VCE's 2016 field season on Mt. Mansfield wrapped up with a flourish this
Tuesday-Wednesday. Both weather and birds made dramatic appearances,
especially yesterday morning. Kent McFarland, John Lloyd, UMass colleague
Bill DeLuca and I returned to witness the annual mid-September resurgence
of Bicknell's Thrush (BITH) activity. We arrived on the ridgeline at 5 pm
on Tuesday to set up 20 mist nets, mainly on the Amherst, Lakeview and Long
trails. Winds were humming from the west, temperatures cool, and birds
quiet until about 7 pm, when 8-10 BITH piped up, calling and even singing
with surprising vigor. For a bird that is not territorial in the classic
sense, it's a mystery why BITH resume vocalizing just prior to migration
(most are gone by October 1), but this is a reliably annual phenomenon. We
captured 10 birds (3 Blackpoll and 7 Yellow-rumped warblers) before closing
our nets after dark.

Clouds began moving in at dawn, providing a striking sunrise, and the west
wind slackened enough to allow for good netting conditions. BITH again
announced their presence via a dawn "chorus" (though not nearly as robust
as in mid-June). The first hour of netting was slow, but an approaching
cold front ushered in a remarkable influx of migrants beginning ~7 am.
Suddenly, and for the next 2 hours, our 20 nets were dripping with birds,
several festooned with 9-10 at a time. We've never had such volume in 25
years, and we struggled to keep up at our banding table. If it hadn't
started raining at 9:00, there is no question we'd have had to close our
nets and release many birds unbanded, just to avoid being overwhelmed. The
rain and accompanying gusty winds left us no choice but to close all nets,
and leave them closed. We took our huge backlog of netted birds, with many
bags holding 2-3 individuals, and retreated down the toll road to the ski
patrol hut, where we finished banding, out of the harsh elements.

Blackpoll Warblers were the undisputed bird of the day, as we apparently
intercepted their migratory peak - we banded 46 individuals, more than in
any single morning over the past 25 years, even during the autumns of
1995-97, when we banded on the ridgeline 5 days/week from mid-August to
mid-October. Other notable species were 3 Tennessee Warblers, single
Bay-breasted and Blackburnian warblers, and a Lincoln's Sparrow. We
captured 4 BITH, including 2 previously banded males - one that we banded
as an immature on 16 Sept 2015 and recaptured this year in June, and a
second that we first banded on 3 June 2011. Our only other recapture was of
an adult male White-throated Sparrow that we banded on 23 June.

A PBS NewsHour reporter and photographer who joined us to do a piece on
Blackpoll Warblers definitely left with plenty of material, and a good
soaking - the good, the bad and the ugly of studying mountaintop birds!

Our netting totals for the visit included 84 individuals of 11 species:

Hairy Woodpecker  1
Bicknell's Thrush  4
Tennessee Warbler  3
Bay-breasted Warbler  1
Blackburnian Warbler  1
Blackpoll Warbler  46
Black-throated Blue Warbler  1
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle)  20
Dark-eyed Junco (Slate-colored)  5
White-throated Sparrow  1
Lincoln's Sparrow  1

View this checklist online at http://ebird.org/ebird/view/ch
ecklist/S31598413

Other noteworthy sightings included a first-year Bald Eagle, Merlin, and an
eastern chipmunk (scrounging in the parking lot at 3900' elevation - the
first we've seen up there this year). Red squirrels continue to be absent.

We'll be back at it next May for year #26...

Chris

________________________

Chris Rimmer
Vermont Center for Ecostudies
PO Box 420 | Norwich, Vermont 05055
802.649.1431 x1
http://vtecostudies.org/

<http://vtecostudies.org/>


To post messages, send e-mail to:  [log in to unmask]
Set your e-mail application to PLAIN TEXT ONLY to post messages.
To contact the list owner:  [log in to unmask]
To unsubscribe:  E-mail this command to [log in to unmask]:  UNSUBSCRIBE UV-Birders
To change your e-mail address:  E-mail this command from your old address to: [log in to unmask]:  CHANGE UV-Birders [new e-mail address]

Web based archives and subscription management are available at:
http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html