Looking back over 2020's Banding Season

It has been an eventful 2020. The global COVID-19 pandemic has changed all our lives and presented many challenges. Though we cancelled the spring banding season, the creation of rigorous health and safety protocols following guidelines of the Bird Banding Lab, North American Banding Council, other stations, and state/local guidelines allowed us to open this fall. Unfortunately it was the first year in the stations 29 year history that the station was closed to the public. We very much missed our community of volunteers and visitors who bring joy to every morning and look forward to the possibility of getting together in the future.

Okay, now the nitty-gritty! We captured over 1,600 birds from 35 different species; kingfishers and waterfowl which we are unable to band under our federal bird banding permit were released without being banded. We banded 1,425 birds of 32 different species, and twelve of 139 recaptures were returning birds. The oldest bird captured was a female American Three-toed Woodpecker who was at-least three years-old. Two returning Dark-eyed Juncos (Slate-colored) and one Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) were at least two years-old when we captured them again this year. We were excited to capture a handful of Pine Siskins, a Red-breasted Nuthatch, and two Belted Kingfishers! 

Our most frequent species captured:

1. Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle subspecies)

2. Orange-crowned Warbler

3. Swainson's Thrush

4. American Tree Sparrow

5. Lincoln's Sparrow

We are ever thankful for our membership and generous Adopt-a-Net Sponsors who help make this work possible. Thank you so much!

Would you like to support the Creamer's Field Migration Station? Become a member at the Alaska Songbird Institute or become a 2021 Adopt-a-Net Sponsor today!!

Fall 2020 banding comes to an end

Today was the last day of our banding season; it's always bittersweet. Most of our songbirds are gone, the leaves have changed and fallen, and the weather has turned brisk. This season's ending was different. A newer, albeit, strange new normal has emerged in our lives that we are adapting to. As the nets and equipment get tucked away, I have hope that our community can come together again in 2021. Sure, it'll be different but the joy and passion we all share will be just as strong as ever.

Stay tuned for a full summary of the season in the coming days. Who was our most frequent capture? What was the oldest bird we caught? Do you remember any rarities we caught? 

Banding Jargon Part 4: Mist Nets

 

One of our primary tools at the station is the 'mist net'. It's a specially designed trap that safely captures songbirds. It's efficacy relies on being nearly invisible to the human eye as all captures are passive, meaning that we don't use any lures or bait to attract birds into the mist nets. Today, we figured we'd share some special mist-net terminology that you may have heard us use (see if you can match the terms to the parts on the photo below!).

Guy lines: These are the ropes that anchor the poles to the ground and provide counter tension to keep the net upright and in place.

Loop: These are the thick rope circles that are attached at each end of the five trammels. The loops are used to mount the mist net onto poles.

Mesh: This is the fine micro-filament (often colored black) netting that makes up the mist net. The size of the mesh (think, a grid of squares) varies depending on what species is intended to be captured. We use a 30mm by 30mm which is typical for most songbird capture.

Pole: Each mist net is typically erected using two poles. The loops on each end of the mist net are slipped on the pole, the poles are staked in the ground and held into position with at least two guy lines. 

Shelf (or Pocket): These are the five areas of the mist net that are created by the five trammels. Some banders might refer to these loose, draping mesh as 'bags' because when there's a bird captured in it, it's like it's in a bag!

Trammel: These are the five horizontal lines that extend from pole to pole that give the solid mesh panel shape and thus create the shelves/pockets. These trammels attach to the poles using thick rope loops that allow the height of the net or spacing between the shelves/pockets to be adjusted.

(from the North American Banders Council passerine manual)

Clear skies and a Black-capped Chickadee

We caught half as many birds as yesterday, one recaptured Black-capped Chickadee. Despite the low numbers, we had a productive day preparing for the end of the season and enjoyed beautiful clear skies and nearly warm temperatures by the end of the day.

Our 32nd species of the season, a Canada Jay!

 

Though things have slowed down we were excited to capture another first-of-season, a Canada Jay! We rarely capture these tough Interior residents, but enjoy their bright and fun personalities.

Bre'r Fox Visits CFMS

There’s a great deal of valuable scientific data that can be derived from a bird banding study. However, ethics demands that banding should only be conducted in a way that doesn’t harm the birds being captured.

