a few good birds!

While the banding hasn’t been as fast and furious as it had been during the surge of sparrows, we have been getting exciting birds in the last week. In a first for Cabot Head, there have been two Trumpeter Swans in the Wingfield Basin. They arrived three days ago and have been sighted swimming the basin every day since. One is tagged with plastic wing tag and we are trying to track down where it came from. We’ll keep you posted if we find out. Before the swans, we had a Surf Scoter in the Wingfield Basin. These deep water divers rarely come into small bays, so it was a treat to have one so close for a few days. In more typical scoter behavior, white-winged scoters have been seen flying over the bay, though none have been coming very close to the station.

Last weekend we caught a Pileated Woodpecker. She was the first we caught this season and only the fifth ever caught at Cabot Head. Also last weekend we caught a Pine Grosbeak. It was also a first for the season and only the third ever caught at Cabot Head. Three days ago we got a Northern Shrike in the nets. It nearly got out, but Stephane was right there and able to keep it in the net. This is the first for the season. Yesterday we caught a Fox Sparrow (another first for the season). We usually only get two or three of this large sparrow each fall. And today – believe it or not! - we banded a Northern Saw-whet Owl. When we attempted to catch these amazing little owls last weekend at night, we had no success, but this morning, on our first net run of the day, we found one in the nets. It was the first one caught this season. From this list of exciting birds, it’s easy to see numbers aren’t everything at Cabot Head.

The composition of the bird species seen and caught has been changing. We are now seeing more of the late fall migrants and winter residents. American Tree Sparrows, Black-capped Chickadees, Orange-crowned Warblers, Dark-eyed Juncos, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers, Brown Creepers, Golden and Ruby-crowned Kinglets compose almost all of the birds we are now getting in the nets. All are late fall migrants or winter residents of the area. No longer are we finding Red-breasted Nuthatches or mid-fall warblers, which we were seeing only a few weeks ago.