The Zen Birdfeeder

The Spring of the Sparrow

The calendar indicates that summer has arrived, even though the temperatures are very moderate. So before the heat of summer is upon us, I thought it would be a good time to look back on spring. For me, it was the spring of the sparrow.

Migrating sparrows graced my yard from late March through the end of May including a sparrow new to my yard, my "regular" nesting sparrows, and good-sized groups of migrating sparrows.

The Song Sparrow was the first sparrow species through the yard on March 28th, while the snow and cold temperatures were still around.  They do nest in New York, though these were passing through - they were last seen in my yard April 17th.
 

Fox Sparrows were next, arriving April 9.  This was just a few days later than in 2007.  They were busy ground foragers, especially in the underbrush on the wooded side of the house.  They were here in good numbers (up to seven at one time) through April 20th.  This is the biggest group of Fox Sparrows that I've had at any one time.
 

White-throated Sparrows appeared April 12, a full eleven days earlier than in 2007.  They were around in good numbers (up to nine at a time - again, more than I've ever seen in my yard before) and steadily until May 11th. They have one of the most recognizable birdsongs, though the translation is open for debate.  Do you say "Oh Sam Peabody, Peabody, Peabody" or "Oh, Sweet Canada, Canada, Canada"?  Me?  With Canada our neighbor to the north, I prefer Sweet Canada.  Besides, I love their national anthem.  But I digress....
 

Chipping Sparrows returned April 15, a week earlier than in 2007. Chippers did not always nest in my yard, but they and their young are now welcomed as regular summer residents.  Though seen here enjoying a seed cylinder, I spread lots of WBU Deluxe Blend (with white millet) on the ground for the chippers, juncos, and all my visiting sparrows.
 

I always watch very closely in early April hoping to see BOTH an American Tree Sparrow and a Chipping Sparrow in my yard at the same time.  But these two sparrows seem to time their arrivals and departures so you never see them both at the same time! The last American Tree Sparrow I saw was in the snow on April 3.
 

In early May, two Savannah Sparrows visited.  This was a new yard bird for me (#82) and they visited for one lucky day only.  Not the best image below; had it in digital zoom range.
 

White-crowned Sparrows passed through on May 7, feeding under the feeders and using the birdbath for a one-day visit only.  White-crowns don't nest in New York; 2 out of every 3 of them nest in the boreal forest. It's easy to at-a-glance pass a white-crowned off as a white-throated.  But a little more attention to the details pays off with this handsome bird. White-crowned Sparrows were new to my yard in 2004 and now visit every migration.  Makes me wonder if I just wasn't paying close enough attention before.
 

After it seemed that sparrow migration was all wrapped up, I had a couple stragglers pass through on May 21.  A White-throated Sparrow and a White-crowned Sparrow stopped by for a one day visit on their way to their breeding grounds.

So all that's left are the Chipping Sparrows, busy nesting in the area.  Before you know it, summer will be wrapping up and the next wave of sparrows will pass through, but this time with many youngsters among them.  I'm looking forward to it!

Crown Point Bird Banding Station Season Recap

Master Bander Mike Peterson provided this report of the 33rd season of the Crown Point Bird Banding Station.  (Links and photos added).
 

"The spring bird banding station on the grounds of the Crown Point State Historic Site opened for the 33rd consecutive season of banding between May 9-26, 2008.  Operated by the Crown Point Banding Association (CPBA), through an agreement with New York State Office of Parks, Recreation & Historic Preservation (OPR&HP) and the Historic Site Manager, the station is located in hawthorn thickets west of His Majesty's Fort at Crown Point. 
 
 

Birds banded this year were:
4 Killdeer
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Northern Flicker
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
1 "Traill's" Flycatcher
3 Least Flycatcher
2 Great Crested Flycatcher
2 Eastern Kingbird
1 Warbling Vireo
2 Red-eyed Vireo
42 Blue Jay
3 Tree Swallow
15 Barn Swallow
9 Black-capped Chickadee
4 House Wren
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Veery
2 Swainson's Thrush
2 Wood Thrush
20 American Robin
37 Gray Catbird
1 Brown Thrasher
12 Yellow Warbler
2 Chestnut-sided Warbler
2 Magnolia Warbler
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
52 Yellow-rumped Warbler
6 "Western" Palm Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
8 American Redstart
1 Ovenbird
1 Northern Waterthrush
24 Common Yellowthroat
1 Wilson's Warbler
5 Chipping Sparrow
4 Field Sparrow
1 Savannah Sparrow
6 Song Sparrow
5 Lincoln's Sparrow
5 White-throated Sparrow
4 White-crowned Sparrow
2 Northern Cardinal
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
2 Indigo Bunting
2 Bobolink
2 Red-winged Blackbird
10 Common Grackle
2 Brown-headed Cowbird
16 Baltimore Oriole
44 American Goldfinch

TOTAL: 384 individuals of 51 species.
 