 
Predators pose a special problem to a banding program. Songbirds trapped in mist nets are completely defenseless and their fluttering can attract the attention of passing predators. Merlins and sharp-shinned hawks are small migratory raptors that travel through Fairbanks along with the songbirds. When we see either of these birds, all nets are closed in the vicinity until they pass through. Most people think of squirrels are vegetarians, but they will also occasionally attack a songbird in a mist net. Squirrels exhibiting predatory behavior are quickly trapped and relocated away from Creamer’s Field.
 
We’re experiencing a special problem this year with a young fox that has developed an interest in the mist nets. Foxes don’t migrate so we can’t just close nets for a few days and wait for it to move on. They’re also too big to trap and move. As a response, we’ve had to close all of the nets on the land for the rest of the season. Our capture numbers will be reduced as a result, but we’d rather lose data than harm birds!

~Laurel

Could you migrate like a songbird?

What can you do purely from instinct? Catch yourself when you’re about to trip? Chew your food? I’m sure you can think of a few things. Maybe you have a very strong ‘intuition’. But do you think it would be strong enough to get you through the following scenario?

I drop you off in the middle of the vast boreal forest. I take your smart phone and wallet and give you just enough rations to survive. You were blindfolded on the way in, so you have no idea where you are, and you’re completely on your own. Using nothing but your ‘intuition’, do you think you could get all the way to northeastern South America? Under your own power—no hitchhiking! There are only a few precious weeks of moderate weather before brutal cold sets in. How do you think you’d fare?

People often ask us if adult birds have to show babies the way to the wintering grounds. We are constantly catching flocks of birds at CFMS made up entirely of very young birds (born this year). There are no ‘leaders’ in this group, no elders who have made the journey before. Just a bunch of 2-month-old warblers and sparrows.

So... how do they do it?! These birds are equipped with a slew of instincts and sensitivities that allow them to find their way to the wintering grounds completely on their own. I imagine it would feel like following an intuition. They have the ability to ‘see’ Earth’s magnetic field because of magnetite in their brains—so they can tell north from south. They also register changes in the photoperiod (the amount of light in a day) in order to know how to time their migration. Songbirds can see polarized light, and some birds use the sun and stars to navigate. They may eventually learn landmarks—but they probably don’t know them on their very first migration. They also have to know to fuel up before their journey, and somehow most of them know to make their big flights at night. There may be a social element to this, as most of these birds are traveling in groups, but it isn’t the case that some birds must already know the way. The process is largely innate, instinctual. No one even teaches the birds how make sense of the instincts. They just know!

Of course this isn’t true for ALL birds—Whooping Cranes are famous for following a fake Whooping Crane in order to learn their migration route. Basically, it seems every species has their own little tricks for getting from one place to another—the task of crossing the globe twice a year is enormous and complicated. There is no quick answer! And it’s definitely not fully understood yet.

Many birds are so good at the process that they can fly all the way from Alaska to South America and back to Alaska—and wind up in exactly the same breeding territory they used the previous year. That is a lot of information to process and remember... And they don’t even get to take notes!

If you’re interested in learning more about the magic of avian migration, I recommend the book Living on the Wind: Across the Hemisphere with Migratory Birds by Scott Weidensaul. And if you’re interested in the process of emergence (social intelligence without coordinated leaders), there’s a classic Radiolab episode about that.

PS—I promise I won’t leave you stranded in the boreal forest. ...without your smartphone. ;)

~Laura

P.S.S. We closed early today due to high wind and rain.

American Tree Sparrow Invasion!

We had a surprising morning when we arrived at Creamer's Field. American Tree Sparrows were everywhere! We silently opened our nets and had a productive morning of captures. What a nice fall treat!

How many toes on that first-of-season??

We had another great bird visit the here banding station this morning. This adult female American three-toed woodpecker is the second woodpecker we have banded this fall. 

These woodpeckers often take advantage of disturbed areas where dead, or burned trees can house bark beetles and other insects. Their foraging strategy is unique in that they will chip bark off of the trunks of trees, looking for insect larvae. American three-toed woodpeckers also breed the furthest north of any other woodpecker in North America, with nesting pairs reported as far north as the Brook's Range. 

Hopefully we can catch some of the other local woodpecker species this fall that also inhabit the woods around Creamer's Field!

-Dave

Ask-a-bander: how often do you recapture birds?

