Atlantic Flyway Review: Northeast Coastal Region I- 1997
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Atlantic Flyway Review: Northeast Coastal Region I- 1997 Tracey Dean- Regional Coordinator Huntsman Marine Science Centre BrandyCove, St. Andrews New Brunswick, Canada E0G 2X0 This year I am happy to report a slight increase in Lapham died last spring after a courageousfight the number of stationsreporting from the North- againstcancer. Helen was a part of the banding east Coastal Region.Welcome to the Vermont In- on Block Island since it began in 1967 and added stitute for Natural Science (VINS) and Overpeck greatlyto the pleasureof visitorswith her knowl- Park.We hope you willstay with us for a numberof edge, enthusiasm,freshness, and wondermentof years.VINS adds an inlandcomponent to the Re- the birds and their characteristics whenever she view, and Overpeck Park seems an interesting gave a demonstration.Her goingis a lossfor all of open country habitat that is changingquickly. The us."Elise Lapham & Kim Gaffett Grand Manan Bird Observatory appears to have finally settled on a permanent site and Peter Homann was back at his SW-Laurentian Mountain Stationin Quebec.Peter managed to band for only eight days catching34 birds of 15 differentspe- cies and we look forwardto a detailed report in 1998. "Gently average,"as David Holmes puts it, sums up the 1997 season very well for most sites. There were no complaintsabout the lack of birds or too many birds and nothing really remarkable in the way of species present or absent. The Canadian Maritimesexperienced one of the driest summer/ fall seasonson record,yet farther downthe coast, Appledore Island rarely saw the sun. St. Andrew's totals show a good early warbler migrationbut a lackof late migrantsparrows and kingletsstopping in the area. Results from the Canadian offshore islandsindicate the opposite,with the highestnum- bers in late October.VINS was happyto see that species numbers reboundedto more normal lev- els in 1997, whileAppledore Island showed no sig- nificanthighs or lows.Block Island noted a lack of thrushes and creepers but White-throat numbers were up. Island Beach banded more birds than 1996 but fewer of their "bread-&-butter"migrants. Tables1 & 2 presentthe summaryresults for each site. "We're sorry to say that Elise's daughter Helen Page50 NorthAmerican Bird Bander Vol.23 No.2 Apr.- Jun.1998 NorthAmerican Bird Bander Page 51 Table 2. Region I Top Ten Species. Fall 1997. Grand Vermont Institute Bon Portage Is. St. Andrews NB Manan NB VT NS Seal Island NS 1 101 MAWA (5) 289 CORE 251 WTSP (1) 244 MYWA (2) 45 WTSP 2 76 NAWA (10) 231 SOSP 150 AMRO (2) 199 AMGO 45 NOWA (5) 3 61 MYWA (1) 171 BTNW 93 SOSP (4) 135 SOSP 40 MYWA (4) 4 59 AMRE 163 AMRE 91 SCJU 102 BLPW (3) 36 SOSP 5 54 WTSP (2) 162 COYE @1 BCCH (7) 96 COYE (5) 34 AMGO 6 50 BTNW 147 MYWA 76 HETH (6) @9 WTSP 31 SWSP 7 46 COYE (2) 136 WTSP 69 GRCA (3) @7 GCKI (10) 29 GCKI (10) 8 45 BCCH (6) 132 BCCH 6@ MYWA 73 SCJU 27 SCJU 9 36 BAWW 111 SWSP 63 COYE (5) 69 FOSP (@) 21 BLPW (3) 10 34 AMGO 108 "DEJU" 55 AMGO 55 SWSP 18 RBNU 18 SSHA Table 2 (cont'd.) Region I Top Ten Species. Fall 1997. Island Beach SP Appledore Is ME Block Island RI Overpeck Park NJ NJ 1 206 NOWA (3) 437 MYWA (1) 341 MYWA 434 GCKI (2) 2 188 REVI (1) 261 GRCA (2) 214 COYE 308 VVTSP (4) 3 184 RBNU 115 COYE (5) 204 SOSP 291 MYWA (1) 4 151 COYE (2) 65 REVI (3) 173 GRCA 268 BRCR (9) 5 142 AMRE (4) 60 GCKI (6) 117 WPWA 210 SCJU (6) 6 92 YWAR (5) 55 VVTSP (7) 78 SWSP 210 GRCA (3) 7 78 GRCA (6) 52 "DEJU" (10) 77 AMGO 168 COYE (5) 8 48 BAWW (7) 45 AMRE 71 YWAR 161 RCKI 9 45 SOSP (10) 39 RCKI (8) 56 SAVS 102 SWSP 10 41 MAWA 32 SWSP 45 LISP 97 SOSP (7) 41 WIWA Page52 NorthAmerican Bird Bande/' Vol.23 No.2 St. Andrews Banding Station 450-0670 sive part of banding,and I would like to thank the New Brunswick, Canada James L. Baillie Memorial Fund for their continued Tracey Dean (bander) financialsupport. New nets are always as asset. Assistant- Carolyn Murphy Long Pond Migration Station 443-0664 The St. Andrews Banding Station is considering Grand Manan Bird Observatory becomingpart of the MigrationMonitoring Network New Brunswick, Canada that is being set up across Canada but does not Brian Dalzell & Calvin Brennan (banders) meet the qualificationstandard of daily coverage. Assistants:Wendy Jess, Kenneth Macintosh,Jim This year the nets were open more often, which Tietz, Dan Burton, Liba Pejchar. resulted in more birds being caught but another experienced bander is needed before the station After three seasons of searching, it appears.the can progress. Observatory has finally found a suitable site on which to establisha long-term migrationmonitor- The fall weather was ideal for bandingwith little ing station. Pilot stations were operated at Kent wind or rain and the southwardmigration of war- Island in the fall of 1995 and Southwest Head in blersfrom the beginningof