Fall 2020 Banding Season, Final Week: November 9—13

Overall we finished the season with 1,574 new birds banded, 889 recaptures processed, and a total of 72 species. Some of our highlights include two Bay-breasted Warblers, a Western Palm Warbler, five Connecticut Warblers, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, and five Northern Saw-whet Owls. This fall was drier than average due to a drought that gripped most of the region from summer into fall. The precipitation we had these last few weeks is only just starting to make a difference in the deficit.

Gray Catbirds were our most banded bird, as usual, with 332 new individuals banded. This fall we banded an above-average number of Black-capped Chickadees, totaling 258 new individuals! The average for the last 12 years is around 130 per fall. Of the 258 new chickadees we banded, approximately 200 of them came from the nets we have set out along the bluff, right along the coast. Chickadees are diurnal migrants (migrate during the day) and young birds move along the coast to disperse. This, combined with the poor food sources in the north, has likely caused more birds to move south than usual. We also banded 98 Northern Cardinals, the most in the last 12 years!

To get a more precise metric to compare this season to those in the past, we turn to our Birds per Net Hour (BPNH) which is a function of how long nets were open and how many birds we caught. We had 56 days of banding and a total of 17,909 hours that our nets were open. This gives us a BPNH of 8.83 for the fall, a little above average as compared to the past few years. Last fall was a lower year due to a poor breeding season, weather, and lack of favorable winds, so the BPNH was a particularly low 5.06. In recent years the BPNH has held steady at around 7.0-8.0, and 2020’s fall season lines up with these numbers. Our BPNH shows that our overall numbers of birds captured recently are in fact holding steady following a steep decline between the 1970s and mid-90s.

Some of the most exciting data that we collect are the Age of Recapture. When a bird is initially banded, we can age it anywhere from a hatch-year( (0 years old) or up to three or four years old in some cases. One of the oldest birds that we recaught this season was an 11-year-old male Northern Cardinal! We also caught a 7-year-old Gray Catbird who returns to Manomet each year to breed, as well as a 6-year-old Tufted Titmouse, a 4-year-old Song Sparrow, and a 4-year-old White-breasted Nuthatch. Without bird banding, we’d have no idea how long these birds live and exactly when they pass through our area. Banding birds gives us a peek into the mysterious lives of birds and reveals the site fidelity, or faithfulness of birds that return each year to breed and overwinter in Manomet’s fields and woods.

We each had our own personal highlights this season, too…

“I was excited to catch multiple Cedar Waxwings on a single net run a few weeks ago. It was fun seeing their wide bills up close, which are specialized for eating berries and other fruits.” –Cynthia

“I was thrilled to band my first Northern Saw-whet Owl and Hooded Warbler. It was so exciting to then see the same Hooded Warbler, a normally secretive bird, using Manomet’s property over several weeks; we recaught it once after banding and saw it around on our weekly censuses.” –Sarah

“My highlight was banding the young Common Grackle that we caught at the beginning of September. After banding smaller birds such as Gray Catbirds and Song Sparrows, it was a surprise to get a bird that takes a larger band size and is literally more of a handful!” –Jeremiah

“My highlight was getting a huge Red-shouldered Hawk seconds after it flew into the net. I was also thrilled to see a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker in the hand, the first one caught at Manomet since 2012.” –Megan

There were several exciting bird sightings around the property this season, too. Most recently was when Sarah noticed a group of crows mobbing a Great Horned Owl the other week! A Red-shouldered Hawk even joined in scolding the owl. It hung out all day, eventually concealing itself farther into the brush and then leaving once it got dark.

We’ve had many irruptive species (species that normally don’t occur in our area and have moved south due to poor resources in the north) using our area this season. We saw Pine Siskins flying overhead on a near-daily basis in October and November, plus a few Common Redpolls feeding on goldenrod seeds with the siskins on the Holmes Farm. Evening Grosbeaks have also been flying over and calling, but we haven’t seen them foraging yet. We hope to see more uncommon irruptive species this winter. Now that the nets are down, the wintering birds are free to forage in peace, eating the last berries and feeding on the plentiful seeds on the Holmes Farm.

Until next time,

Megan, Sarah, Cynthia, and Jeremiah

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