Almost all the birds we recapture at CFMS were originally banded here at the station. About 1% of birds from the current season are recaptured the next year (or later!) at CFMS; those species typically include Black-capped Chickadees, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Hammond’s Flycatchers, Dark-eyed Juncos, and Yellow-rumped Warblers. We’re the farthest north station in North American and it’s very rare that we capture a bird that was originally banded elsewhere; the last time that happened it was a Sharp-shinned Hawk that was originally banded in Nebraska!

Another first-of-season, a Hermit Thrush!!

Today we banded our first hermit thrush of the fall. This is not unusual timing as these thrushes migrate north for the breeding grounds later than other thrushes and also head south later than other thrushes. The song of the hermit thrush has been described by many as "the finest sound in nature". If you hear a flute like melody coming from the forest it may just be the hermit thrush. Often times their song may sound as if the bird is farther away than it actually is, so keep and eye out too! 

~Chelsea

Who says bright yellow isn't camouflage?

Most of our warblers has passed through on their way south. We were surprised and joyful to see this charming adult female Wilson's Warbler! She'd certainly be easy to miss among all the yellow leaves filling our trees!

First-of-Season: Red-breasted Nuthatch!

We had a very neat visitor here at the banding station this morning. This juvenile red-breasted nuthatch is the first nuthatch we have caught this year, and the first we have caught in the past couple years. These small songbirds can be found in mature coniferous woods where they often nest in cavities inside spruce trees. Nuthatches are well known for their unique foraging strategy of climbing up and down tree trunks looking for small insects. If you can't find one by sight, listen for their unmistakable car alarm-like song. Although many nuthatches in the lower-48 migrate to warmer climes during the winter months, most nuthatches here in Alaska are year-round residents. These birds love to frequent bird feeders, especially in colder months. Put a suet feeder in your yard and maybe you can attract your own nuthatches!

-Dave

Attachments area

Junco 2811- 092295 Comes back!

A "baby" Junco

Today at Alaska Songbird Institute's banding station, we caught a slate-colored junco that had already been banded. That’s not such a rare event. Birds often spend a few days at Creamer’s Field resting and eating in preparation for migration. When we initially catch it, the bird gets an aluminum band with a 4 number prefix and unique 7 number sequence attached to its leg. During its time at Creamer’s, the bird might get caught in the mist nets again while it forages and travels through the refuge. This junco’s band number was 2811- 092295. Its band looked old and the band number wasn’t in our 2020 data. With mounting excitement, we realized that this bird had been banded elsewhere, or at the ASI station in previous years. A data search revealed that junco 2811- 092295 was banded at Creamer’s Field in August of 2019. At that time, the bird was recently hatched and we couldn’t determine gender by its plumage. Today, we could tell that this bird was an adult female. What else can we tell from her band? We know that this tiny bird survived the round-trip migration to her wintering grounds somewhere in the Midwest, and back again. We can guess that this summer she found a mate and successfully raised her first brood of nestlings on or near Creamer’s Refuge. We hope we’ll catch her again next year and be able to read another chapter of her life story!

~Laurel

Another Rain Day

 We had yet another wet and rainy day here in Fairbanks, thus we did not get to band birds today. We have noticed quite a decrease in bird activity around the banding station in recent days. The last of the Sandhill Cranes are leaving the fields, no more flycatchers can be heard in the canopy, geese are flying in formation and heading south, and the ground is covered in freshly fallen birch and poplar leaves - all signs that winter is coming! Fingers crossed we have better weather next week!

-Dave

Bird Banding Jargon Part 3: Ageing and Sexing Characteristics

American Tree Sparrow

It was a beautiful fall morning today, and our first so far this week that we were able to get started on time. Suffice it to say, we've been ready for the rain to stop! Despite the bird activity in the vegetation around the station, our capture rate has dropped. 

Without an exciting story from the day to tell you, I've decided to take another dive into bander jargon. Part 3 of the 'Bird Banding Jargon' series is themed after ageing and sexing characteristics or techniques. These are some of the "clues" we look for when trying to determine how old a bird is or whether it is male or female. 

Brood Patch (BP): This is a naked patch of skin that is developed on the abdomen of a bird when they are incubating eggs and brooding young. Almost all female songbirds develop a brood patch, while some males (species dependent) might develop a partial brood patch. The presence of this complete brood patch in the spring reliably indicates that the bird is a female. Sometimes late nesting or individuals that complete multiple breeding attempts in a year may have a residual brood patch in the fall that allows us to determine sex. 

