As I’m writing these lines on November 3rd, the nets have been taken down and packed away, the banding lab cleaned and closed, and no one is doing the daily census: The Fall season ended once again on October 31st. …
On October 22, a Townsend’s Solitaire was seen very briefly at Cabot Head (https://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Townsends_Solitaire). This western species regularly strays into the eastern part of the continent, so it might be qualified as an expected unexpected species. Indeed, this Fall’s sighting …
After talking about warblers in October, and suffering through three days of rain during the Thanksgiving long weekend, we experienced two days of fun and busy banding on October 10 and 11. These were likely the peak days for the …
In the past week, we likely experienced the last very warm days of the season with highs over 20°C on October 4 and 5, accompanied by lots of rain on the latter. No banding was possible during that day, of …
Fat is fuel for migrating birds. As I mention at least once every season in the blog, fat is what provides the best bang for your buck in terms of energy when you are a travelling bird. Birds during migration …
One of the most striking features of bird migration is its regularity. Most populations of birds migrate on approximately the same dates, in the same directions, and for similar distances each year, with many individuals returning year-after-year to the same …
In Spring, there is a lot of FOY joy (FOY: First of the Year), with migrant birds arriving from their wintering grounds on an almost daily basis from mid-April to mid-May. The Fall season, by contrast, is a time of …
As thoughts of summer slowly recede into the memories of most people, now in a “back to school” mood, migratory birds are also changing: we are saying good bye, one by one, to the earliest of the long-distance migrants, the …
Over the past week (from August 30 to September 5) we experienced strong and persistent winds for four days; winds that were fierce enough to completely preclude banding on two days and allow only a subset of the nets to …
On August 23, rain precluded banding all morning. Clearing at the very end of the monitoring period (7 hours starting 30 minutes before sunrise) brought birds and birders outside. The latter were rewarded from the former, notably with 14 species …