Winter 2005/2006 Notes and Highlights for February 01 - February 28

• The mild weather we experienced through much of January continued into the first week of February but soon returned to somewhat more seasonal tempertures and even brought a little over eight inches of precipitation to the Reserve, much of it in the more expected form of snow.  This, in turn, brought a few more birds to the feeding stations and also into the nearby nets and traps.  Had it not been for the seemingly constant turnover of American Goldfinches around the banding area though, we would certainly have barely passed the double digit mark for this month.  AMGO's topped the banding charts this month with 81 banded, making up 84% of this month's catch.

• February is also arbitrarily defined as the end of our winter banding season so a 2005/2006 winter banding summary can be found following this month's highlights below.

• A streaked cousin to the goldfinch (family Fringillidae), this second year Pine Siskin banded on February 25th, was the first of the year and the fifth for the season.  Although they are erratic winter residents and usually occur in the Ligonier Valley intermixed with large flocks of Goldfinches, a few individuals have been documented nesting in the local area each year, giving preference to the large ornamental spruces.  In fact, as of this posting (March 10), Pine Siskins have been heard singing from the tall spruces just outside the banding lab, joining our more usual other harbingers of spring: Eastern Phoebe, Red-winged Blackbird, American Robin, Eastern Towhee, and spring peepers (with many more to come...!)

 

 
 







• Lastly, our recapture highlight for the month was this female Northern Cardinal, whose older band number series tempted us to look a little deeper into her life history.

• She was originally banded as an SY on March 11, 2000 (which means her hatch date was sometime in 1999 making her, now, seven years old).  Following her original banding, she was recaptured only three more times aside from the capture this month; once the very next day and then not again until December 27, 2000 and also, ironically, on December 27, 2001.

• Incidentally, the longest lived bird on record at Powdermill is a 17 year old Blue Jay which, after its original capture, was not seen again in our nets until its recapture 17 years later.

• This winter season at Powdermill we were in operation on 46 days throughout the months of December-February.  We banded an above average 562 birds this season making it the highest winter total in 14 years and the 14th highest total overall (long term average = 468).  A record setting December catch certainly contributed heavily to the success of this season despite most of those birds probably being better classified among the late fall passage migrants.  Note that only 373 of the 447 total banded in December were counted as part of the winter season totals (see also December highlights).  In addition, unlike most winters where the majority of birds are caught in wire-coated Potter traps baited with seed, mild weather much of this season permitted the use of mist nets on most days.  Especially on days without snow cover, mist nets are a much more efficient method of catching birds.  In fact, traps were used only on nine of the 46 banding days.  Click here for a list of this season's totals by species.  The table also includes all species ever been banded during a winter season here at Powdermill for comparison (58 in all).

• The graph below depicts winter banding totals for the past 45 years.  Winterized housing was not available on the reserve until 1974, so banding in the early years was done only on a sporadic and less consistent basis. However, early totals still rival those of later years because the majority of the population, as a whole, was unbanded, and large numbers of not very "trap shy" birds could be banded with just a few scattered days of banding effort.

• Evening Grosbeaks were the cause of two of the three spikes in banding totals below.  812 were banded over the winter of 1975-76 and 518 peaked the totals exactly a decade later in 1985-86.  Their totals quickly fell into single digits as their range retracted back to their more historical westerly distribution and it has been 10 years since even one has been banded during a winter at Powdermill.  The third spike in winter banding totals below (1989-90) was influenced heavily by the, unparalleled, 491 Pine Siskins banded that season.  Their invasion south that year was probably driven by a failed seed crop in the north during the summer and fall of 1989 that apparently hadn't happened prior to or since then.

• As was mentioned in the February highlights above, American Goldfinch was clearly an integral species in boosting this season's totals above average.  We banded more than twice as many Goldfinches than Dark-eyed Juncos, the perennial Powdermill leader.  In fact, the 290 AMGO's banded this winter came in  second only to the 335 banded in the winter of 1997-98.  The graph below depicts American Goldfinch banding totals over the past 45 winter banding seasons.

• Finally we thank volunteers Pam Ferkett, Jessica Scopel, and Felicity Newell for their help this winter with banding and banding related activities.  We also always appreciate the help from other full and part time Powdermill staffers, Cokie and Annie Lindsay.

Last Updated on 03/10/06
By Adrienne Leppold and Robert S. Mulvihill