Cloacal Protuberance (CP): During the breeding season a males cloaca distends from the body cavity to store viable sperm and assist with copulation. This distended cloaca is referred to as a cloacal protuberance. Similar to a brood patch, the presence of a cloacal protuberance during the breeding season allows a bander to determine the sex of an adult bird as male. Females do not develop cloacal protuberances. 

Molt: This is the process of losing and growing in new feathers. Banders use known schedules of when birds are expected to replace certain feathers, and look for these patterns to determine the birds age. These schedules vary for each species, and are being increasingly used to verify and determine age of a bird. Stay tuned for a more in-depth conversation on molt!

Skulling: This is a technique that is currently the most reliable at ageing passerines during the fall. This process involves the bander gently parting the feathers over the posterior areas of the head to look through the skin (songbird skin is nearly clear!) to determine the level of skull pneumaticization. When songbirds fledge their skull is only composed of a single layer of bone; over their first year of life they will develop a second layer of bone under the first, a process called skull pneumaticization. The resulting air pockets and columns of support between the two layers are highly visible, and easily allow a bander to determine if a bird is an AHY or HY. AHY's will have completed the process of skull pneumaticization, and HY's will actively be in the process of skull pneumaticization which is seen as "windows" or "gaps" in the completed skull. It's kind of like a soft spots of a baby.

There is still so much we don't know about birds; even our most common captures including the most common warbler species in the U.S., the Yellow-rumped Warbler, are mystery when it comes to understanding whether they are male or female in the fall. When we examine a bird in the hand, a bander is considering a suite of evidence (with emphasis on the methods or characteristics above) and determining if it is conclusive enough to report with certainty how a bird is and its sex. Ageing birds in the fall for the species we capture is fairly straightforward and it's uncommon for us to be uncertain, but the exact opposite is true for determining sex! When we're uncertain, regardless of how we feel about what the answer might be, we often report age and sex as 'unknown' as it's of utmost importance to collect robust data. Plus, imagine how embarrassing it'd be for someone to recapture a bird you called a male as a female?! 

Questions? Leave your questions in the comment sections and I'll respond with an answer!

~Claire

A "fall" of Wilson's Warblers!

Wilson's Warbler

Wilson's warblers are one of many migratory species we band here at the station. Birders have no trouble seeing these flashy little birds. These insectivores are often seen moving rapidly through bushes and trees to glean insects from the leaves. They are also commonly seen in the U.S.A. and Canada because they nest coast to coast in North America, but are more common in the West.

Fun Fact: A collective of warblers has many nouns, including a confusion, a wrench or a fall.

~ Chelsea

Our bread and butter(...butts!)

See the "butter"?

We all know Yellow-rumped Warblers at CFMS. They’re our most common capture, especially in the fall. Myrtles, MYWAs, Butterbutts—they’re the bread and butter(butt) of this station. We, as birders, tend to get a little bored of our most abundant birds... but while they are commonplace, they’re far from boring!

The Yellow-rumped Warblers (Setophaga coronata) here are the subspecies known as Myrtle Warbler (S. c. coronata), with white throats and white eyebrows. While in Alaska, they are mostly insectivorous (and are pretty acrobatic, sallying like flycatchers), but on their wintering grounds they eat berries and fruits, an unusual dietary choice for warblers. In fact, they got their name from their habit of eating the wax-myrtle berry (Myrica sp.). Imagine a gut biome that can handle all those food items! This is what allows them to winter further north than most other warblers. In the winter, Myrtles can be found in the southeastern U.S.—but also as far south as Central America and the Caribbean. Unfortunately, we don’t know exactly where our Creamer’s Field Myrtles go, but hopefully one of our many banded birds will be recaptured on their wintering grounds or migration stopovers soon.

This year, we’ve been catching tons of hatch-year Myrtles, meaning lots of Myrtle moms were busy building nests (they do it without the help of a male) and feeding chicks this summer. (The males DO help with that part.) Myrtles build cup nests, usually in a conifer, delicately lined with hair (sometimes from moose!) and feathers. As fall progresses, the chicks are losing their fuzzy baby feathers and the adults have lost their bright blue-and-black summer feathers, but their yellow patches are still highlighter-bright. Hope everyone can get out and catch a glimpse of a few more Myrtle butts this year—come February, we’ll surely be missing our buttery companions.

