Pictorial Highlights

June - July, 2008 A Panorama of Clouds at Powdermill, Summer 2008 The Powdermill banding station was operated on 41 days in June and July, with an average effort of 100 net-hours per day. Molly McDermott continued as our Bander-in-Charge through June, and Andrew Vitz assumed that position in July. In the photo to your left, one of Andrew's first official acts was to show bird-banding to a group of Powdermill's young summer nature day-campers. We banded 834 birds (20 … [Read more...] about 2008 Summer

March - April 2008 To begin with, we would like to thank the following for assisting with the banding at Powdermill in March and April: Mary Shidel, Kristin Sesser, Julie Means, Pam Ferkett, Lauren Schneider, Dean Thompson, Matthew Shumar, Danilo Mejía, Marisabel Paulino, Gerardo Rodríguez Ramos, and Rob Slebodnik. The last four comprise the 2008 field crew for our long-term (since 1996) banding study of Louisiana Waterthrushes at Powdermill, currently a collaboration between … [Read more...] about 2008 Spring

December 2007 Banding in the beginning part of December seemed more like an extension of the fall migration than early winter. This was due to a larger number of unbanded birds caught, 119, vs. recaptures (103). Our maximum December total is 447 in 2005 (helped largely by a very protracted movement of fall migrants that year), followed by 312 in 1985 (helped by the banding 130 Evening Grosbeaks!).So, with more banding days to go, this December's total already is the third highest in … [Read more...] about 2007 Winter

November 2007 This month marked the end of our above average fall season, with a grand total of 8,514 birds banded since 1 August. Though behind the excellent (third highest ever) total of 10,022 last year, it is still the 7th highest for a fall in 47 years of banding at Powdermill.November birds contributed 1,769 to the above total. In fact, this was the second highest November total we have ever had, behind the record number of 2,342 in 1985. Highest daily banding totals for the … [Read more...] about 2007 Late Fall

October 2007 Our October 2007 banding total of 3,374 birds was well above the long-term (46-year) average for this month of the year (2,411); similarly, the cumulative fall 2007 banding total through October (6,745 birds banded) also is well above the 46-year average for the same period (5,516).These high totals reflect some very good individual species counts, especially among boreal birds (both irruptive and regular migrants).With 498 banded in October, American Goldfinch set a new … [Read more...] about 2007 Fall

September 2007 We're still trying to catch up this season with our Recent Notes and Pictorial Highlights. Accordingly, this page summarizes our results for the four full banding weeks (Tuesday-Sunday) in September. As usual, this middle portion of our fall banding season was more productive than the earlier (August) part. And, as the next installment likely will show, September banding ordinarily it is much less productive than October (or even early November), when we invariably see … [Read more...] about 2007 Early Fall