Augustuntil the middle the fall of 1996. In the fall of 1997, monitoringtook of Septemberwas steady.There were recordnum- place at the Grand Manan Migratory Bird Sanctu- bers of most speciesbanded, notably Black-and- ary, adjacent to Long Pond. The area is commonly white, Nashville, Magnolia, and Black-throated referredto as Anchorage ProvincialPark, and lies Green warblers, Ovenbird, Northern Waterthrush between Seal Cove and Grand Harbour on the main and AmericanRedstart. The latermigration of spar- island of Grand Manan. rows, kinglets and thrushes was weak with "lows" recorded in many species. Song, Lincoln'sand The overridingtheme of late summer and fall was Swamp sparrow numbers were down as well as drought, perhaps the most severe experienced in thosefor Ruby-crownedKinglet. Only a singleHer- the region in more than 100 years. By the time mit Thrush was recorded. more or less normal precipitationresumed in No- vember, nearby Long Pond had dropped almost Uncommonspecies captured includedthe station's three feet. Despite the drought, and perhaps be- second Orange-crowned Warbler, Yellow-bellied cause of it, songbirds in the Maritime provinces Sapsucker and Pine Grosbeak; and the station's appeared to have a very good breeding season. third Yellow-breasted Chat and Sharp-shinned Warblerswere in good supplyuntil a mass exodus Hawk. The hawk was grabbed by hand from a on 18 August which resulted in 98 birds banded, dense patch of bushes as it sat on a screaming our second-best day of the season. BlueJay. (We capturedthe unhurtBlue Jay as well!) All speciesof flycatchersexcept "Traill's" appeared Publiceducation and bandingdemonstrations are to be in lower-than-normalnumbers, but mostspar- stilla priority;and this year ten groups,including rows and finches were not hard to find. Some of high schools students from Ontario, New the more northern breeders were in short supply, Brunswick, and Quebec, as well as naturalist clubs such as Dark-eyed Junco, Ruby-crownedKinglet, and teachers, participatedin programs. Pine Siskin, White-crowned Sparrow, Blackpoll Warbler, Wilson'sWarbler, Myrtle Warbler, North- Fieldwork is alwaysthe enjoyablepart of banding, ern Waterthrush, Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, and but data needs to be written up and resultspre- Palm Warbler. Part of the reason may have been sented. In October,a paper, "MonitoringBird Mi- an unusuallycool and wet June and July in parts gration:building a database,"which centred around of Newfoundland, Labrador, and northern Quebec. data collectedat the St. AndrewsBanding Station, was given at the Quoddy EMAN (Environmental There appeared to be two distinctmovements of Monitoringand AssessmentNetwork) Conference White-wingedCrossbills between mid-Augustand held in St. Andrews.Field work is alsothe expen- early November.One from east to west, resulted in as many as 150 birdsper morningmigrating past Apr. - Jun. 1998 NorthAmerican Bird Bander Page 53 in Augustand September. A secondfrom northto Bird Observatory on Bon Portage Island, Nova southin Octoberbrought lesser numbers. The first Scotia, some 75 miles to the south. wave showed no inclinationto linger, unlike the second.The Octoberbirds resulted in 11 bandings, Vermont Inst. of Natural Science 433-0723 all juveniles,and all were very lean. Many were Woodstock, VT reportedat local bird feeders, a rare behaviourfor Jim Tietz, Steve Faccio, Tim Redman, Kent these northernfinches. A totalfailure of the spruce McFarland, Jim Goetz, Mia Sondreal, and Chris conecrop in the GrandManan Archipelago may or Rimmer-VlNS staff banders may not havebeen relatedto the drought. Fritz Gerhart, Angele Brill, Carol Cushing,Kevin By far the highlightof the bandingseason was a Ahern, Chris Sheldon, Betty Gilbert, and Libby strongmovement of CommonRedpolls through the Hillhouse - Volunteer banders. Archipelagobetween mid-October and mid-Novem- ber. The first birdscaptured on 13 Octobercame Our bandingstation is locatedon the BragdonNa- as a total surprise. Our largestdaily catch of the ture Preserve at the headquarters of the Vermont season took place on 30 October with 154 birds Institute of Natural Science (VINS),a non-profit, banded,150 of whichwere redpolls,with mostbe- membership-based,research and educationalor- ing caughtin justtwo nets. The nextday resulted ganization.Our net lanes are locatedin early suc- in 110 redpollsbanded. As manyas 300 birdsper cessional/secondgrowth habitat, primarilyaround day were estimatedin the study area duringthe a small (approx.2 acre) pond.The vegetationcon- lastweek of October.Fully 90 per cent of the Com- sists of a variety of shrubsand saplingsincluding mon Redpollsbanded were hatch-yearbirds, with autumn olive, blackberry, buckthorn, willows, about five per cent adultsand the rest of unknown maples, and dogwoods,with a brokenoverstory of age. sugar maple, aspen, blackcherry, and white ash.