4 October 2023
Joe, Sam and Jared joined me yesterday morning on an journey to see Fowl Lab at Hays Woods. The climate was excellent as we walked greater than half a mile to the banding station. There we discovered Nick Liadis and his assistants about to do the second net-check of the day.
The mist nets that seize songbirds are arrange in “alleys” of vegetation the place birds may fly throughout. If a hen doesn’t see the online and tries to fly by way of, it falls into the pocket of additional netting materials the place it waits to be retrieved. Banders test the nets each half hour.
Captured birds are introduced again to the banding desk in fabric luggage to maintain them calm. Our group watched as Nick ready to band three birds from the latest web test.
Every bag incorporates a shock. The primary was a recaptured Cape Might warbler (Setophaga tigrina), initially banded on 20 Sep when it weighed 10.9g. Yesterday it weighed 13.8g for a acquire equal to the load of a ruby-throated hummingbird. Such a small hen in Nick’s hand, beneath.
It was the second Cape Might warbler recapture this fall. The primary one elevated its weight by 50% in two weeks. In regards to the first one, Nick wrote:
A cool recapture from my Hays Woods banding station! This Cape Might Warbler was banded on 9/13 and we captured her once more two weeks later. She initially weighed 11.6g and right now weighs 15.4g. Attention-grabbing to see how lengthy a few of these birds dangle round. I’d think about she’ll be on her means very quickly.
— Nick Liadis message, 27 Sep 2023
Subsequent on the agenda was a hatch 12 months (which means “hatched this 12 months”) male black-throated blue warbler (Setophaga caerulescens). His colour was blue, however not vibrantly so, and his throat had tiny white flecks on it. I had seen a uninteresting hen like this in Frick Park final week and didn’t notice that meant he was younger.
At every successive web test new species confirmed up.
The hatch 12 months hermit thrush (Catharus guttatus) proven at prime was an indication that the combo of migrant species is altering. The insect eaters are practically gone whereas the fruit and nuts migrants have arrived (*see word).
The hatch 12 months feminine home finch, beneath, was most likely born at Hays Woods. Many home finches within the jap U.S. are everlasting residents. Maybe she might be, too.
An ovenbird (Seiurus aurocapilla) is all the time good to see up shut and I had no hassle figuring out it as a result of it confirmed its striped crown. I noticed one within the hand at Fowl Lab final 12 months.
By 10:00am we’d been there an hour, it was getting scorching (the excessive yesterday was 85°F!) and the birds have been much less lively. Three of us hiked to the overlook and returned for yet one more net-check. This time just one hen was captured, a hatch 12 months home wren (Troglodytes aedon) that Nick had banded on 9 August. This hen has spent the final two months foraging at Hays Woods and shortly it’s going to migrate to Central or South America.
We left Fowl Lab and headed again to the parking zone the place the fleet of monumental dump vans, seen at 8:30am, have been nonetheless shuttling dust to/from Duquesne Gentle’s dust street. Duquesne Gentle is constructing an entry path to the cliff edge the place two transmission towers must be changed and moved away from the landslide zone.
Because of Jared Miller for sharing his photographs, proven above.
Bonus Fowl: After the banding, a uncommon hen at Duck Hole:
At 10:30am I acquired an alert {that a} migrating American avocet (Recurvirostra americana) was hanging out at Duck Hole. Avocets in Allegheny County are One Day Wonders. I had by no means seen one right here as a result of I waited a day to go see them. So I made the brief journey from Hays Woods to Duck Hole and digiscoped this awful image. The sunshine was too shiny to see its faint orange colour however you get the concept.
p.s. (*) Two of the phases of fall migration: ** Insect eaters resembling warblers, flycatchers, swifts and swallows migrate by way of in September as a result of the bug inhabitants goes to die when chilly climate hits. ** Fruit and nut eaters, together with thrushes and sparrows, cross by way of in October.
(photographs by Jared Miller and Kate St. John)