Banding got off to a late start today due to weather, but with only a few nets open, we still managed to catch a good number of birds—including our first of the year American Tree Sparrows.

~Laura

Hail to the King!

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Captures of Ruby-crowned Kinglets are picking up at the banding station. They’re one of the smallest birds we band. Weighing in at around 7 grams, almost 3 kinglets could be mailed for a single first class stamp. This bird packs a big attitude and an even bigger song into a tiny body. Kinglets are often one of the first migrants to arrive in the spring and the male’s territorial song rings through the awakening forest. When you first see a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, its generally olive-drab feathering makes its name seem like a misnomer. If a predator or another male kinglet enters a kinglet’s breeding territory however, his concealed scarlet crown flashes out as a warning. Hail to the king!

~Laurel

Fall is here!

 The leaves around the banding station are falling and the mornings have been quite crisp. Fall is in the air and the birds continue to migrate south! A pair of American Tree Sparrows was seen today at the station, a sure sign of autumn! 

-Dave

Is that a policeman's whistle?

Varied Thrush!

Most of the thrushes that nest in interior Alaska are subtle shades of soft browns and grays. Their showiness is in their fantastic songs that waft across the boreal forest and tundra. The Varied Thrush is exactly the opposite. It’s song consists of a single long whistle repeated in different tones. Some people describe it as sounding like a British policeman’s whistle. The varied thrushes makes up for its simple song with fabulous plumage. The male and female have subtly different patterns of rich rust, slate blue, and black. We only catch a few Varied Thrushes each year, so finding one in the mist nets is always cause for celebration.

~Laurel

Bird Banding Jargon Part 2: Age Class Terminology

 We're on day two of closures due to poor weather, but the forecast looks hopeful for tomorrow. 

As I sit here with my morning coffee, I thought I'd offer more insight into the swirling vocabulary inside a bird bander's brain with a dive into age class vocabulary. 

Local (L): this is a bird, often in the fledgling stage (it just recently left it's nest and is still actively being cared for by adults), that is assumed to have been hatched in the immediate area.

Juvenile (Juv): a bird in juvenile plumage before it's first prebasic molt. The juvenile plumage can be thought of as a bird's first "set" of feathers before it looses (e.g., molts) those feathers and replaces them with another set of feathers (more to come on molt later!). This plumage is generally of lower quality and appears very different than that of an adult; typically this plumage is cryptic and helps these young birds stay camouflaged. 

Hatch-year (HY): a bird in it's first-prebasic plumage and in it's first calendar year of life, which means it is less than one year old.

After-hatch-year (AHY): a bird in at least it's second calendar year of age; so an AHY bird is at least 1 year old but it is unknown how much older it could be.

Second-year (SY): a bird in it's second calendar year life (i.e, it is two years old)

After-second-year (ASY): a bird in at least it's third calendar year of age; so an ASY bird is at least 2 years old but it is unknown how much older it could be.

Third-year (TY): a bird in it's third calendar year of life (i.e., it is three years old)

After-third-year (ATY): a bird in at least it's fourth calendar year of age; so an ATY bird is at least 3 years old but it is unknown how much older it could be.

After-fourth-year (A4Y): a bird in at least it's fifth calendar year of age; so an A4Y bird is at least 4 years old but it is unknown how much older it could be.

Fourth-year (4Y): a bird in it's fourth calendar year of life (i.e., it is four years old)

Unknown: a bird of unknown age. Sometimes the physiological evidence that indicates how old a bird is might be conflicting, and it is impossible to know with certainty the age class of bird. We hope that these birds will be captured again so that more information can be collected to determine the age of the bird. We also use this terminology for birds that escape from the mist nets during capture and 

Ageing songbirds is fairly simple in someways. With the current techniques and what we know about songbirds right now, we can typically only age songbirds as L, Juv, HY or AHY in the fall (SY or ASY in the spring; make sense? check out the upcoming 'molt' post for the answer). To understand how long songbirds live, means it's essential that we band birds as HY or SY when we have a precise age class to reference when the birds is recaptured or recovered later. 

The other age classes (e.g., TY, ATY, 4Y, A4Y) are predominately applicable for woodpeckers and raptors that we capture with less frequency at the station.

Questions? Leave your question in the comments section and I'll respond with an answer!

