Six Weeks of Birds!

My name is Ellen Munshower and I am the other intern that was hired by ASI to assist in the fall bird banding season. I moved up here in August from Minnesota and have not only been able to take advantage of this incredible learning opportunity at Creamers Field, but I have also been able to explore this beautifully wild state. The position here gave me time to travel all around Alaska and I've seen more wildlife here than I have in any other state in the US. While working at the banding station I saw so many birds- not just those caught in the nets, but the thousands of Sandhill Cranes out in the fields before they headed south, and all of the waterfowl and birds of prey that call the nature preserve their seasonal home. This experience was so much more rewarding than simply bird watching at a nature preserve because I was learning new skills and working alongside volunteers and staff members that have years of avian knowledge they were happy to share with me. I have learned practical skills that will help me as I apply to future positions, and I have had the rewarding experience of being able to work on a project that I care about. I felt welcomed and respected by everyone at ASI and I will miss the little tent in the woods where I learned how to band and ID songbirds. Thank you to everyone that I worked with who made this internship so wonderful, and to those of you who contribute to the Alaska Songbird Institute- either through donations or by volunteering- and make the research and internship possible.


P.S. Today (Wednesday, September 25th) was our last day and here are our stats:

My office is out with the birds!

My name is Melanie Graeff and I was hired this year to be a Science Education Intern with the Alaska Songbird Institute. This year has been an absolute whirlwind with learning new wildlife information, learning bird handling and extracting methods, leading education walks with school groups and visitors, and getting to work outside in this beautiful area with an amazing group of people! I have been so enriched with all of the experiences that this opportunity has given to me! Everyday was a new adventure for me and I was so lucky to be able to call these woods my outdoor office. Though my position has come to an end, I do intend on returning next year as a volunteer to continue this amazingly fun work! Thank you to all the volunteers that I got to know and work with this year. You all are rock stars and all of you have taught me so much this year! I want to thank Claire and Tricia for giving me this opportunity and for being all-around amazing at what they do. Without their dedication and hard work, ASI would not be what it is today. And I am sure the birds are thankful as well. I can't wait to come back next year to see what the 2020 banding season will bring.

35th Species of 2019! Northern Shrike!

Monday, September 23rd

It was a cold morning with a hard frost covering all of Creamer's Field. We were excited to capture a variety of species today including an American Three-toed Woodpecker and a late Gray-cheeked Thrush. We were especially excited to capture a 35th first-of-season today - a Northern Shrike!!! This individual was easily identified as a hatch-year due to it's indistinct facial mask, dark baring on it's chest, gray rather than black bill, and brown rather than black wing bars.

The Northern Shrike is a migratory and typically breeds in taiga and tundra habitats. They are a predatory songbird that eats insects, amphibians, small mammals and even other birds. Unlike other songbirds, the "butcher bird" has a very unique eye adapted to it's specialized diet.

Unlike humans, birds eyes are fixed in place and they must move their entire head to change their field of view (our musculature allows us to remain stationary). The placement and stationary nature of most bird's eyes results in monocular vision (humans have binocular vision). Certain groups of birds have adapted a way to tackle this obstacle and attain a degree of binocular vision, something that is useful if you rely on your eyesight to capture quickly moving prey. 

Humans and most songbirds have a single structure in the eye called a fovea. Fovea are small pits at the rear of the eye (located in the macula of the retina) composed of a very dense cluster of rods and cones; this structure is responsible for crisp and extremely detailed vision (i.e., visual acuity). A second fovea in some species provides a degree of binocular vision, increased visual acuity and depth perception. These are all useful if you are trying to catch quickly moving prey. Raptors (e.g., hawks, falcons, eagles, owls), hummingbirds, kingfishers, and shrikes are among the few birds that have more than one fovea (interestingly, a few bird species have no fovea - any guesses on who?). The only other songbird family that has two fovea are the swallows. 

Fun Friday

Melanie educates a field trip

Friday, September 20

We were excited to open after being closed for two days. The skies constantly threatened to rain and sporadically drizzled throughout the day. Luckily we were still able to safely open and operate the station. We were happy to capture a variety of species including a late migrating Orange-crowned Warbler!

Banding Station Stats Explained

Wednesday, September 18 & Thursday, September 19

Banding operations were canceled both Wednesday and Thursday due to weather; the combination of both cooler temperatures and rainy weather creates unsafe conditions for mist netting. We're hoping the forecast improves so that we can resume operations for the rest of the season.

Example of daily station stats from 9/17/19

We've had a couple questions about the daily station "statistics", so I thought I'd take a crack at decoding all the numbers I've been sharing with you this year. A rainy day seems like a perfect day to do it! Grab a cuppa of tea or coffee, and perhaps even a cookie or two.

