HMN Monitoring Summary

Transcription

1 Regional Summaries ARIZONA Fires near Harshaw Creek caused smoke that delayed banding a few days, but they still captured 84 birds and the first foreign recaptured bird of the year during the session. The typical July doldrums have started in June this year at Paradise and SWRS, but Arizona sites are seeing both juveniles and still some gravid females. BRITISH COLUMBIA The mixed weather continues. Numbers are still low, but should start to increase as migrating birds start to flow through from the north. COLORADO The flowers are blooming at higher elevations, and it was a busy session full of BTLH with pollen at Dunton. Mesa Verde had low numbers due to a nearby construction project, but still captured 15 birds including their earliest ever RUHU. Pingree Park is the newest site to join HMN, and they had a good first session with lots of visitors and 15 adult BTLH. IDAHO A great 4 th session for Idaho City with 39 BCHU and CAHU and lots of visitors! MONTANA More slow banding mornings for the MPG sites weather and flowers might be keeping the numbers low. NEVADA Only 5 birds, but the feeders are seeing more activity and things are looking up! NEW MEXICO Wildfires have been burning nearby, but monitoring was still a go at Bandelier this session, which was very busy with 64 birds, gravid females, and recaptures. UTAH Wildfires were keeping Lisa busy elsewhere during this session, but Terry and crew captured a total of 103 BTLH and BCHU between the three sites. 1

2 TABLE 1. Summary of captured or visiting hummingbirds and trapping information for the monitoring sessions from June 15 21, An asterisk (*) indicates a returning bird was previously banded under a different BBL master permit. Location Hummingbird Data Trap Data Number of Species Captured Number of Species Observed Not Captured Total Individuals Captured Number of Individuals Captured >1 Number of Returning Individuals Trap Total Number of Trap Checkers Number of Trap Counts Total Minutes in Trap Counts Arizona EC :00 HC :00 ML :00 MOCA :00 PA :00 SWRS :00 British Columbia FK FM :00 LU :01 RO :04 WM :12 Colorado DGS :10 MV :26 PP :15 Idaho IC :28 Montana MPGF :00 MPGM :00 Nevada RR :00 New Mexico PCBNM :41 Utah CFCK :00 ESC :00 WCAT :43 2

3 TABLE 2. Number of individuals of each species captured from June 15 21, An asterisk (*) indicates a species observed but not captured. Location UN AL AN BB BC BE BL BT CA CO LU MA RT RU VC WE Total Arizona EC HC ML MOCA PA * 15 0 * 15 SWRS British Columbia FK FM 8 8 LU * * * 0 RO WM Colorado DGS MV PP Idaho IC Montana MPGF MPGM 2 2 Nevada RR New Mexico PCBNM Utah CFCK 27 1 * 28 ESC WCAT

4 ARIZONA Date: 6/21/2017 Location: HARSHAW CREEK, PATAGONIA MOUNTAINS Banding Team: LEE ROGERS AND SUSAN WETHINGTON Assistants: Carol Thompson Time: 5:23 10:23 AM Session Remarks: Our original banding day was Friday but a fire about 5 miles away had left lots of smoke in the air and much of it settled in our valley. It s the first time that we have had to cancel because of air quality. So, we delay our banding until today. There remains lots of birds at the site with juveniles beginning to be more common. We capture 4 juvenile male Broad-billed and one juvenile Anna s female. Only Black-chinned females are gravid this session. Interestingly, 40% of Broad-billed have started their wing-molt. We capture this year s first foreign recapture at the site. It s an adult male Broad-billed that had been banded last August as a juvenile in Rio Rico, a town about 50 miles from here. It s a fun session and we thank Carol Thompson for her help. Date: 6/16/2017 Location: EL CORONADO RANCH, CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS Banding Team: LEE ROGERS AND SUSAN WETHINGTON Assistants: Carol Thompson and Irma Vidal Time: 5:30 10:30 AM Session Remarks: It s a busy session with the first occurrence of juveniles (two BCHU females) and 4 Magnificent males that are at least 8 years old. Both Magnficient and Black-chinned females are gravid so nesting continues. It s always fun to recapture individuals. During this session over 76% of the birds are returning birds. We thank Irma and Carol for their help today. Date: 6/20/2017 Location: MONTEZUMA CASTLE NATIONAL MONUMENT Banding Team: TINA GREENAWALT Assistants: Hannah Siroky, John Cannon, Carol Wentzel, and Deneshia Ferraris Time: 5:00 10:00 AM Number of Visitors: 2 Session Remarks: This was one of our busier sessions so far this year (even though 14 birds is not a lot!). We had an even split between adults and juveniles. It was pretty warm toward the end of the session with the temperature hitting 99 when we finished. I m not sure where all the birds are this year, but most of our sessions have been slower compared to last year. 4