~Claire

Bird Banding Jargon Part 1: Banded Birds

With the last couple of mornings facing poor weather conditions for banding operation, we've had some time off to enjoy the birds through binoculars instead of in the hand. Birds are certainly on the move, and we're hoping for better days ahead so that we can open nets again.

In lieu of sharing a cool bird with you, I thought I might share some terminology from the bird bander's vocabulary about previously banded birds, stay tuned for the next installment on banding vocabulary as the season progresses.

Banding (or ringing): the process of placing a tag that has a unique identifier (often a number) on a bird. North American researchers refer to this process as 'banding', while European researchers often refer to it as 'ringing'. 'Ringing' is a reference to the shape of the tag that is used on birds (a small circle, or ring, that is placed around the leg of the bird.). See a demonstration of how it happens here.

"new": this is often how we reference the "status" of a captured bird. Any bird that does not have any type of marker or band is classified as 'new' and thus is a valid candidate for having a band placed on it. Remember, we do not place additional bands on a bird that is already banded, and we do not replace bands unless they cannot be read or the band is defective.

Capture: this describes the act of entrapping or restraining a wild bird using permitted techniques for study by a licensed bird researcher.

Foreign: a type of recapture, this refers to a bird that is captured by a banding station that it was not originally banded at. For example, we have captured a couple Sharp-shinned Hawks over the years that were originally banded by other researchers in Canada and the lower 48 (most recently- Alberta, Canada!).

Recapture: any bird that has already been banded that is captured by a banding operation (or other bird researchers).

Return: a type of recapture, this refers to a bird that is recaptured at it's original banding location across years. The assumption is that (for a migratory species) the bird leaves the area and then comes back; this is powerful information and provides clues about timing, fidelity to stop-over or breeding locations, and even clues about longevity and physiological fitness. Examples of returns from this year are the adult Hammond's Flycatcher and Dark-eyed Junco captured earlier this season; they were originally banded here at CFMS in 2019 and returned this year (2020).

Repeat: a type of recapture, this refers to a bird that is recaptured within the same season at it's original banding location. Examples of repeats are the birds (usually young birds) we often catch for multiple days in a row while they "hang out" in the area surrounding the station before moving on in their migration. (Sometimes a bird can be both a repeat and a return; for example, think of 2019's Bob and Mrs. Bob - two Black-capped Chickadees that were captured multiple times that spring, but had been banded previously. The first time they were captured, they were a 'return' but each subsequent recapture that spring they were 'returns' and 'repeats'.)

Recovery: this is not a type of recapture; this refers to a bird that has a band but is encountered, often dead, by anyone in a research or nonresearch setting. This might include a bird that is found dead from known or unknown causes, or a bird that is injured and in custody of a licensed rehabilitator. For example, a recovered Swainson's Thrush that died from a window strike earlier this year had a band  (story here).

Resight: this is not a type of recapture; this refers to a bird that is observed in a natural setting and it's band number (or identifier) is read and recorded without capturing or impeding any normal behavior. This is often impossible with songbirds, because their bands (and thus the numbers on them) are too small to be read by an observer. This is more common with larger species like Sandhill Cranes that may have large colorful bands with large letters that allow them to be easily read through binoculars or a scope. If you see a bird with a band, you can report it here and get the original banding information about the bird (where and when it was banded, how old it is and maybe even what sex it is).

Questions? Leave a comment on this post and we'll get back to you!

~Claire

Yellow then Orange

AHY Northern Waterthrush

Although we started a little later this morning, due to lingering rain clouds, we managed to catch quite a few birds this morning. Yellow-rumped warblers are still working their way south, and we are seeing quite an increase in Orange-crowned warblers moving through the area this week. First wave was Yellow; now for the Orange wave! We have also seen a bit of a decrease in Hammond's flycatchers vocalizing in the woods around the banding station. Fall is definitely here!

-Dave

Sandhill Crane Festival 2020!!

The new barn quilt at Creamers!

Our good friends and collaborative partners, the Friends of Creamer's Field, are hosting a virtual celebration of fall migration by honoring the Sandhill Cranes and other migratory birds that use Creamer's Field Migratory Waterfowl Refuge as an important stop-over site on their migration south. Places like Creamer's that offer habitat that provide abundant and quality food and a safe place to rest are key to helping birds complete a successful migration. In addition to the phenomenal physical feat, birds face a multitude of hazards on their journey including collisions with power-lines, glass windows, wind turbines, and automobiles. You can do your part to help birds this fall and everyday by making your windows more visible, placing feeders in safe locations, and keeping domestic cats indoors or on leashes (click here to get more details on how to be a bird hero).