There were also a record 45 returns of a dozen species banded at Crown Point in previous years, the oldest a Common Grackle now six years, 11 months old.  Notable species seen or heard, but not banded, included late Snow Goose, 15 Turkey Vultures feeding on dead alewives, seven migrant Bald Eagles, calling Whip-poor-will, and a leucistic American Robin.  There was a strong return flight of Blue Jays, although short of the 89 jays banded in 2005.
 
Four staff members from OPR&HP in Albany paid a site visit and met with representatives of CPBA and Historic Site staff to examine the banding area and discuss further habitat improvement and possible removal of invasive plants, most notably Common Buckthorn.  The Osprey platform will again be cleared of surrounding saplings, the pair having moved to a power pole along the nearby highway, but with a second pair present.  Grassland birds again occupied the recently-reclaimed "Bobolink Field" to the south of the station, and Savannah Sparrow, Bobolink, and Eastern Meadowlark continue to nest in the grassy field between the British fort and the banding thickets.
 
The station welcomed 350+ visitors, with groups including Adirondack Wilderness Challenge, Barstow (VT) Memorial School, Bolton Central, BSA Troop 50, Cornwall (VT) Elementary, Crown Point Central , Kirkland Bird Club, Lake George Community Garden Club, Lake Placid Central, and Mountain Lake Services.  Farthest visitor honors went to Gafar Moumani of Lome, Togo.  Another honored visitor was master-bander Deborah Anson Goslin of Stevensville MT, who was a subpermittee at Crown Point in the 1970s.  Build it, and they will come.
 
A major criterion for naming Crown Point SHS not only an Audubon Important Bird Area (IBA), but also a New York State Bird Conservation Area (BCA), was the congregations of birds that gather at the tip of Crown Point peninsula.  Under one set of criteria, these consist of at least 2,000 waterfowl, including such birds as cormorants.  For many years, large numbers of Double-crested Cormorants have gathered on the west spit in Bulwagga Bay, just below the banding station.  They nested there in 2002 (three nests) and '03 (16 nests), an apparent result of the onset of "control" operations in Vermont.  There has been no subsequent nesting attempted for five years.

On 12 May there were 160 cormorants-- adults and subadults-- sunning on the spit and diving for invasive alewives, while Turkey Vultures and Common Grackles cleaned the beaches of dead fish.  At 9:10 a.m. the following day, a NYS DEC boat arrived and two men began shooting.  They killed a reported 69 cormorants on 13 May, collecting carcasses in large bags.  The DEC returned for longer periods on following days, their heavy shotgun fire difficult to explain to groups of adjudicated youth visiting the banding station on 16 May and sixth graders on 21 May..  Sport radios used at the station picked up conversations about shooting "hangers" and "floppers" (cripples), followed by live shots from the bay below, the students asking why they were doing this, even to the wounded, and why we couldn't stop them, until the banders could break in and radio a request that the killing team switch to another channel.  Adult visitors were astounded to hear the shooting and learn that the killing of these native birds was allowed on an IBA and BCA.  By late May, flights of cormorants headed east to Vermont signaled the appraoch of the DEC boats across the bay, and on 20 May the number of cormorants gathered at the spit had reached 200.  Similar "control" shooting is being done on both NY & VT sides of Champlain, including The Four Brothers bird sanctuary, another Audubon IBA, oiling eggs there as well.  Meanwhile, the beaches are covered with dead alewives, a recent invasive in the lake and now a favored dietary staple of cormorants on Lake Champlain.  Go figure.
 
 
We're grateful to those who helped transport the banding station:  Malinda Chapman & family of Ticonderoga, Stan Corneille of Williamstown, VT, Gordon Howard of Keeseville & Clemson, SC, Dan Lee of Ironville, Gary Lee of Inlet, and Bob Wei of Keene Valley & Upper Saddle River, NJ.  Special thanks go to Historic Site Manager Thomas Hughes, Jake Putnam, and the rest of the Crown Point staff for their continued cooperation and many kindneses.  We greatly appreciate the interest in habitat maintenance of Matt Medler, Pam Otis, Ray Perry, and Melissa Lemens from OPR&HP in Albany.  Since 1976, a total of 14,982 birds have been banded on the grounds of Crown Point State Historic Site, and we hope to return to band #15,000 during our 34th year in 2009.    

--Mike Peterson, Elizabethtown & Montréal

Thank you Mike for the work you and your team do up at Crown Point.

Spring Arrivals and Departures (2008 #5)

Here's my fifth report this spring of recent arrivals and departures.

