Sexy Sapsucker!

Today was a very nice day at the banding station, and its about time! After a very, very slow start this season, birds finally showed up at the banding station this morning! By the end of the day we had banded 151 birds, our highest day so far this season and the most diverse with a total of 26 species. One of the biggest highlights was this Yellow-bellied Sapsucker! And believe it or not, it was the first sapsucker to be banded here since 2003. This was only the 10th one to be banded here since 1994. So read into that, not a bird we catch every year. And it is hard to believe that it is already late enough into the season to be catching one of these! And to top it off, we had our first Ruby-crowned Kinglet today as well. I am saddened to think that the neotropical migrants are starting to decrease in numbers, mostly since we have caught so few this fall. Guess winter is inevitable.

Philadelphia helps a slow day get better!

The 22nd Sept. was a very slow day at the banding station. In fact we only caught 8 birds the whole morning, but one of them was this beautiful Philadelphia Vireo! We normally don't catch many Philly's here with only an average of 1.6 per season since 1994. And the single season high during that time is only 4, so it is always a real treat to band one of these. This individual was the first for the season, and could quite possible be the last for the season as well. But, I hope not! With a overall brighter yellow color and slightly different head pattern and head shape, these medium sized vireos can be separated from their large kin, Red-eyed Vireos.

Merlin Madness!

On September 12 we saw 60 Merlins pass in one hour of counting. On September 18, we saw 24 Merlins in one hour. That same day, we took this picture with Zach Smith, Joe Medley and myself with 6 Merlins in hand. There were at least 2 more Merlins in the blind. It is a really exciting time for raptors out here in Kiptopeke these days. Hope you all can join us soon. Jeff Birek

Incredible day for Sharpies!

We had the best flight of Sharp-shinned Hawks that I have ever experienced yesterday (9/19/07). The totals for the Hawkwatch were 2,323 Sharpies and 2,782 total hawks for the day. We had one hour with over 400 Sharpies that passed. In addition to there being lots of birds, they were flying nice and low over the platform making for ideal hawkwatching conditions. Our hawk bander Joe Medley had a record day, as well. There were a total of 108 hawks caught and banded, yesterday. He was fortunate enough to have the help of veteran Kiptopeke bander Zack Smith. The previous record for hawk banding out of one blind in Kiptopeke was around 50 birds... that is now a thing of the past. Good birds to you all! Jeff Birek

Season totals from 15 Aug through 19 Sept.

Season totals from the 15th Aug. through the 19th Sept.

Sharp-shinned Hawk................1
Mourning Dove ....................2
Eastern Screech-Owl...............1
Downy Woodpecker..................3
Yellow-shafted Flicker............3
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher.........1
Acadian Flycatcher................1
Traill's Flycatcher...............41
Least Flycatcher..................3
Great Crested Flycatcher..........1
Carolina Chickadee................6
Tufted Titmouse...................1
Red-breasted Nuthatch.............4
Carolina Wren.....................38
House Wren........................3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher.............1
Veery.............................34
Gray-cheeked Thrush...............1
Swainson's Thrush.................6
Wood Thrush.......................1
American Robin....................2
Gray Catbird......................9
Northern Mockingbird..............39
Brown Thrasher....................3
White-eyed Vireo..................12
Red-eyed Vireo....................21
Blue-winged Warbler...............1
Tennessee Warbler.................1
Northern Parula...................8
Yellow Warbler....................2
Magnolia Warbler..................10
Black-throated Blue Warbler.......46
Pine Warbler......................2
Prairie Warbler...................4
Palm Warbler (western)............4
Black-and-white Warbler...........34
American Redstart.................170
Prothonotary Warbler..............1
Ovenbird..........................17
Northern Waterthrush..............14
Louisiana Waterthrush.............1
Mourning Warbler..................1
Common Yellowthroat...............60
Canada Warbler....................1
Yellow-breasted Chat..............6
Summer Tanager....................3
Northern Cardinal.................18
Blue Grosbeak.....................3
Indigo Bunting....................3
Field Sparrow.....................1
Baltimore Oriole..................1

TOTAL.............................650

Wood Thrush banded 9/16

Although not the rarest bird we catch here at Kiptopeke, still one of the prettiest and arguably one of the best singers we have here in the state. This hatch year bird was caught on the 16th Sept. (our first for the season). Since 1994, 54 Wood Thrushes have been banded here, second rarest thrush only behind the 22 Bicknell's Thrushes banded during that same stretch. The most Wood Thrushes banded in a season since 1994 came in 2005 when 17 were banded (much higher than the second best 7 of 2006). So recently they have been a bit more common.
This bird was actually on the smaller side for Wood Thrushes but they are still one of our biggest thrushes, only behind American Robins.

