North Central Washington Audubon Society
furthering the knowledge and the conservation of the environment of North Central Washington
Speaker: Steve Pruett-Jones
Thursday, May 15th, 4:30-6:00 PM
Winthrop Library Community Room
Retired University of Chicago professor Steve Pruett-Jones will share some amazing photos of parrots and discuss how escaped and introduced parrots have become increasingly common in cities around the world.
The Winthrop Library is located at 112 Norfolk Road. All are welcome and there is no cost to attend. We hope to see you there!
Late last year, before the holiday season was in full swing, I traveled to the Osa Peninsula in southern Costa Rica to attend a bird banding workshop hosted by Osa Birds. Founded in 2014 by Karen Leavelle, Osa Birds is a charitable nonprofit organization that uses community science and applied research to help conserve both resident and Neotropical migratory birds. Osa Birds also works closely with local rural communities on native plants initiatives and habitat restoration projects.
The banding workshop was held in Rancho Quemado, one of the rural communities where Osa Birds works. The trip took three days: one to drive from Winthrop to Seattle, another to fly from Seattle to San Jose, and the third to take a commuter flight to Puerto Jimenez and then travel by car to Rancho Quemado.
Our lodging accommodations were at Casa Bosque. The pictures looked nice, but I really didn’t know what to expect, and I was a little concerned about the lack of hot water for showers. It turned out Casa Bosque was a great place to stay. The rooms were clean and comfortable, the meals were delicious, and because it was so hot and humid, it was refreshing to take a cold shower!
There were five students in the workshop, including me, all from different parts of the United States (Florida, Oregon, South Carolina, Washington, and Wisconsin). None of us had met before, but in the category of “it’s a small world,” I learned that Bill from South Carolina and I had several mutual acquaintances. Our instructors, Holly Garrod and Zoya Buckmire, were excellent! Holly is from Montana but spends much of her time banding birds and leading banding workshops throughout the United States and Latin America. Zoya, who lives in Granada, recently completed an intensive banding internship at the Klamath Bird Observatory in Oregon and is the lead copy editor for the Journal of Caribbean Ornithology. We also were fortunate to have local banders Luz, Yolanda, and Nuria with us. Yolanda was not only a bander but also our awesome hostess. (She and her husband Javier own Casa Bosque.)
We banded for six consecutive mornings at two different locations, collecting data for the Institute for Bird Populations’ MoSI program. MoSI is the sister program to the MAPS program I volunteer for in the Methow Valley, and is a network of banding stations established to monitor the overwintering survival of the Neotropical landbirds that breed in the United States and Canada. Although the emphasis is on collecting year-round data on Neotropical migrants, MoSI also collects important data on the resident species at each station.
When I first started working with birds years ago, I never imagined I would have a chance to band them in Central America. It was truly an amazing experience and one that I will never forget. Thank you Osa Birds!
Here are some photos of the species we caught and banded…
…including these two, which were by far my favorites!
On Friday, November 4, David Lukas will talk about bird bones and skeletons at the Winthrop Library starting at 4 p.m. This fascinating one-hour program will explore the marvelous ways that bird bones and skeletons work together to shape how birds move through the world. As time permits, we might also talk a bit about feathers. In addition to the presentation, David will bring some feathers, bones, and a bird skeleton as examples of what we’re talking about. He will also be giving this same talk at the Tonasket Community Center on Friday, November 11, at 6:30 pm. Contact David is you need any further details, david@lukasguides.com.
This year’s keynote speaker for Bird Fest was Derek Sheffield, who is a poet, naturalist, and English professor at Wenatchee Valley College. He spoke about humans’ most frequent interface with wildlife—our encounters with birds in both our natural and built environments. Birds, he noted, have led to wonder, inspiration, and art. By contrast, “There is no marmot festival,” he said.
