The months of June and July define the summer banding season here at Powdermill (6/1-8/1), and what a season it was!  We were in operation on 40 days throughout the two month period and banded 1500 birds in 7515 net hours, setting a new record summer high (previous summer high was 1327 in 1993).   Total net hours of banding effort, however, was at least double that  for recent years, and very likely contributed to our record banding totals for the season.  Nonetheless, it was our imnpression that productivity for many species in the banding area was unusually high this summer.  Sixteen of the 72 species banded this summer at Powdermill set or nearly set new record high seasonal totals, and hatching year birds made up >75% of our catch through July.

The following are some of the species that set record high totals during the summer season (2004 season total/previous record high):  American Redstart 260/183, Black-capped Chickadee 24/20, Black-throated Green Warbler 21/5 , Gray Catbird 167/132, Hooded Warbler 53/39, Northern Rough-winged Swallow 4/3, and Northern Waterthrush 5/4.

"Good gets," i.e., birds for which we band, on average, <1 individual per summer season, included our first Pileated Woodpecker since 2000, two Worm-eating Warblers, five Northern Parulas (tied our record high),   Eastern Kingbird, Solitary Sandpiper, Green Heron, and our ninth ever summer Orchard Oriole.  The following  species are three other "good gets" that also set new season records (see above paragraph): Black-throated Green Warbler, Northern Rough-winged Swallow, and Northern Waterthrush.  Some conspicous "misses" this summer, i.e., species with a long term summer average of >1, were: Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, Brown-headed Cowbird, Tennessee Warbler, and Yellow-breasted Chat.

The totals for all species banded during the summer 2004 season are given in the table below and encompass, for the most part, birds and young of the resident breeding population.  Realistically, however, totals also incorporate both late spring (e.g. Northern Waterthrushes banded on June 1 and 6) and early fall (e.g. Least Flycatcher banded the first week of July) migrants and, additionally, inadequately represents the productivity of all local broods, i.e. the first hatching year bird -Song Sparrow- was actually captured prior to the onset of the  summer season and late brooded adults and their young will continue to make up a portion of the capture during the fall "migration" season which began on August 2nd this year.

Last Updated on 01/21/05
By Adrienne J. Leppold