The Alma College Bird Observatory is operated by Mike Bishop of the Alma College Biology Department. The ACBO operates from April through October banding breeding birds and transient migrants as well as conducting directed studies of various breeding and overwintering species. The Vestaburg Station is located in Vestaburg, MI about 16 miles west of Alma. It is situated at the Alma College Ecological Station. The station is 186 acres of mixed hardwood forest, old fields, willow marshes and a relic boreal bog and lake. The Chippewa Nature Center Station is located at Dragonfly Marsh on the property of the Chippewa Nature Center near Midland, MI. It is approximately 96 acres and is a mixture of old fields, young forest and a large mitigated wetland.


Thursday, June 3, 2010

The Annual Bandout at Port Huron State Game Area, 21-23 May

On Friday, Saturday and Sunday of 21-23 May I made my annual pilgrimage to the Port Huron State Game Area for the annual Spring Bandout hosted by the Michigan Bird Banders Association.  Two other banders, Dan Miller and Alan Chartier and myself run five or six nets for the three days and band everything we catch.  We also show off the birds to the public which usually show up in big numbers.  This year I had three students come along to help out and rack up some brownie points. J

The weather was amazingly cooperative.  We arrived Friday, leaving heavy rain in Alma, to find sunny conditions for setting up our nets and for running them a few hours before dark.  It rained overnight and right up until dawn Saturday morning when it stopped as we opened and remained dry for the rest of the day.  Sunday dawned sunny for the last few hours of banding before we packed up and headed home.

We had six nets set up around the wooded creek and fencerows along the Black River.  And despite our best efforts we had the lowest numbers seen in recent years.  We had a total of 37 captures of 15 species of which 33 were new and four were recaptures.  Except for the Gray-cheeked Thrush none of the other birds we caught could be definitively considered passage migrants.  Everything else is known to have nested in the game area.

All of the recaptures were birds banded at last year’s Bandout.  The Yellow Warbler was banded by Dan and the rest were banded by me.

Despite the crummy turn out of birds and people we still had a good time and got to see some good birds.

Here’s the tally:

Eastern Phoebe  1 N
Acadian Flycatcher  1 N
Black-capped Chickadee  1 N,  1 R
Tufted Titmouse  1 N
Gray-cheeked Thrush  1 N
Gray Catbird  6 N
Yellow Warbler  2 N,  1 R
American Redstart  7 N
Mourning Warbler  3 N,  1 R
Canada Warbler  1 N
Common Yellowthroat  1 N,  1 R
Northern Cardinal  1 N
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1 N
Indigo Bunting  4 N
American Goldfinch  2 N
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