5 Date: 6/19/2017 Location: AMNH SOUTHWESTERN RESEARCH STATION, CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS Banding Team: SUSAN WETHINGTON Assistants: Jackie Teiger, Hannah Frye, Enzo DeFerrari, Blake Campbell, Tiare Gill, and Lauren Roberts Time: 5:45 10:45 AM Number of Visitors: 25 Session Remarks: July Doldrums are beginning with only 13 birds captured. Black-chinned females are still gravid and both Blue-throated and Black-chinned juveniles are now using the feeders. It s a quiet day but one with good help from the volunteers at SWRS. Thank you!! Date: 6/18/2017 Location: THE GEORGE WALKER HOUSE, PARADISE, CHIRICAHUA MOUNTAINS Banding Team: SUSAN WETHINGTON Assistants: Jackie Lewis and Bud & Debb Johnson Time: 5:30 10:30 AM Number of Visitors: 2 Session Remarks: July doldrums have hit. 15 Black-chinned hummingbirds in hand today. 4 hatch year, 5 gravid female, 2 previously banded. Agaves are blooming. Host states that visits are heavier in the evening but that numbers dropped around the 14th. White pollen on 4 birds. Penstemon Barbados was being visited in the garden while traps were open. Date: 6/18/2017 Location: STEWARD OBSERVATORY, MOUNT LEMMON, SANTA CATALINA MOUNTAINS Banding Team: LAURA DAVIS Assistants: Lexi Coburn, Saraiya Kanning, Chris Marshall, and Leandra Marshall Time: 5:31 10:31 AM Session Remarks: After a slow start, we had a decent number of hummingbirds: 34 individuals, 2 species: Broad-tailed (31) and Magnificent (3). We had our first juvenile Broad-tailed male. Eight of the 19 females were gravid (42%), with five females having visible eggs. Fourteen hummingbirds (41%) had pollen on them. Fifty-two percent of the hummingbirds were previously banded. The oldest recapture was a Broad-tailed female originally banded June 12, 2011 as an adult, making her at least 7 years old. Many thanks to the Steward Observatory for hosting this site! 5

6 BRITISH COLUMBIA Date: 6/17/2017 Location: FRANKLIN MILL, PORT ALBERNI Banding Team: JUDY CARLSON AND STAN ACTON Assistants: Harold Carlson and Diane Acton Time: 8:50 11:30 AM Session Remarks: Very slow. Still seeing males. No juveniles yet. Date: 6/18/2017 Location: FRANCIS KING REGIONAL PARK, VICTORIA Banding Team: Assistants: Time: Number of Visitors: Session Remarks: No banding rain. Date: 6/18/2017 Location: WIDGEON MARSH REGIONAL PARK RESERVE, COQUITLAM Banding Team: ANA MENDES AND ROY W.K. TEO Assistants: Chris Smith, Elsa Mikkelsen, Hannah Nieman, and Jenny Auxier Time: 5:08 10:08 AM Number of Visitors: 1 Session Remarks: Rufous hummingbird abundance remains low at Widgeon Marsh. We continue to see more HY birds this week (including one ANHU). Of the adult Rufous hummingbirds captured (17 in total), the sex ratio is evenly split. Few of the males possess fat. As such, I suspect the southward migration has yet to begin. Plants in bloom include thimbleberry, red columbine, purple columbine, goatsbeard, foxglove, rhododendron (cultivar), buttercups, dame s rocket & Scotch broom. We tallied 3 times (72 minutes) due to periods of light rain. Thank you to everyone who assisted with this cold and drizzly monitoring session. 6

