-up, I reckon things went off course way before I broke our new cardinal rule (pun intended). I happened to note the boisterous and numerous chickadees that chose the station as their afternoon hangout while on the second to last net run; I may have even chided 'you just wait until there's 50 chickadees in a mist net at close'. 

Things went spectacularly full circle when we arrived at 15 and 16 to find more birds including many chickadees. Tait and I were on our own; we were in the land of waders - bye,bye cuticles. It get's even more unbelievably spectacular. Nets 13 and 14 were full of chickadees. I'd like to say 11 and 12 welcomed us, but we found more chickadees. (I find it important to note here, I truly love chickadees.) 

The job isn't done once you've removed the birds; safely and quickly processing them is an essential next step. The effort to get to this point included many things, but of spectacular note were: falling in the gully, eating tasty papaya, swamping knee boots, eating an Alaska blueberry muffin, not caring that knee boots were swamped, drinking cold coffee, and sweating in the sun.

HY Brown Creeper

 Finishing the day required two people banding at once with one patient recorder and resulted in four more first-of-seasons! Our four new birds of the season were: Downy Woodpecker, Blackpoll Warbler, Boreal Chickadee, and a BROWN CREEPER!!! Very few things can bring a bander to a stop on busy day, but a Brown Creeper certainly did. We all briefly paused to admire and snap a few photos of this second ever station capture (the first was in 2015). Capturing this bird was pretty Captain-Ahab spectacular. The Brown Creeper is one of the few species elevated to 'white whale' status at the station. We were even able to share the excitement with an out-of-town visitor who kindly donated to the station!

After a day like today, all you can really be is spectacularly thankful. Thankful for job well done, incredibly great people, stories to tell and the amazing birds that bring us all together. 

I love the rain the most, when it stops

Rain was expected to continue through this afternoon. Instead shifting winds granted us a blustery but dry morning. Lincoln Sparrows dominated the day's captures. A snazzy Wilson's Warbler and a quirky young Orange-crowed Warbler were favorites of the day.

The water in the 'gully' continues to rise. It looks like we'll need waders to access many nets if this continues.

Rising water

Frequent rainy weather continues and the seasonal pond has begun to fill with water again. A few nets in the 'gully' now have water in their net lanes. Hopefully we'll be able to get by with knee boots.

We captured a new 'first-of-season' today: an Alder Flycatcher! What a great way to end the day!

Water, water everywhere!

The heavy rain has once again shut down banding operations at CFMS. 🙁

What do birds do when it rains? Light rain does little to affect birds but heavy rain prompts them to seek shelter in trees and bushes. Prolonged rain can cause birds to run at an energy deficit from sitting motionless for too long. At this point they must feed regardless of the consequences. Insect eating birds suffer the most because their prey can become inactive when it rains. But seed eating birds will do alright, along with birds that eat worms that are flooded out of their soil.

The rain should lessen over the next few days and we all should be able to resume normal activities (birds with feeding and us with banding) when nicer weather returns to Fairbanks!

Rain, rain go away

We 'dipped' again today due to a large front that moved in from the east and prevented us from opening the station. We're hoping all this rain helps put an end to this years wildfire season. Fingers crossed for good weather tomorrow!

Starting the rainy season with a rainy day

August is typically a rainy month in Fairbanks, Alaska. The first day of August has begun true to form; rainy rainy rainy. To maintain bird safety, we do not operate the banding station during rain events. We hope these fronts will move through and we can open the station soon.