STILL AROUND (NEST IN AREA)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

NEW SPRING ARRIVALS
White crowned Sparrow (May 7; here for 2 days only)

Ruby-throated Hummingbird male (May 8; arrived May 6 in 2007)


House Wren (May 10)

Ovenbird (May 12)


Blackburnian Warbler (May 13)

Baltimore Oriole (arrived and digiscoped May 13)

DEPARTURES
White throated Sparrow (last seen May 11)

OTHER VISITORS
Eastern Bluebird (just another visit - too many trees and not enough open area for these guys...too bad)

Evening Grosbeak (May 7)


Creeping Phlox



Plum Tree in bloom


Black Cherry in bloom


Rhododendren in bloom

STILL TO COME
Grey Catbird
Eastern wood Pewee
Indigo Bunting
Scarlet Tanager
Late warblers

Here's links to 2008 Spring Arrivals and Departures Report 1 from April 3rd, Report 2 from April 13, Report 3 from April 21, and Report 4 from May 6.

Crown Point NY Bird Banding Station Opens May 10th

This spring, master bird banders Mike Peterson and Gordon Howard will again lead their team mist netting and banding migrating birds that pass through the Crown Point area on the shore of Lake Champlain.

Mike Peterson 

Bird banding is a well-established and indispensable technique for studying the movement, survival and behavior of birds.  The Crown Point banding station has been operated since 1976 and since its opening, a total of 14,625 birds of 98 species have been banded.

Lincoln's Sparrow

We made our first visit to the station last year.  Read about Crown Point bird banding and Crown Point Birding at The Zen Birdfeeder blog.

VISITOR HOURS AND INSTRUCTIONS

Master banders Mike Peterson & Gordon Howard and the banding team welcome visitors on any days between May 10-25.  The station is open from dawn until late afternoon when the gate closes (hours vary).  Banding is often best on still, cloudy, or even rainy days, and birds are most active in the early morning hours-- generally until about 9 am -- although birds are netted throughout the day. 

Please sign the Visitor Log on arrival at the station-- a shelter, tables, and tents west of the British fort.  Feel free to bring food & drink, as well as cameras, but the banders ask that cell phones be turned off.  Waterproof footwear is recommended, since trails and net lanes are often muddy.  Even when banding is slow, the birding is generally good on the grounds of the Historic Site during May.

DIRECTIONS

From Rte 22 south of Port Henry, take the road to the Crown Point Bridge (County Rte 903) and look for the Crown Point State Historic Site sign and entrance on the left just before the bridge.  If the gate is locked, park across the highway and walk in the access road; otherwise, drive in.  Stop and consult the interpretive birding panels on the left for a map that shows the location of the banding station.  Vehicles should then be parked in the main lot in front of the museum.

CROWN POINT BIRD CONSERVATION AREA

The Bird Conservation Area is located on the grounds of the Crown Point State Historic Site, at the tip of Crown Point peninsula, just south of the bridge to Vermont.  Jutting northward into Lake Champlain, the peninsula serves as a migrant trap in spring, concentrating waves of northbound birds in thickets west of the British fort. The State Historic Site has also been designated as an Important Bird Area (IBA) by the National Audubon Society.

Over 200 bird species have been observed at the Crown Point BCA, with as many as 27 different species of colorful warblers possible during May. Stop at the BCA interpretive panels on the left side of the entry road to view a map showing the location of the bird banding station, proceed to the main parking lot, then continue on foot.

This is a great activity for the family and for school or youth groups.  You may even get a chance to release a banded bird!

Nashville Warbler about to be released

Spring Arrivals and Departures (2008 #4)

Here's my fourth report of arrivals and departures this spring.

STILL AROUND
White throated Sparrows (numerous)

Tree Swallows (though we don't have the right habitat for them, we do have lots of Black Flies and other flying insects around)

 

NEW SPRING ARRIVALS
Rose breasted Grosbeak (two females on May 4, males the next day; in 2007, both male and female arrived 5/11). Digiscoped image below; notice the reflection off the feeder.

Savannah Sparrow (May 4; a new yard bird!  One day visit only)  Digiscoped image below.

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker (a female on May 4; in 2007, both male and female arrived on 4/27)
Northern Flicker (May 5)

DEPARTURES
Fox Sparrows (last seen 4/20)
Song sparrows (last seen 4/17)

OTHER VISITORS
Grape Hyacinth

Creeping Myrtle

Immature Sharp-shinned Hawk

Black Flies  :(
Black Bear (more on that in another post)

STILL TO COME
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Grey Catbird
Eastern wood Pewee
White crowned Sparrow
Indigo Bunting
Yellow-rumped Warbler and Black-throated Blue Warbler (both nest in our area)
Other warblers

Here's links to 2008 Spring Arrivals and Departures Report 1 from April 3rd, Report 2 from April 13, and Report 3 from April 21

Spring Arrivals and Departures (2008 #3)

Here's my third report of arrivals and departures this spring.