Sheffield described his own awakening to nature, especially birds, when he lived in a cabin on a remote shoreline with no outside communications. There, he wrote his first notable poem, about Pigeon Guillemots. For Bird Fest, he recited or read a handful of works involving birds from notable poets: “For the Wren Trapped in the Cathedral” by Pattiann Rogers; “Wild Geese” by Mary Oliver; and “Sparrow Envy” by Dr. Drew Lanham. “I would find haven in thorniest thickets,” Lanham wrote.
Sheffield then turned to the alarming loss of bird populations and species occurring right now due to habitat loss and plastic pollution. He played a brief, wordless video by Chris Jordan, creator of “Midway: Message from the Gyre,” revealing the contents of the stomachs of sea birds that have died from ingesting bits of plastic. Birds swallowed pieces from the size of tiny beads up to whole bottle caps.
Returning to lighter ideas, Sheffield noted how birders nickname birds like “LBJs” and “Butterbutts,” and refer to them as “somebodies” as though they were human. He recounted an argument between famous bird artist David Allen Sibley and Dr. Dan Stephens, who teaches ornithology at Wenatchee Valley College. Sibley thought he heard a MacGillivray’s Warbler. Dr. Stephens corrected him, “No, it’s a Nashville Warbler.” Dr. Stephens contends that birds have regional dialects and Sibley was just more familiar with East Coast birds.
Sheffield read “Ornithology Lesson” by Jan Wallace, a poem about the amazing breeding acrobatics of Bald Eagles. Then he recited a haiku, of sorts. A Japanese haiku is a short poem invoking nature and the seasons. It has come to mean a poem of 17 syllables in English. He quoted a haiku about the nuthatch: “Honk honk honk honk honk…” You can guess the rest.
Charlene Collins Freeman, an award-winning watercolor artist, taught a Zoom class on drawing and painting birds. She worked from emailed photographic models. She provided some good tips for this duffer:
Because each color needed to dry before the next was added, the class didn’t terminate with the two-hour Zoom meeting. Freeman will send the class participants an electronic link that will be good for a year to follow her completing her demonstrations.
I’m no Sibley, but I had fun.
The 2021 MAPS banding season came to an abrupt end shortly after the July 15th banding session. Two wildfires in the area, Cedar Creek and Cub Creek 2, were growing in size and producing a lot of unhealthy smoke. Given the uncertainty of the situation, I made the difficult decision to cancel the last two banding sessions and dismantle the station. Thankfully the Cedar Creek Fire never reached the MAPS station. The firefighters have done an amazing job protecting structures and containing both fires. The map below shows the boundaries of the Cedar Creek and Cub Creek 2 fires in relation to the banding station as of August 11th.
Most juvenile birds are captured during the last two MAPS sessions near the end of the breeding season. Identifying juveniles can be tricky, because many species look much different as juveniles than adults. Since we missed out on seeing a lot of juveniles this year, I thought I’d share a few pictures to illustrate some of the differences. (The juvenile descriptions are from Identification Guide to North American Birds, Part 1 by Peter Pyle https://www.birdpop.org/pages/moltAndPlumage.php.)
For reasons that are not easily explained, fewer birds were captured in 2021 than in previous years. At the end of the fifth (and final) banding session, we only had captured 61 birds. Even if the last two sessions had been conducted, it would have been almost impossible to reach the numbers captured in 2019 or 2020. Perhaps the low numbers are related to the die-off that happened in the southwestern U.S. last year during fall migration (https://www.audubon.org/news/study-starvation-and-freak-snow-storm-caused-southwests-mass-bird-die). It will be interesting to see how many birds find their way into the nets next season.
The 2021 Methow Valley banding season has been very busy. It started in early June when I hosted a five-day beginner bird banding class. The class was supported by NCWAS and taught by Danielle Kaschube. Danielle works for the Institute for Bird Populations and coordinates their MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding program. (You can learn more about the MAPS program by visiting the Institute for Bird Populations’ web site.)
