Winter camera-trapping

This is the camera I’m currently 

using: A Bushnell Trophy Cam HD.

If you’ve been following this blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I LOVE using camera traps, or game/trail cameras. I love sticking them out in the woods and seeing who comes when I’m not looking. This set of pictures doesn’t contain anything too exciting, all common critters, but I got some multi-species pictures. I love it when that happens, I feel like I’ve totally breached the code of wildlife and am a secret agent spy. “HA! I KNEW you all hung out like in Disney movies!” Well, in this case, several members from different species hung out together, because I sprinkled a handful of black oil sunflower seeds on my favorite camera-trapping log.

Enjoy!

(BTW, I had around 1,500 pictures from 3 days. Once the seed was discovered, critters descended and burned up all my battery by December 20th! The camera was set until January 5th, but due to lots of action and/or frigid temps, the camera died.)

The normally EXTREMELY territorial red squirrel is shown here sharing the log with another red. They are known for caching food in an accessible hiding spot, and then defending it. If you’ve walked in a conifer stand, and heard someone “yelling” at you from the trees, it was probably a red. I’m assuming because it’s winter, these 2 were able to put aside their differences and munch amicably on the seed within feet of each other.

400 pictures “later” than the duo of squirrels, I caught many pics of these 4 American Crows together. Crows are often seen in groups, but what interests me now, is that they appear to be eating the seed! Crows are opportunists, so they WILL eat anything, but are not typically seen at a bird feeder eating bird seed. Well, I suppose in the winter I’d eat bird seed too, if I had to.

A handsome Blue Jay makes a brief appearance!

Here are two species eating in harmony! The red squirrel and a Mourning Dove.

Another multi-species picture. I see the American Goldfinches and Dark-eyed Juncos.

Here’s Red, looking guilty? Did he just chase off the birds?

 

 

And the last picture I found to be of interest, has 3 different species in it! Can you find them all? From the bottom of the picture up: Dark-eyed Junco, red squirrel, and a Black-capped Chickadee.

A bird's eye view of mist netting and bird banding.

I'm sorry, I just can't resist a good pun!

Last week on April 1, 2013, my Wildlife Field Techniques class (SUNY Cobleskill) traveled to our professor's house for our lab. His property is really, really neat. It's totally set up and managed for his student's use. He has beautiful trails, a campfire area, and multiple different types of wildlife management sampling or survey methods set up (hair snares, vegetation plots, etc).

SUNY Cobleskill Fish and Wildlife Technician,
Krysten Zummo (right), is explaining to
students how to correctly hang the mist net.

He also keeps the wild birds well fed through the winter with multiple bird feeders. Because of this, he can be fairly confident that if he sets up a mist net near his feeders, he will be able to catch birds and lead a successful lab.

A mist net is a very fine, light net that is very hard to see, and easy to get tangled in. For birds and anything else that comes into contact with it. There are different weights and gauges for different types of birds, but I've only ever experienced mist netting little Passerines, or song birds. If a larger bird than say a Blue Jay flew into the net, it would more than likely bounce off and be on it's way.

Here's a picture of our net setup. It's hard to see, but just in front of and to the left of the front door are the inside poles for the 2 nets. They each extend out. In the picture below I've pointed out the poles and shaded in the nets so they're easier to see.

Mist net set up.

Even though the weather may look lovely in the pictures, it quickly turned nasty. A good bird bander, with good ethics, will not band in inclement weather. These birds are so small and delicate, if their feathers get disheveled or wet, they will likely get hypothermic. Especially because the temps were only around 50*F.


Before the weather turned on us though, we did get several birds. One of which, I was given the opportunity of extracting the bird from the net.

We hid behind our professor's garage, out of sight of the nets. Every few minutes though, we'd peek around to see if a bird got snagged. Two birds at once flew into the net- a Black-capped Chickadee and another bird. Unidentified at first from a distance, but that's the one I was directed to unravel.

Black-capped Chickadee being removed from the mist net.

Here I am, working at removing a Yellow-rumped Warbler from the net. This was my first time removing a bird, so I was a little nervous. But I was able to remove her quickly and gently.
Photo credit: Tyler Barriere

SUCCESS!
Photo credit: Tyler Barriere

A "second year" female Yellow-rumped Warbler.
Photo credit: Tyler Barriere

Unfortunately, right after this picture was taken, this little warbler got a leg free from my grip. Instead of trying to fight her and accidentally hurt her, I just loosened my grip and let her go. Only a few of us got to see her, and we didn't get to put a band on her...but at least we got pictures!

