Birding and banding with Boreal Bruce
Discover what flies the Northern skies
BY BRUCE MURPHY
For Wild Northerner
The nets are all down at the Hilliardton marsh and we are waiting for the flocks of redpolls and pine and evening grosbeaks to arrive, but for the moment we can look back at the year and reflect on some of the highlights of our banding research.
We had the best year ever in terms of species and overall numbers banding 12,833 representing 99 species. I keep hoping we will have a chance to band a pine grosbeak which will allow us to reach the century club.
Putting these numbers into perspective, our average number of birds banded is 6227 birds and 85 species. The last three falls we have been able to conduct fall banding starting in August which has allowed us to band more birds. This past year we banded almost the same number of birds in the fall as we did in the spring. The reason we were previously not able to band in the fall was because we were not able to house volunteers near the marsh. That was remedied three years ago, and the result has been amazing with a fall total of 4429, 4153 and 6199 this year.
This fall’s unprecedented numbers were due to a combination of perfect conditions: great weather, every possible tree or bush full of berries, and a great bug season allowing for insect eating birds to have had great nesting success. This is most notable for species like flycatchers and red eyed vireo’s - we had record numbers for least and alder flycatchers and red eyed and Philadelphia vireos. It ended up that conditions were so perfect that marsh researchers set a staggering 52 new records. I have a feeling that we will always fondly look back at 2017 as the year that we will never match again.
If anyone is interested in seeing a complete list of the birds we banded please get in touch with me and I would be happy to send you the list, or visit our website www.thehilliardtonmarsh.com
Sadly, this year we have lost our accommodations and are beginning to look at new options to house volunteers at the marsh. Our research depends on attracting college and university students and they need to have accommodations and a place to cook and, hopefully, shower.
We will be writing lots of funding applications and initiating a funding campaign to raise funds to find a way to house future volunteers. This year the marsh had an international flair attracting two volunteers from the United Kingdom. One liked it so much she returned in the fall to band owls as well.
If you know someone that is pursuing a career in wildlife or biology and would like to gain experience in the field we are starting to line up volunteers already for next year’s spring and fall seasons.
In addition, we welcome visitors to the marsh to come and see our banding operations and are open daily in May and August and encourage parents, grandparents and kids to come and see what we do. The only other banding station in northern Ontario is thunder cape just outside of Thunder Bay which does fantastic work but is far less accessible to the public.
I would encourage people across the north to make plans to come and see our banding research. In August we have an event we call the hummingbird garden party. It is a day of song bird banding and hummingbird banding.
Two years ago, Wild Northerner contributor Bill Steer came out and featured us on his CBC radio show Back Roads Bill. Next year’s event is on Aug. 18 for those of you who like to make long term plans. We also have a monarch butterfly release coordinated by Heather Willet of Butterfly kisses; it is always a great day and I look forward to it every year. Here is a link to a video of the garden party https://youtu.be/N9yu34Klbis.
I wish to sign off with a Christmas present for all of us. It was recently announced that the peregrine falcon has been taken off the endangered species list. It was changed from endangered to threatened. A great deal of credit goes to a lot of northerners.
The Thunder Bay naturalists have had a pivotal role and have been able to receive funding to band and survey birds at various locations around Lake Superior.
I am out of space but this is a big story and one I hope to learn more about and pass along.
It is wonderful to have positive bird news to report. Happy holidays and hopefully there will be binoculars and bird books under the Christmas tree. Hopefully, something super rare will find its way to your feeder or yard. If one does I would love to hear about it. So please let me know.
Bird is the word.