Presque Isle State Park Bird Banding

Spring 2012 Totals

Wilson's Phalarope on Gull Point, 14 June 2012

After taking some time to conduct vegetation surveys out on Presque Isle's Gull Point, with a little birding (see above), I  got back to analyzing our spring 2012 banding data. We banded a total of 923 new birds and recaptured 82 birds banded in previous years for a total of 1,005 birds of 67 species.  This is significantly less than 2011, when more than 1,500 birds were caught. We had almost identical net-hours in both years (a measure of catch effort), so the difference wasn't due to more catch opportunities in 2011 than 2012. In fact, we banded on 35 days in 2012, compared to only 27 in 2011 (Last spring was really rainy). Looking at the top ten species captured for each year shows some interesting patterns.

Here are the top ten species caught in 2012 and 2011.

            2012                                                               2011

Gray Catbird 172 White-throated Sparrow 231 Yellow Warbler 147 Yellow Warbler 178 White-throated Sparrow 82 Gray Catbird 175 Blackpoll Warbler 41 Magnolia Warbler 63 Western Palm Warbler 39 Blue Jay 55 Magnolia Warbler 36 Common Yellowthroat 54 American Redstart 34 Blackpoll Warbler 51 Yellow-rumped Warbler 31 Yellow-rumped Warbler 43 Blue Jay 25 Palm Warbler 42 Common Yellowthroat 25 American Redstart 37

The biggest difference between the two years is that we captured 149 fewer White-throated Sparrows in 2012 than in 2011. If we add in Chipping Sparrow (11), Dark-eyed Junco (27) Eastern Towhee (10), Swamp Sparrow (9) and  White-crowned Sparrow (28), we caught 225 fewer individuals of these early migrants in 2012 than in 2011. I suspect that the record warm temperatures in late March and early April encouraged many individuals to migrate earlier than usual, leaving fewer birds to capture once we began our banding efforts on 17 April.