I'm in an ornithology class right now, and I'm cramming tons of birds into my head. I was impressed with myself for immediately being able to ID this bird correctly, even though it's not a male in his full breeding plumage. Those are usually the easiest to ID :) But I ID'ed her, and then asked for confirmation from Krysten, our technician, and a recent graduate from Cobleskill. She agreed.

I've been asked recently "why are you banding birds?". To those who don't know the inside details, it can appear stressful and unnecessary to submit these birds to getting tangled, handled, and banded. Instead of stumbling through an explanation, I am going to include a passage from the United States Geological Survey, which is the governing federal agency over the practice of bird banding.


"Bird banding data are useful in both research and management projects. Individual identification of birds makes possible studies of dispersal and migration, behavior and social structure, life-span and survival rate, reproductive success and population growth."


Working with wild animals is in my professional future. I support the efforts being made to learn all we can about the animals that make our country "home". I hold respect for the animals very high, and always strive to maintain a low voice, and to be cognizant of my movements. I admit, I get a little huffy when research is questioned, and no alternative means of data collection is suggested. I know, 90% of wildlife management is people management, and I need to be prepared for a lifetime of being questioned, doubted, and argued with by many of the general public. But, when someone merely says "banding is mean, why are you doing that?" or "can't you just do something else instead of catching them?"....  No. :)

Anyway, I love watching bird banding and participating in anyway. Even if it's just watching, and not actually handling the birds. Here are a few more pictures to end.

A Common Redpoll

Olivia and Krysten working on getting a Common Redpoll out of the net.

One of the "ladder-backed" woodpeckers, a Red-bellied Woodpecker! Beautiful bird!



Backyard bird buffet

Addie and I on Christmas Day visiting
Chimney Bluffs State Park, Lake Ontario

Today was so snowy!

I usually hate the winter months, but this year I kind of like it. Probably because I’m on break for a month from school and I have literally nothing to do. I have a big, safe SUV to get around in, and the snow is kind of fun to play in with my pup! I’m at my parents house in Wayne County for a few weeks over the holidays, and we got ~18 inches last night of snow. Luckily my Dad plowed out the driveway this morning, and since I was home all day while they were at work I worked on shoveling out the decks and the doorways.

I also noticed the bird feeders were all covered over with snow, so I trudged through all the snow to clear off the feeders. I swear, within moments there were a large flock of songbirds of all shapes and sizes feasting on black oil sunflower seeds.

Happy birds!

I sat in the picture window for 30 minutes and was able to watch 7 species of birds come and go: Northern Cardinals, Blue Jays, Dark-eyed Juncos, White-throated Sparrows, Black-capped Chickadees, Titmice, and Mourning Doves. With the backdrop of the fresh snow, picture taking was prime!

Female Cardinal munching on a black oil sunflower seed.

A male Cardinal, White-throated Sparrow, and a Dark-eyed Junco sharing the birdseed buffet.

Female Cardinal

1 Cardinal, 3 Mourning Doves, and 2 Blue Jays

 

A pair of Cardinals

 

A Blue Jay on the suet

 

Mourning Dove butts.

White-throated sparrow

Blue Jay

 

Dark-eyed Junco

I wasn’t able to capture any pictures of the Chickadees or the Titmice this time, they were too quick for me and didn’t want to seem to compete with the bigger birds on the feeder. They kept to the bushes mostly.

Backyard birding is really fun and something you can do as long as the birds are there. For as long as I can remember, I’ve always been called to the window to see this or that and learn to identify it. That’s what happens when your Dad is a bird nerd.

The Sibley Guide to Birds
by David Allen Sibley

If you are looking for a GOOD birding book- perhaps not a book for beginners, but if you are serious about birding and plan on travelling, check out The Sibley’s Guide to Birds.

This book is $24 and change right now on Amazon.com and worth every penny. I have brought this book with me all over New York to the Outer banks of North Carolina and all the way up to Denali National Park in Alaska. The birds I was looking at were all in this book. I would consider this book more of a “reference” than a field guide. It’s larger than other field guides I have, and is a little heavy. Sibley also has an East coast and West coast field guide. Basically the big book is split in half. I don’t have either of the smaller ones since I have the one big one, but maybe they’re a bit more on the beginner or novice level of birding.

Whatever your favorite book is, it just has to be able to show you what the birds look like and where they are found.

