4-7 October 2006

4 Oct.

A calm, warm but foggy dawn was transformed suddenly by a gale-force north wind! After heavy thunderstorms during the night, the morning was damp and surprisingly warm (17 degrees). But that all changed suddenly when a strong North wind picked up as suddenly as unexpected.

In consequence, most nests were closed one after another. But even with less nets, an interesting array of birds were caught, including Orange-crowned, Nashville, Magnolia, Yellow-rumped and Palm Warblers.

5 Oct.

During an overcast day, with almost no wind, we were kept busy by flocks of Kinglets hitting our nets! There were also quite some sparrows around, with Juncos being more and more abundant... But the flocks of American robins were impressive, though only one was caught.

On the second night that we could open our owl nets, we caught one Saw-whet Owl! It's a good start!

6 Oct.

On a clear, brisk day, the migration was rather slow. However, big flocks of American Robins were moving through: usually, they fly too high to be caught in our nets. But this time, they seemed to go up and down, and it might explain why we caught 17 of them! It was our best catch of Robins ever for a single day. And it provided the bulk of the day's catches.

But the best was to come when darkness came upon us: with a light north wind, under a bright almost-full moon, 5 Saw-whet Owls were caught from 9:00pm to 2:00am! It was the best night ever for catching Owls (considering, for example, that last fall total was of only 7 Owls).

7 Oct.

A very busy day, under a clear sky: waves and waves of kinglets hit the nets and kept us occupied for the morning. But the most astonishing bird caught was a... Black-backed Woodpecker!! A young female, it is the first time this species was banded at Cabot Head! It is also the first report for this species on the area. Sadly, this is when the station digital camera decided to go wonky! A great new bird, that raises question of where she came from! The closest breeding population, as shown by the Ontario Breeding Bird Atlas, is on Manitoulin Island. Although the distance is not very long, and you can island-hop there's still a distance of at least 2 kilometers of open water to manage to cross. I have a hard time inagining a woodpecker embarking on this type of journey. But, then, where else could she come from? I welcome comments!