The class was fast-paced and covered a lot of material, which made for some very long days! Starting at sunrise the students spent several hours mist netting and banding captured birds. Skills taught during the morning banding sessions included the operation of mist nets and safe extraction of birds, bird-handling skills, and in-hand ageing and sexing techniques. In the afternoon they attended classroom lectures where the topics of banding ethics, the permitting process, and avian plumages and molt strategies were discussed. By all accounts the class was a success. Everyone (including me!) learned a lot, and the students have been applying what they learned by volunteering at my MAPS station.
To date, four of the seven required MAPS sessions have been completed and 54 birds representing 21 different species have been captured. One of the goals of the MAPS program is to determine survival rates, so it is both exciting and informative when we recapture a bird that was banded in a previous year. So far this year we have recaptured five birds originally banded in 2019 (the year the station was started): one Warbling Vireo, two Swainson’s Thrush, one MacGillivray’s Warbler, and one Yellow Warbler.
All of these birds are Neotropical migrants. I can’t say exactly where they migrated to each winter, but range maps and e-Bird records show their nonbreeding ranges include Central America. Hypothetically speaking, if they migrated as far south as Costa Rica, these birds have made the one-way trip of ±3,600 miles between their winter and breeding grounds at least five times. That is beyond amazing!
The year 2020 marked the fourth nesting season I have operated a MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) bird banding station in the Methow Valley. MAPS is administered by the Institute for Bird Populations and is a continent-wide collaborative banding program that contributes to the conservation of birds and their habitats by monitoring key demographic parameters such as productivity, recruitment, and survival. During a MAPS banding session, birds are captured in mist nets, extracted and placed in cloth holding bags (1 bird per bag), and brought to a central processing location where they are identified to species and banded on the right leg with a uniquely numbered band issued by the Federal Bird Banding Laboratory. Data on age, sex, breeding condition, weight, fat, molt, and feather wear are recorded for each bird before it is released. You can learn more about the MAPS program by visiting the Institute for Bird Populations’ web site.
Like everything else in 2020, the ability to operate the MAPS station in the midst of a global pandemic was questionable. Would the landowners allow me to band on their property? Would any volunteers be willing to help? And would it be possible to capture, band, and process birds while wearing a mask? Fortunately, the landowners and volunteers said yes, and with some trial and error we adapted to wearing masks and safely completed all 7 of the required MAPS banding sessions.
I have been banding birds for 14 years, and despite the questionable start 2020 turned out to be my most productive MAPS season ever with a total of 195 captured birds and 32 different species! The most commonly captured species were MacGillivray’s Warbler (25 captures), Yellow Warbler (22 captures), and Purple Finch (16 captures). Other notable species included American Redstart, Nashville Warbler, Red-eyed Vireo, Warbling Vireo, and Red-naped Sapsucker.
MacGillivray’s Warbler, Yellow Warbler, and Purple Finch. Photos by Julie Hovis.
An important aspect of banding is age determination. In general, birds can be aged as being in their hatch year (HY), second year (SY), or after second year (ASY) by examining the color and condition of their flight feathers. The Lazuli Bunting provides an excellent example of how feathers are used to age a bird. Pictured below on the left is the wing of a SY male; the retained brown juvenile feathers indicate this bird hatched in the previous year. The wing on the right is an ASY male; the lack of brown feathers indicates this bird hatched prior to the previous year. It’s not always that easy, and for some species it’s downright impossible, but with practice many species can be aged accurately.
SY (left) and ASY (right) male Lazuli Buntings. Photos by Julie Hovis.
For species where the males and females look alike, banding also provides an opportunity to determine a bird’s sex, such as the brood patch on this female Song Sparrow.
One of the perks of bird banding is being able to see things up close and personal. This year we caught several Cedar Waxwings and the detail of the waxy tips on the secondary feathers was amazing.
Cedar Waxwing. Photos by Julie Hovis.
My banding activities are over for this year, but I am planning to operate the MAPS station again in 2021 (hopefully in a world free of COVID-19). I’ll post updates starting in June, so if you’re interested be sure to check back then.