STILL AROUND
Fox Sparrows
Song Sparrows

NEW SPRING ARRIVALS
Chipping Sparrow (4/15; 1 week earlier than 2007)

Pine Warbler (4/16; a new yard bird!)

Tree Swallow (4/17; 1 week earlier than 2007)

DEPARTURES
American Tree Sparrow (I continue to try hard to see the American Tree Sparrow and the Chipping Sparrow overlapping their presence at my feeders.  No luck this spring; next chance: fall migration!)

Common Redpolls (when the temperatures headed into the 70s this weekend, so went the redpolls.  Last seen 4/17)

OTHER VISITORS
Pileated Woodpecker

Purple Squill

1st Daffodil (versus May 2 last year!)

First blooms in my "Brigadoon" heath & heather garden

Male American Goldfinch molting

STILL TO COME
Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Yellow-bellied Sapsucker 
Grey Catbird
Eastern wood Pewee
White crowned Sparrow
Rose-breasted Grosbeak
Indigo Bunting
More warblers

Here's links to Spring 2008 Report 1 and Report 2.

Care for Birds - Care for the Environment: Shopping to Save our Birds

More and more migratory birds are in danger and our shopping choices could be part of the problem.

Maine Public Broadcasting's "Maine Watch" program features author and national bird conservation expert, Jeffrey Wells, as he talks about the everyday choices we make that can impact the birds we look forward to each spring.

Also included in the broadcast is an interview with Wing Goodale of the BioDiversity Research Institute and how he found over 100 contaminants in Maine birds.

Though produced in Maine, these are not only Maine issues.  The broadcast is informative and helps us with some changes we can make next time we grocery shop.  It is also entertaining, featuring some great photographs and videos.  View to the end to see some cool bird carvings.  About 27 minutes long.

Jeff Wells is Senior Scientist for the Boreal Songbird Initiative.  He maintains the Boreal Bird Blog.

An estimated 35% of the Northern Flicker's North American population breeds in the boreal forest.

"Birds to Listen and Look for in Your Backyard" Broadcast

Dr. Jeff Wells, Senior Scientist with the Boreal Songbird Initiative, recently joined fellow birding experts Glenn Phillips and Brad Mellema on NPR's Science Friday to talk about signs of spring in the avian world, from migrations, to nesting, to birdsong. They also weighed in on some threatened birds that we should make a special effort to see this spring.

Listen to the broadcast "Birds to Listen and Look for in Your Backyard" that aired March 28th on NPR's Science Friday (another of my favorite podcasts!)

Then follow this link to view Science Friday's birding trip to the Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City.

Care for Birds - Care for the Environment: Save Our Boreal Birds

It's spring, and billions of birds are winging their way north to the Boreal Forest from southern Canada, the United States, and even Central and South America. Let's make sure they have a summer home to return to.

The Save Our Boreal Birds campaign is a joint effort by like-minded conservation groups to let Canada's government know that we must protect the Boreal Forest to keep the continent's bird populations healthy.

Fox Sparrows Migrating Through

Since April 9th, I've been enjoying the presence of 6-7 Fox Sparrows daily as they migrate to their summer breeding grounds.

This is one of my favorite sparrows, along with the white-throated and the chipping.  The Fox Sparrow's cinnamon and grey coloration makes them unmistakable.  They hang around on the ground with others in the sparrow family (Song Sparrows, white-throateds, juncos), but the fox again stands out with their bigger size.

They're at home on the forest floor, amongst the pine needles and leaves.  They forage like a towhee with a scoot-back-scratching move that is very effective at moving leaves and other organic material in their search for seeds, berries, and insects.  You'll often see other birds check out the area a Fox Sparrow has cleared to pick up any leftovers.

When migrating sparrows are passing through, I do a daily broadcast of Wild Birds Unlimited Select Groundfeeding Seed Blend, which is very high in white millet.  I use this blend only on the ground or in seed trays and only while migrating sparrows and/or juncos are abundant.  I would recommend against putting high-millet blends in your tube feeders.

 

Fox Sparrows don't nest in New York state; an estimated 58% of the species breeds in the boreal forest of Canada.*  We'll see them for a few weeks in spring and then again in late October as they head to their winter homes in the southern US.  If you're lucky enough to see the Fox Sparrow during the winter, let me know using the comment section.  Make sure to tell us where you're located.

Read more about the Fox Sparrow at Wild Birds Unlimited's rightbird Online Field Guide.

* Source:  Boreal Songbird Initiative.  Visit the Boreal Bird Blog and sign their Save Our Boreal Birds Petition.