One beautiful American Kestrel!

American Kestrels, like this beautiful male pictured here, are found throughout the United States and are our smallest falcon. You can see how small they are by comparing it to Joe's hand. These guys are usually seen sitting on power lines in open areas, as well as, hovering over fields and grassy areas in search of insects and small mammals. Here at Kiptopeke, we see lots of migrating Kestrels heading south, with some one day totals reaching the 500 birds per day mark. It is quite entertaining to watch one chase/dive after a dragonfly and then watch it as they eat it on the wing! As with many other raptors, females are usually bigger than males.

The spots are in the wings

Can't say I know too much about dragonflies but I do know a pretty one when I see one! This one was found near the banding station today (9/17) and posed very nicely for pictures. This beautiful dragonfly is called a Twelve-spotted Skimmer. Not sure if it gets its name from the 12 black spots or the 12 white spots. Because if we added up all the spots, it should actually be called a Twenty four-spotted Skimmer! ha ha

Red-shouldered Hawk banded 9/13

Here is a picture of a rarely caught hatch year Red-shouldered Hawk that was caught by our hawk trapper Joe Medley. These picture is of fellow hawk trapper Robert Klages who came up to the hawk platform to do a small demonstration with this hawk for visitors and then released.
On average, only one Red-shouldered is caught here a season so it is a real treat to see one of these in hand here!
It is of note, that there are basically three different populations of Red-shouldered Hawks in the US: A very red California race, a very pale Florida race, and then the intermediate Eastern race.

Mourning Warbler banded 9/16

Here is a picture of the hatch year Mourning Warbler that we banded on 9/16. Mourning Warblers are actually less common than Connecticuts are here at Kiptopeke. Kind of crazy I know, but its true. Since 1994, we have caught only 23 Mourning Warblers as compared to 45 Connecticuts. With that said, we are averaging just 1.75 Mournings a season here during that time. The ten year high was set in 2005 in which four were banded. And we missed catching them altogether in 1997, 1998, and 2003.

Funky Veery

If you asked someone to describe a bird, they usually include a few things on their list. A bill is usually one of them. So when we caught this poor Veery, we had a hard time trying to decide if it was a bird or not. We voted that it was, indeed, a bird, but that it had misplaced it's bill. So if anyone finds an extra Veery bill laying around, we know someone that might like it.
In all seriousness, this poor bird had a badly deformed bill. It appears that the bill never really grew. Seems it is not a good thing either. This bird was pretty thin (little muscle and fat). Sure hope it can learn to find food sooner than later. Wish it luck!

First Raptor Banded!

The 2007 raptor banding season is up and running. The first bird was caught on Wednesday, September 1; a beautiful juvenile male Merlin. I was able to assist Joe Medley (2007 CVWO Hawk Bander) and Robert Klages with this capture by alerting them to its presence from the hawkwatch tower. They returned the favor by bringing it up to let me release. Then the bird sat on a post near the tower and preened for a few minutes when I was able to snap this digiscoped photo. You can barely see the band on the right leg peeking out. It's a great start to what I'm sure will be another great season at Kiptopeke. Jeff Birek - 2007 CVWO Hawkwatcher

Eastern Fence Lizard

Well, ok, you got it, it has been a bit slow at the banding station. This picture was taken by Shirley Devan from the Williamsburg Bird Club. She was out birding with a friend near the banding station and they found this well camouflaged Eastern Fence Lizard on the side of a pine tree. This picture clearly(? ha ha) shows how good they can hide themselves!! This species is found throughout the state of Virginia in a wide variety of habitats. They normally are 4 to 7.25 inches long. If you compare this species with the picture of the skink below you will notice that this lizard had overlapping keeled scales that produce a rough texture, whereas the skink has unkeeled scales that do not overlap creating a smooth surface.

One small skink!