Our work at the banding station provides critical data to the large puzzle of bird migration. We are the farthest north banding station in North America (29 years and counting) and located in the "bird nursery" of North America; did you know that the boreal forest that we call home is the breeding grounds for nearly half of all North American bird species (over 300 species!). By collecting information from birds at or close to their breeding locations or natal origins we are able to provide insight into the beginning stages of many species journey south - population trends, the timing of stop-over, habitat associations, and movement timing for a variety of species.

Migration is probably one of the most difficult activities that many birds undertake, and we're especially excited to celebrate migration with you all; we hope you'll join us virtually at the various events occurring August 21st to 23rd (more information here)! In honor of the festival, we'd love to kick off our "Ask-a-Bander" series by answering one of our top questions: what's the biggest bird you've ever caught?  Watch the video below for the answer! 

~Claire

A busy banding day = dirty laundry

Used (aka. dirty) bird-bags

Starting off today it was easy to assume it would be a slow day with just a few birds in the first couple of net checks. Boy we're we wrong! Around 8:15 the birds graced us with their presence. A couple nets had 20+ birds in them. Highlights of the day were a belted kingfisher (released without a band) and a gray-cheeked thrush. Overall we rounded out the day with over 100 birds.

Luckily for us, the afternoon slowed down because it started raining!

~Chelsea

Returning Dark-eyed Junco!

Dark-eyed Junco

This week we were lucky enough to recapture a Junco from last year. This bird, an adult female, was captured last August as a juvenile. At that time she still looked like a baby bird with fluffy, streaky plumage, so we weren’t able to determine the sex. This year, though, it was obvious! Her brown-tinged gray feathers and small wing gave her away. 

Dark-eyed Juncos (Junco hyemalis) come in a variety of subspecies with very distinctive plumages. The subspecies we find in Fairbanks is the Slate-colored Junco (J. h. hyemalis). While several subspecies of Junco are found in the Western U.S., Slate-coloreds spend their winter in the Midwest and Southeast. That means our little Junco probably flew east over the boreal forest last fall, and then south to spend the winter—and THEN she flew all the way back up here. Pretty impressive!

Today, banding was slow and steady, catching a few birds at a time throughout the morning.

~Laura

A successful Snipe hunt!

The vast majority of what we catch at the ASI banding station is small songbirds like sparrows and warblers. However, sometimes our nets yield a surprise like this Wilson’s Snipe! Snipe are shorebirds that breed in wetlands all across Alaska. They have nerve endings inside their long bills to help them locate insects as they probe in mud and under water. Snipe are most noticeable in the spring when the males conduct song flights to establish a nesting territory and attract a female. The whistle of wind through the male bird’s wing feathers creates the winnowing noise we hear all through spring and early summer nights as the birds soar high over marshes. The female’s cryptic coloration makes her almost invisible on her ground nest. If you walk along the seasonal pond at Creamer’s Field, you may be lucky enough to see a snipe probing the mud for high energy insect food to fuel their southbound migration.

~Laurel

Townsend's Warbler, we're pleased to MEET you!

Townsend's Warbler

The Townsend's warbler (Setophaga townsendi) can be found during the breeding season throughout the coniferous and mixed forests of the western United States. Here in interior Alaska, lies the northern most extent of their breeding range. Favoring tall, mature conifers, these birds are more often heard than seen due to their habit of fluttering around in the tree tops while gleening insects from pine needles. 

I personally have noticed that these birds seem to have quite a high diversity of song variations which may be based on geography. During my time here in Fairbanks, the Townsend's warblers' songs that I have heard tended to have a somewhat similar dialect. Put into words, it sometimes sounds like they might be saying "Pleased to MEET you!" (see https://www.xeno-canto.org/475113) 

The wintering grounds of these warblers is quite expansive; stretching as far north as the Pacific Northwest, and as far south as Costa Rica. Where ever this male Townsend's warbler ends up, we hope he enjoyed his time here in Fairbanks and hope he makes it back next spring to sing another day in Alaska!

