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Breeding Season 2007
Hannah Suthers
Rain was ample this year except for a May dry spell stranding
thousands of Wood Frog tadpoles in the shallower vernal pools by 22
May and providing a feast for raccoons and birds. Ground cover was
generous, benefiting the ground-nesting species. The Great-horned Owls
were not heard until the end of August. Screech Owls were seen/heard
throughout. Singing males of 64 species were on territory repeatedly
during the censusing of May-July. Males of various species were seen
with fledglings from mid-June on.
The managed meadow retained the Field Sparrow, Blue-winged Warbler
and Common Yellowthroats. The managed shrubland had all of its
targeted birds, the Willow Chat, Indigo Bunting, Field Sparrows, and a
hummingbird.
Mist-netting for the Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship
program resulted in 212 new birds banded and 72 birds returning from
previous years, the oldest being a Gray Catbird over nine years old.
Imagine all those round trips to Central America and back!
As cooperators with the University of California LA/National
Institute of Health Avian flu project, we swabbed and took feather
samples of 250 birds.
More highlights follow, the numbers being singing/displaying males on territory:
| Great Blue Heron | 4-bird flyover 8 July |
| Wild Turkey | 6 |
| Red-tailed Hawk | 2 pair, routinely mobbed by crows. Fledgling July 10 |
| Cooper's Hawk | pellet 22 July, seen 12, 19 Aug |
| Yellow-billed Cuckoo | 1 |
| Ruby-throated Hummingbird | 3 |
| Red-bellied Woodpecker | 23 |
| Hairy Woodpecker | 2 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 8 |
| Yellow-shafted Flicker | 7 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | pair |
| Eastern Wood Pewee | 6 |
| Eastern Phoebe | 3 nests |
| Great-crested Flycatcher | 8 |
| Willow Flycatcher | 1-Jan-00 |
| Tree Swallow | pair, 2 fledglings |
| Barn Swallow | 4 pairs, 19 fledglings |
| Carolina Chickadee | 17 |
| Black-capped Chickadee | 8 |
| Hybrid Chickadee | 2 captures |
| Tufted Titmouse | 22 |
| White-breasted Nuthatch | 8 |
| Blue-gray Gnatcatcher | 1 |
| House Wren | 8 |
| Chipping Sparrow | 8 |
| Song Sparrow | 11 |
| Eastern Towhee | 26 |
| Indigo Bunting | 3 |
| Rose-breasted Grosbeak | 17 |
| White-eyed Vireo | 2 |
| Yellow-throated Vireo | 7 |
| Red-eyed Vireo | 20 |
| Blue-winged Warbler | 10 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 28 |
| Ovenbird | 31 |
| Yellow Warbler | 2 |
| Black-and-white Warbler | 3 |
| Yellow-breasted Chat | 1 |
| Baltimore Oriole | 12 |
| Scarlet Tanager | 8 |
| Gray Catbird | 58 |
| Brown Thrasher | 1 |
| Eastern Bluebird | 3 |
| Wood Thrush | 24 |
| Veery | 13 |
| American Robin | 43 |
Hannah Suthers and the Featherbed Lane Banding Station Crew
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