# of Birds Banded
This is the number (quantity) of birds that had not been previously banded that we placed bands on. Sometimes you'll hear us call a bird a "new bird" or "unbanded".

# of Recaptures
This is the number (quantity) of birds captured that already have bands. This means that they have been banded previously at our station or another station. This does not include birds that are caught multiple times in a day (for example, if we were to release a bird and it were to fly directly into a net, we would release the bird without collecting any further information. If we were to catch that bird the next day, we would collect complete information on that bird). Thus it is important to note, that the total number of recaptures for the entire season may not be "unique" birds (for example, think about how we catch the same BCCH multiple times in a season); in contrast, the number of recaptures in a single day are unique birds.

# of Species
This is the number of different species that are represented in our captures for the day and year. You'll hear us talking about "first-of-seasons" (with lots of excitement) because it's the first time we've encountered that bird during the current season.

Number of Days
The is the number of days the station has operated. Days when banding is canceled (for example, the snow storms this spring or the rain this August) and nets aren't operated don't contribute to our capture effort.

Number of Nets
This seems simple, but it's a bit of a curve ball. This is the number of 12 meter mist nets opened during a banding day. Our canopy nets (nets 25, 19, 5, and 3) have multiple mist nets "stacked" on top of each other. Similarly, nets 29 and 7 are 6 meters in length and count as "half" a mist net. So, if we opened nets 1, 2, 3 and 7, we will have opened  4.5 nets (think: 1 + 1 + 2 + 0.5 = 4.5)

Effort (Net-hours)
Effort (or net-hours) refers to the amount of time a particular mist net has been active and able to capture a bird. Understanding how much "effort" (think: time opening a certain number of nets or a particular net) helps with future data analysis. This statistic reports the cumulative number of hours all nets opened have been operated in a day or full season. For example, if we open nets 1, 2, 3 and 7 from 8am to noon, each net will have been open for four hours. From our previous example we know that the number of nets totals 4.5, and thus our effort for this day is 18 net hours (4.5 * 4 = 18).

Capture Rate
Capture rate is a metric that indicates how "busy" our station was for an entire day (or the season) while also accounting for the variability in effort. This metric standardizes the number of captures (recaptures and newly banded birds are combined) using effort (net-hours). It's important to do this because we open a variable number of nets for a variable amount of time each day we operate. In other words, we want to know the number of birds we're catching given a certain amount of effort (think: birds per net-hour). In order to to expand this to include the cumulative effort of the station we further standardize this metric by 100 net-hours (so now think: # birds per 100 net-hours). Our station typically accumulates at least 100 net-hours per day of operation (remember that the greater number of nets we have open for longer increases the total number of net hours); other stations or analyses may use another quantity of net-hours to standardize their capture rate. We report the capture rate for the current day and for the entire season to get a "snapshot" of the entire season's effort (imagine if we captured our birds at a steady rate throughout the season instead of in "spurts"). Generally, a daily capture rate of 100 birds per 100 net-hours (or 1 bird per net-hour) is considered a busy day at most banding stations.

Going back to our example: if we capture 20 birds with nets 1, 2, 3, and 7 while they are open for 4.5 hours, then our capture rate is 111.1 ( (20 birds/18 net-hours) * 100 = 111.1). Thus we would expect that if those nets had accumulated 100 net-hours we would have captured 111 birds (we can't catch 0.1 birds!). Using this metrics we are better able to compare how "busy" the station across days than using the total number of birds captured.

Thinking further, total birds captured alone are misleading. For example, 75 birds one morning would appear to be more busy than a morning that captures 25, and the opposite is true if the 25 birds were banded in 20 net-hours (capture rate of 125) compared to 75 in 150 net-hours (capture rate of 50). So while 25 birds doesn't sounds like much, a capture rate of 125 is a busy morning regardless of the number of birds captured.

CFMS is a busy place for migrants but isn't as active as other stations in North American. Some potential reasons why are: the length of our banding season, our location in our fly-way, changes in habitat and disturbance at our station, and the variable size of our crew. Ultimately, our goals are to prioritize bird welfare and safety while collecting robust data in a standardized manner. Running fewer nets to accommodate the availability of skilled crew accomplishes this.

First-of-season: Canada Jay!

Tuesday, September 17

There was a distinct chill in the air this morning as we opened the station for day; fall is beginning to wind down as leaves fall from the trees and we capture fewer migrants. Of the migrants remaining, we caught one adult female Wilson's Warbler, some Ruby-Crowned Kinglets, and a few American Tree Sparrows. We were excited to catch a new species of the year: a Canada Jay! Despite how large this bird appears, it's actually about the size of a smaller American Robin (about 70 grams). This brings our species total to 34. Do you think we'll get to 35? 

