PICTORIAL HIGHLIGHTS, WEEK
OF 4/17-4/22/01
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Yesterday's wish is coming true! We banded
four new species for the spring on 4/22, all of them wood warblers--Black-throated
Green Warbler, Prairie
Warbler, Louisiana
Waterthrush, and Hooded
Warbler (the ASY male pictured below).
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Mild and overcast all morning on 4/21; banding
curtailed by noon due to rain. No new species banded for spring,
but Wood Thrush
and Black-throated Green Warbler
were heard singing for the first time this spring in the banding area.
This, along with our capture of two Yellow-rumped
(Myrtle) Warblers,
including the ASY male pictured below, has us thinking ahead to the days
(very soon, we hope) when we can begin replacing all those zeros in the
Wood Warblers table!
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Cold early AM on 4/19, becoming partly sunny and
mild. Our first spring capture of a Savannah
Sparrow--in fact our first spring banding
of this species in 13 years. Although the species is fairly common
in suitable pasture/hayfield habitats in the "neighborhood" around Powdermill,
there is little grassland habitat in the vicinity of our net lanes, and
we have only banded a total of 68 in spring since 1961 (57 of those were
before 1976, when agricultural practices on nearby farms may have been
especially conducive to successful nesting of this species). The
left photo shows the contrast between the fresh middle tertials (the blacker
feathers where the wings come together) and central rectrices (tail feathers),
replaced during the prealternate molt, and the worn brownish wing and tail
feathers retained from the basic plumage. In the right photo,
the blackish crust on the beak is dried dandelion latex, commonly seen
on sparrows, buntings, and goldfinches that feed on the fresh seed heads
of this flower in early spring.
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