Some days, it is pretty slow at the banding station, so we fill the bird void with whatever we can. On this particular day, we were not catching many birds so we started looking for "other" wildlife. By chance, I found this little fella. This is a Little Brown Skink (I think also called Common Ground Skink). This species is common along the coastal plain and piedmont of Virginia. With a normal snort to vent length of 2.2 inches (overall length of 5.7 inches) this little one has a long way to go! I want to thank Shirley Devan for taking this picture and allowing me to use it!

Nine warbler net run

Top row: American Redstart, Yellow-breasted Chat, Black-and-white
Middle row: Tennessee, Prothonotary, Black-throated Blue

Bottom row:Northern Parula, Magnolia, Common Yellowthroat

Today turned out to be a bit better than expected. With no cold front in the forecast, I was expecting this week to be extremely slow. So it came as a surprise when on our 7:30am netrun we caught 30 birds, of which we had nine different species of warblers. Although not unheard of here, it was just our best (most diverse) net run of the season. By the end of the morning, we had banded 44 birds composed of 21 species! Not too shabby! And we caught two species we catch very few of in a season, Tennessee and Prothonotary Warblers. The station has been averaging about 0.75 Prothonotary a season over the last decade. So some years we miss them totally.

Just because

Call me crazy, but I just love Pine Warblers, like the one pictures here. As a migration site, we are more interested in the overall health of migrating birds. But since Pine Warblers are not really strong migrants, they always seem to take a backseat here to the other neotropical migrants. But, I just think they are awesome warblers. Although this picture is a bit dark, this was one beautiful bird. Pine Warblers are very common summer residences here in Virginia. Usually spending a lot of time higher in the forest canopy. Their song is a common one starting about March and running late into the summer and even into the fall at times. Because that don't really migrate and their love for upper canopy levels, we don't catch many here. This individual was just sexy! Maybe not the most distinctly mark of the warblers, I still rank them as one of my favorites.

Great Crested Flycatcher

Here is a picture of the Great Crested Flycatcher we banded here on the 31st August. Although not a rare bird to Virginia, a very common nester here, we just don't catch many here. Since they like to hang out in the canopy of trees, they just don't come down to net level (7 ft or less) often here. So it is always a treat to catch one. Since 1994, only 14 have been banded here, of which four were banded during the 2006 season. So we basically average one a year here. Sure hope this is not the last for us this season, as they are beautiful birds and one I would love to get recapture data on to see if they are gain weight while they stage here waiting for the next cold front.

One of the Un-bandeds

OK, so yes, banding is what we do best here, but sometimes we just catch something that we just can't band. Like this fella here. Banders across this country are asked not to band non-migratory game birds, like this Northern Bobwhite. Sooooo, when we catch one, we just release it unbanded. This fella is one of many that are currently in the state park right now. With the numbers that are around, I would say that had a good breeding season here. A good thing too. Populations across the country are showing major declines and cause for a lot of concerns. Kiptopeke State Park is actually one of the best places to see Bobwhites here on the VA part of the Delmarva. This fall, they have been very conspicuous.
This one was captured on the 31st of August as a small group, or covey, that busted out of our brush pile. Bobwhites usually get out of nets before we can get to them because of their large size and the fact that nothing on them tangles in our nets. By chance this one hit a net right in front of us so we were able to get to him before he got out.
Based on the molt pattern and the presence of old (extremely worn feathers) we could tell that this bird was not born this summer. We can also tell that this is, indeed, a male because of the white head striping. A female would have a tan coloration.
In most years, we tend to catch a few Bobwhite, but never many. So far this season, this one was the second.
As a side note, Ruby-throated Hummingbirds are the only other species we catch here that we do not band. More due to the fact that they take special training (which I don't have), and require actually hand making the bands, and we just really don't catch that many in a season (normally around five a season).

Five-lined Skink in the field tech house!

Oh the life of a biological field tech. You just never know who is going to show up at your house, or in this case, IN the house. Here is a picture my tech (Dee Viel) took here at Kiptopeke in her house! What a cutie! This beautiful lizard is a Common Five-lined Skink that is found throughout most of Virginia. And apparently the habitat they prefer here on the Eastern Shore is houses! ha ha

This one is quite large for this species and is lacking the blue tail that many of the younger and smaller ones have.
Wish I had skinks in my house. All I have are crickets and mosquitoes!