Hawk Ridge Blog: Hawk Ridge Banding Report, September 1-15

Passerine Banding Report

Passerine banding happened 11 days during the period of Sept. 1-15. Traffic has been lighter during this time with 347 birds banded. We continued to catch an astounding array of warblers with 17 species represented, and a total of 35 species of birds banded overall for this stretch. Beyond the warblers there were 3 species of flycatchers, 3 vireo species, 2 species of wrens, 2 thrushes and 3 species of sparrows. Some interesting and more unusual visitors to the passerine banding station included a Scarlet Tanager, and a Savannah Sparrow. The flycatchers, an early season migrant, began to taper off during this period; the last of them may have been banded on the 15^th of September. Later season migrants are starting to trickle in with the first Ruby-crowned Kinglet arriving on September 13th. Top three positions of numbers of birds banded still belong to American Redstarts at 82 for the season followed by Nashville Warblers and Tennessee Warblers with 48 and 42 respectively for the season. 9 birds were recaptured during this time period.

Passerine banding at the overlook is conducted on Sundays, as an educational aspect of teaching the importance of banding as a research tool. Many come out to view the banding program, especially families. Songbird banding at the overlook had a fairly slow first couple of Sundays in September. Winds were predominantly from the south for both sessions, so few birds were moving. A total of 13 birds were banded with 7 species represented. White-throated Sparrows hold the lead at 6 birds, but 2 Brown Creepers, a Magnolia Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, American Redstart, Black-capped Chickadee, and Blue Jay were also banded. In addition to the new birds, 2 Black-capped Chickadees were recaptured. One was a bird banded the 8th of September in 2013. It was an after hatch year bird in 2013, so now at least 3 years old. The other chickadee was banded in the fall of 2014.

Margie Menzies and David Alexander
Hawk Ridge Passerine Banders-in-Charge

Black-throated Green Warbler by Andy Witchger

Raptor Banding Report

We were able to get some coverage at the stations during good hawk movements with David Alexander and Miranda Durbin covering Moose Valley and Paine Farm, and myself along with Reed Turner, Alan Moss and Ryan Steiner covering the main Hawk Ridge station, which resulted in catching 915 raptors during the period. Certainly the highlights were another adult Bald Eagle captured at Moose Valley, two Peregrine Falcons, and the season's first Northern Goshawk. One of the Peregrine Falcons was a bird banded as a nestling along the north shore of Lake Superior near Sugar Loaf Cove. We had some help in the stations from volunteers who are in the process of learning and helping with banding.

Hatch-year male Peregrine Falcon by Alex Lamoreaux

The totals are as follows: Bald Eagle-1, Northern Harrier-14, Sharp-shinned Hawk-807, Cooper's Hawk-16, Northern Goshawk-1, Broad-winged Hawk-7, Red-tailed Hawk-12, American Kestrel-20, Merlin-35 and Peregrine Falcon-2.

Jenny Rieke with a hatch-year male Northern Harrier by Kate Nicoletti

We are excited to start another owl banding season as well with Ryan Steiner in charge of the nightly duties. He will be assisted by this season's trainees Reed and Alan along a few volunteers.