~Dave

Returning Hammond's Flycatcher

Hammond's Flycatcher
(2680-05909)

Despite the beautiful weather, capture rate remained low relative to previous days. However we did recapture a pretty special bird, a Hammond's Flycatcher, that was banded at the station last August 9th as a hatch year. After we banded it, it may have migrated as far as Costa Rica before returning to Interior Alaska this spring. Normally we don't know how old songbirds are (we know they were hatched this year or are adults), but the data associated with this birds band let us know that this bird is approximately one year of age. This returning bird still leaves us wonder whether it is male or female, but we're pleased to see it in great condition and hope that we might catch again in the years to come.

~ Claire

Wet and Foggy Morning

 You could cut the fog with a knife this morning in Fairbanks as a result of the cool and wet weather we had recently. As I shook the dew off of our mist nets today while checking for birds, I stumbled upon a Northern Waterthush (Parkesia noveboracensis), one of the larger wood-warblers who is no stranger to getting its feet wet. 

The Northern Waterthush is the largest wood-warbler we have here in interior Alaska and is usually found in or around standing water, where they forage for insects. 

These birds are all about water and wet places -even their song sounds like dripping water! So, while some of us may not like the wet weather and swampy surroundings, at least the waterthrushes are enjoying it!

-David

The amazing journeys of Swainson's Thrushes!

A very young Swainson's Thrush! 

We have been so fortunate to catch a lot of Swainson’s thrushes at the banding station lately. Swainson’s thrushes are one of my favorites of the songbirds that migrate north to nest in the  boreal forest. Their flute-like song wafting through the new foliage in May is a balm to the ears after a long northern winter. As I stand on my porch in the June evenings, I can usually hear three different males counter-calling to claim their nesting territories. I grieve a little when the songs end in early July. The male thrush no longer needs to maintain a territory once the families are roaming freely through the forest. Soft “wicking” calls can now be heard as the families keep in touch as they forage. 

Now that August has arrived, young Swainson’s thrushes are on their own. In just a short time, they’ve had to learn how to fly, how to avoid predators, and forage on their own. Many are also blundering into a new obstacle- mist nets strung in their paths. The banding team at ASI collects information about the birds and fits them with a leg band that they’ll carry for the rest of their lives. 

 

Soon, the biggest challenge of their lives will be upon them. These young thrushes that have only ever known the boreal forest will soon be finding their way, purely by instinct to Costa Rica and other areas in Central America. They’ll cross mountains, cities, farm lands and deserts- each with their own challenges. Once on their wintering grounds, young thrushes will adapt to a whole new environment in the rain forest and stay there for the next 7 months. If these young birds avoid all the dangers of migration, we’ll be lucky enough to recapture some of the returning birds at the banding station next May!

~Laurel

P.S. We did not operate the station today due to substandard weather conditions.

First-of-season Fox Sparrow today!

Savannah Sparrow

The clouds that enveloped Creamers this morning were quite foreboding, but proved to be forgiving when they gave way to diffuse sunshine while we finished up the day. A brief spell of Yellow-rumped Warblers again overtook our nets mid-morning but luckily didn't distract us from a cool first-of-season, a  Fox Sparrow! We were also excited to capture a handful of Blackpoll Warblers and our second Savannah Sparrow (a hatch year pictured  right).

~Claire

Moose in the gully!

Common Redpoll

It was an overcast and cool morning at the station today. The nets were wet this morning from an overnight rainfall and a moose decided to hang out in the gully near nets 13 and 14. While he didn't seem to mind we were around, he certainly didn't help with our net checks (we often close nets if a moose sticks around for ours and the bird's safety).

Yellow-rumped Warblers are still around in relatively abundant numbers and made up most of our captures. The diversity of our captures was higher today (13 species!) and even included a new species for the season, a Savannah Sparrow! The feeling of Fairbanks fall at Creamers continues to deepen as more Sandhill Cranes arrive and their prehistoric calls fill the skies.

Yellow-rumped Warblers 'TGIF'ing!

 

Northern Waterthrush

Our first Friday of banding was a whirlwind. Yellow-rumped Warblers (Myrtle subspecies) filled our nets and dominated the captures for the day (123 out of 150 birds!). The smattering of other warbler species (Blackpoll, Orange-crowned, Waterthrush, Wilson, and Yellow) kept us on our toes, and one of us also saw a vixen Red Fox with three kits!