7 Date: 6/18/2017 Location: ROSSLAND Banding Team: LINDA SZYMKOWIAK Assistants: Deyanne Davies, Edward Davies, Margaret Knudsgaard, Ken Cooper, and Fred Bushell Time: 5:30 10:30 AM Number of Visitors: 2 Session Remarks: We captured only 6 birds. Some were trap shy (2 females approached several times but would not enter trap, 1 male RUHU avoided trap.) There are more feeders around our monitoring site. (In past seasons only 2 feeders within.5km of HMN site, now 5+ feeders). Presumably birds are visiting these feeders. (We have handed out our schedule to nearest neighbor and have her cooperation to take down her feeders during HMN sessions.) Flora: Tiger lily, thimbleberries, german iris, lupine, buttercup, lilacs, field chickweed, petunias, red clover, white clover, yellow hawkweed orange hawkweed, vetch, columbine, dame s rocket, perennial cornflower. Date: 6/17/2017 Location: LUMBY Banding Team: LAURA MACPHERSON AND SUSAN LATIMER Assistants: Louise Breneman and Kent MacFarlane Time: 6:05 11:05 AM Session Remarks: The wild flowers are in full bloom so the trap count was 6 birds. COLORADO Date: 6/16/2017 Location: DUNTON GUARD STATION Banding Team: GEORGE SAN MIGUEL Assistants: Phil Kemp, Kathleen Turnbull, Barb Headley, Mary Alexander, and Chance Salway Time: 6:00 11:45 AM Number of Visitors: 1 Session Remarks: During our second trapping session for 2017 at Dunton Guard Station, as in the first, all the hummingbirds captured were Broad-tails, but what a difference! Two weeks ago we had no birds with pollen; this session 61% had pollen. Two weeks ago 74% had fat; today 0 had fat. Apparently, our birds have used up their fat reserves from spring migration and they are starting to get natural sources of nectar. This is a pretty dramatic change during the first two weeks of June in the high country of Colorado. We were also pleased to have a visit from a female Broad-tailed that we first captured in You Go Girl! And special thanks to George San Miguel for doing the banding for us today. He came up from his Mesa Verde site and saw more Broad-tails today than he sees in a year there! 7

8 Date: 6/21/2017 Location: MESA VERDE NATIONAL PARK Banding Team: GEORGE SAN MIGUEL Assistants: Leslie Hayes, Kathleen Adams, Tish Varney, Jane Pedersen, Steve Somora, Diane Cherbak, and Dusty and Roger MacDougal Time: 6:10 11:12 AM Session Remarks: Apparently the construction project in our banding area has impacted our session, even as we hoped it would not. The park is re-doing the exterior of the employee housing buildings. We have had our feeders hanging on these buildings, but our bander did move them to the restrooms before the work began. One of our traps is about 60 from the workers. We only trapped 15 birds probably our slowest session ever. Hopefully by next session, the workers will have finished the building nearest our area, and will have moved a bit farther away from us. In spite of our disappointment, we did have one memorable bird. We captured a new RUHU female, which is a full 2 weeks ahead of our previous migrating Rufous. And the next day, a male Rufous arrived at Jane and Steve s house in Durango, about 4 days ahead of their earliest record. They re on the move! Many thanks to our dedicated volunteers for sticking with such a slow session. Date: 6/15/2017 Location: CSU MOUNTAIN CAMPUS AT PINGREE PARK Banding Team: KIRA MONROE Assistants: Adrian Monroe, Karli Foreman, and Samantha Levine Time: 6:19 11:19 AM Number of Visitors: 30 Session Remarks: Our first monitoring session at the new Pingree Park site! Slow going getting everyone up to speed and a lot of BTLH at our feeders made for a busy morning. In addition, we had a middle school group and several CSU students, faculty, and staff stop by to check out our operation. We captured all adult BTLH and had several gravid females but no juveniles yet. We re looking forward to a wonderful rest of the monitoring season on campus, and thank everyone who has helped make this site possible and up and running this year! 8

