A Canada Goose from Canada

A little more than a month ago, I found a Canada Goose wearing an orange neck collar in Donaldson Park. I photographed the goose and reported the number on its collar, "H8W1," to the Bird Banding Laboratory. It appears that all four geese in that image are wearing leg bands, but I was not able to get clear photos of any of them, except for the large neck collar. Yesterday I received a certificate of appreciation from the Bird Banding Laboratory, and it included some information about the goose. It was banded near Boucherville, Quebec, in July 2008; when it was banded, it was too young to fly. Boucherville is just northeast of Montreal, about 400 miles north of here. So unlike most of the geese I have reported, this goose had to cross international boundaries to get here.

More About the Banded Goose

I received my certificate from the Bird Banding Laboratory faster than usual this time. I reported a banded Canada Goose on Saturday and received the certificate on Monday. Certificates usually include some interesting information about where or how the bird was banded. In the case of this bird, the certificate states that it is a female and that she "was too young to fly when banded," which means that she was big enough to keep a size 8 band on its leg but had not grown her first set of flight feathers yet. The bird was banded in 1997, so she has probably produced plenty of her own (probably banded) offspring.

The banding site was given as Dunellen, New Jersey, and lies about 5.8 miles (as the goose flies) from where I saw the bird. The site appears to be a wetland of some sort, and it appears to be connected by a stream to the Dismal Swamp area. So far every banded Canada Goose I have reported has come from either that site or Raritan Center.

Oldest Living Red-tailed Hawk

A Red-tailed Hawk found in New York last month turns out to be the oldest wild Red-tailed Hawk.

She doesn’t have a catchy name (or any name), a fashionable perch or Twitter twitter (“Pale Male’s Central Park is infested with humans but he’s tolerant”), but the red-tailed hawk first seen just before Thanksgiving sitting on a dead rabbit on the white line in the middle of Route 17M near Monroe, N.Y., has quite a story to tell.

When finally contained, after a somewhat erratic journey, she was clearly old and infirm. But it was not until people were able to study the aluminum band that had been placed on her left leg when she was 6 or 7 months old that they realized just how old she was: about 27 years and 9 months. Most red-tails that survive their first year — more than 60 percent do not — live about half that long.

Among red-tails whose ages could be documented, she was the oldest ever found alive in the wild in North America.

She was captured as a result of injury, but she is on the mend:

She has almost certainly traveled far since then, but her current acclaim began on Nov. 15 when a motorist, worried that the bird would be hit by a car, stopped to pick her up after seeing her feeding on a rabbit carcass in the road. When the bird didn’t fight him and wouldn’t let the rabbit go, he figured there was something wrong with her and put her in the back of his van, where she perched on a mop handle.

There were a few stops and missteps. She escaped when a worker at Sterling Forest State Park in New York tried to transport her in a banker’s box, but she was picked up the next day on the same highway and taken to the Bear Mountain Zoo, and then to Suzie Gilbert, a wild-bird rehabilitator in Garrison, N.Y.

The hawk is currently undergoing treatment for a hairline wing fracture at The Raptor Trust in northern New Jersey. If she recovers and is able to fly, she may be released in the spring.

(via 10,000 Birds)

Color-marked Plovers Moving South

You may remember that last winter, I wrote about a research program studying the Piping Plover population that winters in the Bahamas. Bird banders caught 57 plovers and marked their legs with colored plastic bands so that the individual birds could be identified by sight – with spotting scopes, possibly binoculars, or cameras with telephoto lenses. This makes it easier birders and refuge staff to report the locations of the banded plovers as they migrate and breed.

Now that the plover breeding season is winding down and birds are starting to leave their breeding grounds, we can review the findings so far. During the breeding season, 38 of the 57 plovers were seen on their breeding grounds. Of those, 14 bred in Massachusetts; 10 in New York; 3 in Rhode Island; 2 each in New Jersey, Virgina, and New Brunswick; and 1 each in North Carolina, Maine, Nova Scotia, Newfoundland, and Connecticut. One of the New Jersey plovers was first spotted in Montauk, Long Island, before it moved to Sandy Hook to breed. An additional plover was spotted in Florida but not resighted on its breeding grounds; this brings the total number of resighted birds to 39.

Shorebirds, including Piping Plovers, are already starting to make their way south. One of the Bahamas plovers was resighted at Portsmouth Island in North Carolina on July 13. This individual, a female, had been observed as it bred in Rhode Island and fledged four chicks, so she had a very successful breeding season. Others could turn up at any beach along the Atlantic coast, so all birders should watch for them.

If you happen to see any of these plovers, please report them to Cheri Gratto-Trevor,
cheri.gratto-trevor@ec.gc.ca! Here is a reminder of what to look for:

What do color bands of The Bahamas plovers look like? ... All have a black flag on the upper left leg. Each have a single white band on one of the lower legs, right or left. Each have two color bands (neither of which is a white band) on the lower leg opposite the leg with the single white band. Colors used were: red, orange, yellow, white, light green, dark green, dark blue, and black. No metal bands were placed on any of The Bahamas birds; nor were color bands placed on the upper right legs of the birds.

How should the color markers be reported? When you see a marked Piping Plover, immediately write down a detailed description of the bands and their location on the bird's legs (always using the bird's right and left). Make a note if you are unsure of the color or location of any of the bands or if you did not see all bands clearly. Please report incomplete sighting.

You can read more about the program and see an example of how to describe marked plovers at the link.

The two photos in this post were taken by David Jones in Massachusetts. You can find more of his Piping Plover photos and other work at his PBase website. Thanks also to Peter Doherty for forwarding updates about the project.