A belated report from a field trip to the Mt. Mansfield ridgeline on 
Wed. evening and Thurs. morning.  Kent McFarland, Pat Johnson, John 
Lloyd, and I ventured up to VCE's long-term study plot, in hopes of 
mist-netting a few additional Bicknell's Thrushes (BITH) for attachment 
of solar geolocators that will enable us to learn about the species' 
migratory patterns and connectivity.  We had tagged 15 adults there 
during June and July, and we hoped to capture 1 or 2 more, plus check on 
condition of any previously-tagged birds that might fly into our nets.  
Weather was on the cool side, but clear and fairly calm.  We set up ~30 
nets on Wed evening, kept them open through dusk, and opened them again 
at dawn until late morning yesterday.  Our quest fell a bit short, 
though there was a solid 'chorus' of vocalizing BITH at both dusk and 
dawn.  We heard at least 12 birds, possibly 14-15, most of them calling 
with a very few half-hearted songs interspersed.  A few birds even 
called sporadically through the morning.  We captured 5 BITH, all of 
them unbanded -- 3 were immatures, and 2 were adults.  Because we 
targeted males for geolocator attachment in this this trial year, and 
couldn't be sure that either of the two adults were male or 
locally-breeding birds, we elected not to tag them.  We didn't manage to 
capture any of the net-savvy birds that we had tagged earlier in the 
summer, but we have every reason to suspect that most or all of them 
were still present.  Our previous autumn work on Mansfield in the 
late-1990s indicated that most local BITH don't migrate until the latter 
half of September or early Oct.  So, now the long wait begins until next 
May, when we expect to recapture ~60% of this year's tagged BITH and 
recover the priceless data stored in their geolocators.

There wasn't any pronounced fall-out of migrants on the Mansfield 
ridgeline yesterday, but we did capture a number of other birds:

Golden-crowned Kinglet -- 11
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- 9
Swainson's Thrush -- 5
Tennessee Warbler -- 1
Nashville Warbler -- 2
Black-throated Blue Warbler -- 7
Yellow-rumped warbler -- 9
Black-throated Green Warbler -- 1
Blackpoll Warbler - 8
Ovenbird -- 3
Lincoln's Sparrow -- 1
White-throated Sparrow - 3
Dark-eyed Junco -- 2

Chris

-- 
****************
Chris Rimmer
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
P.O. Box 420
Norwich, VT 05055
802-649-1431 ext. 1
www.vtecostudies.org

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