I’ll be off the ‘net for a few days, I’m heading down into the heart of the Finger Lakes region to spend some time eating, drinking, playing the snow, and ringing in 2013 with some of my family!

Happy New Year!

Wildlife Wednesday - Passerine bird banding

Today was our 2nd Wildlife Wednesday of the semester, and today's theme was mist netting and bird banding any of the Passerine's that came our way.

What does Passerine refer to? Perching birds, and commonly referred to as our song birds.

Several students, myself, and Professor John, and Conservation Dept Tech Sasha all met up at our East Hill Campus in Naples this morning. Last week John and Sasha went to the EHC to scope out a place to mount the mist net, so today all we had to do was set up the rebar and netting and walk away.

In my opinion, we were wildly successful, meaning many birds were caught, and there were a variety of birds!

Sasha, John and Adam setting the rebar.

We set the net between the woods/shrubby area, and the bird feeder :) , and walked away for 10 minutes to set up the banding station inside the house (doesn't everyone get to experience field work and animal processing in the comforts of indoor plumbing and heat???).

Sasha pulling the mist net across.

After 10 minutes had passed, we went out to check the net: 3 Black-capped Chickadees! Never have I personally been so excited to see such a common animal. I find myself realizing this time and time again recently- some of the most common animals are still REALLY cool! I see them often, yet at a distance, I just take them for granted. Up close though, those BCCs have beautiful plumage and such bright little eyes!

Here's the net completely set up.

The net is so fine and light, that the birds don't even see it, and easily get VERY tangled in it.

See below.

Black-capped Chickadee thoroughly tangled in the mist net, but comfortably being untangled while in the banding grip!

Before I continue on with the cool bird pictures, I want to show the "tools" of the trade.

John's banding tackle box with all of the essentials such as: different sized bands, special pliers meant for banding, cloth bags to store the birds during processing, and hand sanitizer.

Two different sized bands. On the left, probably appropriate for woodpeckers, and on the right, appropriate for BCCs.

Here are the pliers and the size bands we used for most of the birds.

This card is used to determine band size, if you are unsure. Just slip the bird's leg into a slot until you find one that's not too big, not too small...but just right!

John has one freed BCC and Sasha works on another, while students watch...

Inside now, John has the BCC in a 'photographer's grip', commonly used for getting good pics of the birds! About to clamp the first band on!

Because birds are migratory, and can be relatively long-lived...bands are managed on the state and federal level. Age, sex, location of banding, species, and band # all have to be recorded on a data sheet and submitted. I don't BELIEVE there are 2 numbers the same (someone correct me if I'm wrong?), kind of like a license plate. So, the theory is...if one of the birds we banded today, migrated to Tenessee, and caught there...it could be traced back to NY with all it's information in tow. With mammal tags, they are not as closely regulated because, and especially small mammals, they have VERY short life spans. Like, less than a year. And, they don't mass migrate over long distances like many birds do. In the picture to the left, it may look like John is nipping that little BCC's leg off, but no fear- he's not! The pliers have a hole in the nose that fits the specific band sizes and NO SMALLER. So, you can only clamp it as small as the band, which is just larger than the diameter of that birds leg. I'm sure accidents do happen where the ends of the band don't line up as they should, or it over-pinches/crimps, but that happens less than when all goes the way it should.

I was given a bird to release! I think I stated this in an earlier blog...but it's QUITE the rush to release a wild animal from your hands! I try not to think of it as a terrified little creature trying to escape, but as an amazing tiny organism full of energy and life returning to the wild!

The NEXT capture, was very exciting! A lively, vivacious, "bitey"...

Blue Jay! By the way, all of those above adjectives are all good things for a wild animal to be while handling them.

Sasha struggled a bit getting this guy/gal out of the net because of the height of it...and because he was clenching his feet around the net in a death grip! ...(perching bird)...

Inside, we got to check out the beautiful plumage.

My dear friend, and NON Conservation student, Julie tagged along for the morning. She had never experienced bird banding before, and was a little nervous to tag a little guy. So, with some gentle encouragement, she agreed to band the Blue Jay!

She just sent me a text message, and she had a great time!

Looking forward to having her along for the ride again...

We also caught many Dark-eyed Juncos, but my phone died (and that's what I was taking pictures with...I know, get a real camera!). If I can beg, borrow, or steal some pictures from someone else who was there, I will add Junco pics below! They are a pretty, slate-colored little bird...

Thanks to John and Sasha for facilitating and thanks to the birds for flying into our net!