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Toronto Ornithological Club Newsletter September 2010 Number 207 TOC Newsletter 1 September 2010 Table of Contents To Catch A Whimbrel 3 TOC Whimbrel Migration Count 5 Overview of Whimbrel Migration Study 6 Tagged Whimbrel 9 An Update from NCC 10 Baillie Birdathon Report 11 Top Ten Reasons to be Optimistic 11 Outings Report 12 Toronto Baillie Memorial Bird Walks: Fall Program 13 Birds Online 14 Ornithological Membership Nominations 15 Minutes of the June 2010 TOC Meeting 17 Club Cover Illustration: Blackpoll Warbler (first winter female) Founded 1934 Photo by Sam Barone http://torontobirding.ca From September through June, TOC Jim Baillie Memorial Bird Walks members and their guests meet on High Park the second Monday of each month Saturday, September 11, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 12 noon except the first Monday in May and the third Monday in October. Meet at 8:00 a.m. in the parking lot inside the Bloor St. entrance to High Meetings are held at 7:30 pm at Park at High Park Avenue. Fall migrants, raptors. Leader: Steven Favier. Burgundy Room A, of North York Memorial Hall. Durham Waterfront, Pickering-Oshawa Second Marsh Saturday, September 18, 2010 8:00 a.m. – afternoon Free Jim Baillie Memorial Bird Walks, led by seasoned birders, are Meet at 8:00 a.m. at Pickering GO Station - from 401 East exit at White's organized by the TOC to destinations Road and then go south to Bayly St. (first lights), then east to the Pickering in and around Toronto. GO station (just east of Liverpool Rd.) - go a little bit east of the main parking lot to the overflow lot on the left (north) on Sandy Beach Rd. - meet The TOC plays a leading role in in SE part of the lot. Fall migrants, shorebirds, waterfowl. Leader: Geoff ornithological activities in the Toronto Carpentier. Area. Programs include the Christmas Bird Count, Mid-Winter Waterfowl Lambton Woods Inventory, Spring Warbler Survey, Saturday, September 25, 2010 8:00 a.m. - 12 noon Whimbrel Watch, and Greater Toronto Raptor Watch. Meet at 8:00 a.m. at James Gardens parking lot (access from Edenbridge Drive east of Royal York Rd., north of Dundas St West). Fall migrants. The TOC is a registered charitable Leader: Don Burton. organization engaged in ornithological research and education. A tax receipt Leslie Street Spit is available for any donations Sunday, September 26, 2010 8:00 a.m. - all day exceeding $10, but not including membership fees. Meet at 8:00 a.m. at the foot of Leslie St. (south of Lakeshore Boulevard East). Fall migrants, raptors, shorebirds. Leader: Bob Kortright . CRA Charity # 87246 3807 RR0001. The TOC Newsletter is published 10 September 13 TOC Meeting times a year, from September to June. Submissions are always Join host Mark Peck for an audience participation event, The TOC Fall welcome, and can be sent to Warbler Warmup Workshop . Share your knowledge and learn the tricks [email protected] with TOC TOC members use to identify the confusing young of the year and adults included in the subject line. as the y pass through the GTA. More fun than looking for sparrows! TOC Newsletter 2 September 2010 To Catch a Whimbrel By Amelia K. Whitear Amelia Whitear monitoring Whimbrel movements on Elkins Island near Box Tree Marsh, Machipongo, VA. Photo by Tom Badger. The Whimbrel, Numenius phaeopus , is notorious for being one of the wariest of shorebirds to catch. In Machipongo, on the Eastern Shore of the Delmarva Peninsula, Virginia, The Nature Conservancy owns a marsh known as Box Tree. It is the best location for capturing, marking and releasing this beautiful bird. Box Tree Marsh consists of a monotypic salt marsh grass known as Spartina alterniflora . It creates a perfect habitat for the mud-burrowing Fiddler crabs that fuel Whimbrel migration. To catch a Whimbrel is dirty work, filled with educated guesswork and a touch of luck. On the burgeoning high tide, Whimbrel are pushed from their low tide feeding habitat to one of the few remaining Fiddler crab-infused mudflats not covered by water. Here, we set up rocket nets. Three rockets make up the core of the operation. Each is equipped with an electric match and filled with Howitzer propellant, a type of compressed black powder. They are attached to the leading edge of a net and placed on tracks bolted to a five-sided wooden box. The box is placed on a wooden table and secured in the mud. Being roughly rectangular in shape with five sides made of wood and enforced with metal edges to add stability, the open end of the box faces the exposed mudflat where we hope Whimbrel land at high tide. A net (17.4 metres long by 13.1 metres wide) is