05-20-14 Field Note

05-20-14 Field Note

May 21, 2014

Eric Rasmussen's Field Note shares updates on the raptor migration survey, owl banding efforts, and a Long-billed Curlew survey collaboration with the Intermountain Bird Observatory crew.

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Bird Field Note May 16th, 2014 Eric Rasmussen

Rasmussen The Say’s Phoebe finally settled on the nesting platform on the Top House garage.

Kate spotted AK47 on the northern floodplain. This is the third year we have seen him. RVRI originally banded him in May 2012.

KS A Swainson’s Thrush moves quietly from tree to tree while migrating through the floodplain.

The Intermountain Bird Observatory crew caught four Long-billed Curlews in four days. They placed transmitters on three females and one male.

Each bird also received a band and a unique two-letter flag.

Near lower Sheep Camp, Heidi and Kerr prepare a mist net used to capture one of the birds.

Jay and Kerr untangled a female Long-billed Curlew from the net. She incubates four eggs in the grassland restoration area between Tongue Creek and Sheep Camp.

The owl crew deployed four of their five transmitters on Long-eared Owls.

A Cooper’s Hawk chasing small birds flew into a mist net set for owls.

The last week of counts revealed only a trickle of migrants. A season total of 1097 marks our lowest count of the last four years. We surmise that many of the raptors we typically see used an alternate route. A high mountain snowpack may have steered migrants away from the Rocky Mountains. We also observed less passerine and waterfowl migrants in the Bitterroot Valley this spring.