Smallest to Largest

Ellen ageing a RCKI

Monday, September 16

It was a fairly slow morning at the station, but were all pleased that diversity remained high. Our last bird of the day was a gorgeous Ruby-crowned Kinglet. They are the smallest species in the songbird family and weigh about 6 grams. Alaska is also lucky enough to host the largest songbird, the Common Raven, that can weight up to about 4 pounds! We've never captured a Common Raven at the station; they're too large to be captured by our mist nets, and they're also known to be quite intelligent and may be clever enough to avoid our nets.

A Rusty Weekend

Saturday, September 14

We had a fabulous Saturday of gorgeous fall weather and had a small boost in our capture rate. A surprise flock of Rusty Blackbirds were easy favorites of the day and was the most frequent species captured. We also enjoyed Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Dark-eyed Juncos (Slate-color morph) and American Tree Sparrows.

First-of-season: American Three-toed Woodpecker!

Friday, September 13

We captured a particularly exciting 'first-of-season' today, an American Three-toed Woodpecker! This bird was beautiful hatch-year male that had been hanging out around our research site the last couple of days. We had a great time talking about woodpeckers today with our station visitors; we also captured a female Hairy Woodpecker and were able to compare the differences between these two incredible year-round Alaska residents! Do you know the major differences between the two?

Chickadee fun continues!

Thursday, September 12

Black-capped and Boreal Chickadees were the most frequent species captured today. We also had the good fortune to have them both in hand at the same time so that we could compare the two. 

Black-capped Chickadees (photo left) are slightly larger, have white wing-bars, a delicate white edging to their outer tail feathers, large white cheek patches, pale buffy blanks, a black bib and cap. Boreal Chickadees (photo right) have very small white cheek patches, no wing-bars, uniform gray wings and tail, a gray nape, brown crown, and warm cinnamon sides and flanks. 

They are both tough year-round residents of Interior Alaska that are full of personality and a joy to hear vocalizing throughout the year.

Rainy September Day

Banding operation was delayed and then canceled as rain continued throughout the morning. We're looking forward to sunny skies tomorrow.

Chick-a-dee-dee-dee

Tuesday, September 10

It was another beautiful day at the banding station. Black-capped Chickadees were our most frequent capture and we were excited to catch a couple of Boreal Chickadees as well.

Fields of Gold

Monday, September 9

It was a warm and quiet Fairbanks morning. We were happy to share our small number of captures with visiting school groups and travelers who visited the station today. 

Varied Thruhes and Chickadees!!

Friday, September 6

We began our banding morning watching three Red Foxes displaying alternate color phases (learn more here). Two bounced and tumbled with each other, appearing to joyfully play in the dewy morning fields. The third tried to unsuccessfully sneak into taller grass where a small flock of Sandhill Cranes was beginning their morning.

We were excited to capture a couple Varied Thrushes today: one male and one female, both hatch-years. Otherwise, the majority of our captures were Black-capped Chickadees. These spunky year round residents are 11 grams of muscle of perseverance.

American Tree Sparrows and fall colors

Thursday, September 5

The fall colors of golden yellow are peaking in Fairbanks, Alaska. We've been lucky to enjoy the changing colors in relative comfort; we've had a relatively warm week with temperatures well above freezing. 

Captures have remained low, but have been punctuated by fun surprises. We were excited to catch a small flock of American Tree Sparrows this morning. They're easily identified by: a dark spot on their chest, bi-colored bill (dark upper mandible, yellow lower mandible), two crisp white wing bars, a chestnut crown, and a dark eye-line.

Foxes and Wood Frog Chatter

Captures were slow today despite the larger numbers of American Robins and Rusty Blackbirds hanging around our banding site. We did have the chance to observe two "cross" foxes and even heard a Wood Frog croaking near the banding tent. This spiffy adult male Yellow-rumped Warbler in it's prebasic (winter) plumage was our first capture of the day.

Fatty Fox Sparrow

Tuesday, September 3rd

One of the morphometrics we collected from every bird is the amount of fat accumulated in the furcula (analogous to our collar bone); migrating songbirds accumulate large stores of fat to help fuel their long journey. Because they accumulate fat subcutaneously and their skin is "clear" we can easily make a qualitative assessment (scale of 0 to 7) of how much fat a bird has. This Fox Sparrow had a fat score of 5!

Labor Day Junco Bonanza

Monday, September 2nd

Even though most of Fairbanks enjoyed a day off from school and work, we operated the station on this beautiful fall day. (As far as we can tell, migrating birds don't observe federal holidays.) We had a steady day of Dark-eyed Juncos with both chickadee species collectively taking a close second. Other excitement for the day included a couple "cross" foxes harassing the waterfowl and cranes, presumably looking for their next meal.

 Happy Labor Day!