9 IDAHO Date: 6/17/2017 Location: IDAHO CITY Banding Team: HEIDI WARE AND HEATHER HAYES Assistants: Dave and Carol Wike, Danette Henderson, Iris Henderson, and Barb Howard Time: 6:03 11:03 AM Number of Visitors: 68 Session Remarks: Fourth session of The use of a parking attendant has helped considerable with the flow of traffic. Our new volunteer greeter/parking attendant Melissa Stoner did an incredible job. MONTANA Date: 6/15/2017 Location: MPG RANCH - FLOODPLAIN Banding Team: ERIC RASMUSSEN Assistants: Carrie Voss, Kathy, and Chrissy Time: 6:13 11:13 AM Number of Visitors: 4 Session Remarks: Another slow day for hummingbirds. The morning was cloudy and cool with rain forecasted for the evening. Mosquitos continue to swarm the pond. Date: 6/20/2017 Location: MPG RANCH - MONTANE Banding Team: ERIC RASMUSSEN Assistants: Susan Nelson, Sarah Norton, and Nate Jourdanais Time: 6:19 11:19 AM Session Remarks: Very slow day of banding. At this point I am confused about our low numbers this year. I m hearing anecdotal reports by folks in our area regarding lower numbers of hummers at feeders. Our cold, wet spring with numerous powerful storms (some with snow and heavy winds) may be impacting numbers. Also, that same weather pattern has produced an explosion of wildflowers (especially Penstemon spp.), so the birds may be dispersed across the landscape though we typically see a lot of action early in the morning before temperatures rise and that has not been the case. So, the mystery continues 9

10 NEVADA Date: 6/17/2017 Location: RED ROCK CANYON NATIONAL CONSERVATION AREA Banding Team: CARLA WISE Assistants: Kelsey Retich, Douglas Chang, Nancy Chang, Jan Barry, and Carol Swearingen Time: 5:20 10:20 AM Number of Visitors: 2 Session Remarks: Much better session! A lot more activity than what we have been seeing. NEW MEXICO Date: 6/17/2017 Location: PONDEROSA CAMPGROUND, BANDELIER NATIONAL MONUMENT Banding Team: LISA ROIG Assistants: Joe Schmidt, Will Schmidt, Bob Loy, Beth Cortright, Bob Walker, Kim Geissler, Daniel Dorantes, and Jason Lott Time: 6:02 11:02 AM Number of Visitors: 13 Session Remarks: We had six gravid broadtails and 3 gravid blackchins. A few returning females, who were gravid last year when captured, are gravid again this year. Nice! We have also noticed that some of the male broadtails have a distinctive white streak through the georgette from bill to breast. We now note this in the comments, since it appears to be a consistent trait in our local population. We almost had to cancel this session because of a local forest fire that closed our access road. But fire crews were swift and efficient in containing the fire, so we were able to band after all. Quite a few visitors came to observe this session, including several children who enjoyed releasing birds. UTAH Date: 6/19/2017 Location: ESCALANTE INTERAGENCY VISITOR CENTER Banding Team: TERRY TOLBERT Assistants: Frank Venuti, Alli Tuttle, and Jeff Tillery Time: 6:12 11:12 AM Number of Visitors: 9 Session Remarks: It was a particularly slow day for banding. We caught 16 birds over five hours, which is only two more than we caught in the last session in this location. Band K36132 was lost. 10

11 Date: 6/20/2017 Location: CALF CREEK RECREATION AREA Banding Team: TERRY TOLBERT Assistants: Frank Venuti, Alli Tuttle, and Jeff Tillery Time: 6:18 11:18 AM Number of Visitors: 2 Session Remarks: We caught two females with H bands that were banded initially as adults in Terry thought that one of the escaped birds may have been a Rufous hummingbird. Date: 6/21/2017 Location: WILDCAT GUARD STATION Banding Team: TERRY TOLBERT Assistants: Frank Venuti, Alli Tuttle, and Jeff Tillery Time: 6:35 11:35 AM Number of Visitors: 9 Session Remarks: Our other bander, Lisa Young, is serving on the Brian Head fires and was not able to join us. This is the main reason why we had four trap stopping times. 11