carefully folded into the box. The net’s momentum is hindered in the air by 25 pound weights attached to the trailing edge. Twenty gauge, single strand blasting cable then connects each rocket in series and is strung to a blasting box harbored a safe distance away. To complete the device, Spartina alterniflora is placed around the box, camouflaging the conspicuous entity from the keen Whimbrel eye. Once the Whimbrel catcher is set up, the waiting starts, and this is where the touch of luck comes in. On one phenomenal day that I was lucky to be a part of, everything fell into place. We set up three boxes at half tide and retreated to the dock where all of the catch areas were easily seen with a spotting scope. It started with a ‘confidence bird’, a Laughing Gull, landing in front of the box. It was always a good sign when one of these birds appeared in front of the box, as Whimbrel were sure to follow close after. As it happened we didn’t have to wait long. Whimbrel flew about, and 14 landed in front of the catch area of one rocket net. With each person assigned a job, we jumped from the dock to the boat, loaded with the Amish woven chicken boxes in which we would transport the Whimbrel. We motored slowly to the detonator site, careful not to flush our targets. “3-2-1 Fire” came fast out of Fletcher Smith’s mouth. The boom of the rockets was intense, infiltrating the very core of our chests and making the beat of our hearts skip. With a rush of adrenaline coursing through our veins, Fletcher was already on route towards the catch area, moving so efficiently that our detonator, Tom Badger, didn’t even have time to jump back in the boat and help with extracting our catch from the net. TOC Newsletter 3 September 2010 I was assigned to be first off the boat as I had more shorebird extracting experience than the other technicians. Anna Fasoli was to follow closely behind me with the boxes needed to hold the captured Whimbrels. As we approached, we saw clearly three entrapped Whimbrel. Two were struggling to stay above the water. Thankfully, they were just wet, not muddy, as a little water easily dries but mud requires washing off before release, as it will impede flying ability. I moved to the front of the boat at the ready, and even before Fletcher had anchored the boat, I jumped as high as I could off the bow and into the more hardened parts of the mudflats. Placing one wrong foot in soft mud would render you immobile and powerless to help the caught birds. Apparently, this act was so comical that it is henceforth known as the “Whimbrel Leap”. Once the birds were extracted and secured in Amelia Whitear holding a Whimbrel while Fletcher Smith attaches a Porzano their towel-laden keeping cage, we metal band inside the temperature-controlled van used as our banding disconnected the charge wires, and loaded station. Box Tree Marsh, Machipongo, VA. Photo by Tom Badger. the boat with the rockets, net and box. It was a short boat ride back to the dock. We were filled with pride and excitement over our bountiful catch. There were as many birds as technicians. Each of us was able to hold a bird while Fletcher processed them in the temperature-controlled William and Mary Van. Our first task was to measure culmen length. With an up close look at the bird, the origins of their genus name, Numenius , was apt—the curve of the new moon was mirrored in the downward curve of the Whimbrel bill. Also, we measured the natural wing chord, flattened wing chord, tail length and weight. Weight measurements can tell of extremes between individuals of the Western and Eastern breeding population in hand. The Western breeding population females are of heavier weight extremes while, the Eastern breeding population males are of comparatively lighter weight. We also procured feather samples for sexing, genetic and isotope analysis. After taking the appropriate measurements, I held the Whimbrel’s leg out as it was time to mark the birds. We started by applying the individually numbered U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service metal band to the right tarsus, or lower leg. Application of this band first is a golden rule of banding. It ensures the placement of an identifying mark that links to the record of the caught bird if something should go wrong and it is released early. Next, we affixed the individually coded lime green coloured flag to the right tibia, or upper leg, along with a yellow band. The flag is used for re-sighting; an individually engraved code may be seen from a spotting scope and stopover information can be gained from it long after a radio transmitter stops working.

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