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Blue-throated
Goldentail
(male)

LAST CHANCE!

Weeks One & Three are full for our annual
Hummingbird Expeditions to Costa Rica.
Week Two
(3-11 Feb 2009)
has room for four more people (singles or couples)

Canivet's
Emerald
(male)

2008 BIRD BANDING TOTALS:
BELOW AVERAGE, BUT USEFUL

'Way back in the early 1990s life was simpler at Hilton Pond Center. Our primary employment was science education consulting and grant writing, so except for occasional out-of-town lectures or job-related trips to Washington DC and West Virginia we worked primarily via telecommuting. We hadn't started our midwinter research studies of Ruby-throated Hummingbirds in Costa Rica, nor did we face our current never-ending (but enjoyable) deadlines for installments of "This Week at Hilton Pond." With more unstructured time available at the Center 15 years ago we could devote our efforts to running traps and mist nets almost every day; this, in turn, led to much higher numbers of banded birds--especially from 1990 through 1994 (see Chart 1 below). More recently we've traveled many more days each year and often seem to be gone at the peak of spring and fall migration, so our banding tallies are understandably lower. Nonetheless, we're either banding or observing at Hilton Pond enough during the year to get a feel for the status of resident and migratory birds. In 2008 we were below average in numbers of species and individuals banded, but there was still plenty of useful information to be reported.

Of 124 total species banded at Hilton Pond since 1982 we captured 66 in 2008 (see Chart 1 above)--the same as last year and below the 27-year average of 69. (Our all-time record high was 95 species in 1991, when we also caught 4,061 individuals--our most ever.) Our 2008 total of 1,715 individuals was down from last year and below the long-term average of 1,922; however, this year's tally was quite close to the most recent ten-year average (1999 through 2008) of 1,709.

All text, charts, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Our "rarest" bird of 2008 at Hilton Pond Center was probably a Nashville Warbler (see top photo); banded on 27 September, it was only our seventh of this species netted in 27 years. Other uncommon captures were five Brown-headed Nuthatches (46 banded from 1982-2008); two White-breasted Nuthatches (17 total, photo just above); three Blue Grosbeaks (64); four Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (42); one Winter Wren (11); four Hooded Warblers (48); two Kentucky Warblers (20); and single individuals of several warbler species, including Bay-breasted (12), Blue-winged (23, photo below), Canada (32), Palm (56), and Worm-eating (48).

All text, charts, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

This year we added our 20th species--Magnolia Warbler--to the Center's "400 Club," which historically had been dominated by the four "winter finches": House Finch (276 in 2008), Purple Finch (214), American Goldfinch (536), and Pine Siskin (1, photo at right). Siskin numbers have dropped precipitously since the mid 1980s; after banding 1,084 from 1984 through 1987 we've never caught more than 59 in a calendar year and just ten total in the past ten years. (A neighbor's clearcutting of an adjoining 70-acre Loblolly Pine woods in 1996 likely had an impact on our local siskin population.) Despite the shortage of siskins, the four winter finches still make up almost half of all birds banded (46.61%) at Hilton Pond Center; this year they comprised 59.9% of the total.

Other 400-Club members with significantly low showings in 2008 were Common Grackle (NONE banded), American Robin (1), Yellow-rumped Warbler (5), and Eastern Towhee (10, red-eyed adult male at left). Most perplexing were White-throated Sparrows; of the six caught in 2008, none were from the fall of the year. A near-absence of this species in fall and early winter is unprecedented at Hilton Pond. (We might add we failed to band--or even observe--a Dark-eyed Junco at the Center during Fall 2008.)

After a VERY slow hummer start this spring--we had banded only two Ruby-throated Hummingbirds through 1 June!--things gradually improved during mid-summer and then exploded in late August and September before the bottom dropped out as October arrived. In the end we had banded 230 RTHU in 2008 (see Chart 3 above), surpassing the previous record of 226 set in 2005 and reaching the 200 mark for the fourth time in the past five years. We think ruby-throats are pretty much holding their own, even while many other migratory birds are in rapid decline. For a more detailed analysis of this year's hummingbird banding results, see Ruby-throats Of 2008: Where Did They Finally Come From?

As shown on Table 1 (below), Ruby-throated Hummingbirds (adult male above) were the only Hilton Pond species to reach a record high in 2008, although other three species did tie existing marks. These include Eastern Tufted Titmouse with 26 banded (tying a record from 2004); seven Northern Parulas (tying 1991); and two Black-throated Green Warblers (tying 1992, see photo below). In all, 26 additional species--in green on the species-alphabetical chart below--were banded at or above their 27-year average rate.

We hope you'll take time to peruse our charts and table and will send any comments or questions you have to INFO. Following the chart below we also include for the first time a summary of this year's bird SIGHTINGS--our 2008 "Yard List" for Hilton Pond Center.

IT'S NOT JUST ABOUT BANDING:
HILTON POND YARD LIST 2008

Although we always tally birds we band annually at Hilton Pond Center, until recently we never really kept track of the number of species seen or heard during the calendar year; i.e., we didn't keep a yearly "Yard List." We decided to start in 2007 and last year ended up encountering 90 of the 168 species on the Center's master list--more than half (53.57%) of birds known to occur on the property.

This year we did somewhat better, first by adding TWO new species to the yard list: Fish Crow and Solitary Sandpiper (left). (After 27 years, it's unusual to add even one new species, much less two.) Fish Crows may have been here all along but we were never quite satisfied with their ID, which is based primarily on voice. (The locally common and somewhat larger American Crow has a hoarser call; we like to joke that our more southerly and genteel Fish Crows say "Caw-caw-ya'll.") Species #170, the Solitary Sandpiper, showed up during the August drought on the very afternoon our Costa Rican guide and good friend Ernesto Carman Jr. arrived to visit us at Hilton Pond.

We spotted our last new yard species for this year on 31 December--a Ruby-crowned Kinglet (male above) that already had a band on its leg--bringing 2008's annual total to 96 species seen from a "possible" list of 170, or 56.47%. We "cheat" a little by counting birds we catch in traps and nets, but our numbers would probably be even higher if we didn't travel as much as we have lately. In 2009 we resolve to spend even more time just walking the trails at Hilton Pond Center, looking and listening for birds to add to the new year's Yard List.

All text, charts, tables & photos © Hilton Pond Center

Comments or questions about this week's installment?
Please send an E-mail message to INFO.

Be sure to scroll down for an account of all
birds banded or recaptured during the period,
plus other nature notes of interest.

Thanks to the following fine folks for recent gifts in support of Hilton Pond Center for Piedmont Natural History and/or Operation RubyThroat: The Hummingbird Project. Your tax-deductible contributions allow us to continue writing, photographing, and sharing "This Week at Hilton Pond." (Please see Support if you'd like to make a gift of your own. You can also contribute by ordering an Operation RubyThroat T-shirt.)