Golden-cheeked Warbler research

it's hot and I'm tired

2011-04-10T17:49:00.002-05:00

So as usual, I am way behind in posting - with good reason. I work every day trying to band birds and find nests, some days more successfully than others. Yesterday, a good day - 2 birds banded and 1 nest found. Today, a bad day - 0 banded and nests. Very little bird activity, but lots and lots of wind and heat and humidity:( But we have done really well this season despite the many challenges we have faced in beginning this new project. I did film a female warbler collecting material that I will hopefully post one day!

migrants

2011-03-09T17:33:00.003-06:00

The golden-cheeked warblers have been here almost a week (first detected in Travis County on 3/4). Today I saw 2 Nashville Warblers, 2 Orange-crowned Warblers, and heard 1 Black-and-white Warbler.

Spring is here!

the birds are back in town

2011-03-05T13:27:00.002-06:00

I returned 2/23 and had my crew ready that following Monday, but due to logistical delays we are just getting started. The 1st GCWA was reported in San Antonio on 3/2!!! The 1st in Austin was reported yesterday on 3/4. I took 1 tech out yesterday but we did not detect any GCWAs. Today started out very dismally and I expected the bad weather to preclude us from finding any. But luckily, we stuck it out long enough that the icky weather blew away, and we ended up hearing our 1st GCWA! We resighted him and I verified that he was banded with my naked eye (we did not even have our bins on us!). We went back to the car to retrieve our bins and refound and resighted the male, just in the nick of time since he disappeared soon after.

new project, same old birds!

2011-02-21T22:16:00.004-06:00

Well, I am heading back into the field in 2 days!

I have a contract to study population viability of GCWAs on Balcones Canyonlands Preserve. It is my dream project and I am very excited about it. I will have my 1st crew working with me on GCWAs since 2006, and my largest crew in my several years of sueprvising. I have hired 6 techs, 3 of whom worked for me before on my masters project. An advantage of having good techs who become good friends:)

We will be super busy with all the facets of this multi-dimensional project, but it will also be super fun. I hope I remember to update all our adventures!

much belated post

2010-07-05T19:09:00.003-05:00

Well here it is 4th of July weekend. The birds just kept me much too busy to keep up the blog. I ended up banding ~40 birds or so this year and finding 27 nests. The sites I nest searched on held small numbers of birds and many didn't produce anything. Interesting and alarming! I began a pilot study looking at the effect of recreation on productivity. I actually got all but 1 male on the 2 sites banded and it will be interesting to see how many return to these or nearby sites next year. We ended up with >50% return rates across the banding sites! I will not be analyzing the results of the pilot data until later this fall. I am currently in the midst of another field season up in Missouri and planning my wedding later this fall!

first camera up today!

2010-04-15T16:57:00.003-05:00

Well, these posts are few and far between because I am super busy. However, this afternoon got rained out so here I am. One of these days I upload some pictures, but not today. So far I have banded 29 gwcas, including 1 female. After 1 month of surveys, we are hovering between 40-50% return rate at most of our plots - very cool! We have even resighted 1 of 3 females banded in 2009 and she is the almost the same territory as last year. Absolutely amazing!

I have only found 6 nests thus far - the nest finding is slow going so far. I have found nests for every female I have seen with material except one yesterday who collected a bit of spider web and disappeared. I was not able to relocate her or her mate so I gave up. So good indication of just how late and slow this field season is progessing regarding the ladies. Another indication, not only do we continue to document new young males arriving each day, I resighted a 09 banded bird on Monday's survey for the first time - so even the older guys are just making it back. So lots of nest building is yet to come in what is shaping up to be a very odd year.

On Tues, I observed my first incubating female and this morning, successfully positioned a camera just above her nest. Mama accepted immediately and was eager to hop on her nest (4 eggs) as soon as I left. I was able to get a beautiful overhead shot so it will be good footage. I also took a short video with my still camera of a female building a nest a few days ago. It captures the 'wiggle dance' and she flies right past me as she leaves the nest. I will one day post that as well!

That's all folks!

slow progress

2010-03-27T16:13:00.003-05:00

Birds are still being very slow to come in. In the last 2 weeks, I have gotten 14 banded. The females are here and somehow I have kept myself from getting wigged out that I have not even started territory mapping yet, let alone nest searching! I just started finding males at one site mid-week and I have not found more than 3 at my other site:( I will start nest searching on Tuesday!!!

gcwas back in town

2010-03-17T15:50:00.003-05:00

Well after a long delay at border control, the golden-cheeked warblers successfully made it back to the good ole u.s. of a.! I detected the first birds in Austin this past Suday March 14. The latest date I have ever detected them! They are slowing trinkling in. I have completed 2 surveys, one on Monday and one today (Tues it rained). I resighted a couple birds on 1 site Mon but only had unbanded birds on the site I surveyed today. Most of the birds back so far have actually been banded - and even cooler - they are returning to within 100m of where they captured last year. Most are even on the same territory!!!!!! Can you imagine flying thousand of miles one way and spending many months chilling in the tropics and then flying thousands of miles back in the spring and landing in the SAME PLACE - absolutely amazing! Tomorrow will be my first day of banding...

back to attack

2010-03-11T14:07:00.002-06:00

Well not to attack the birds, but attack all the recurring issues faced in an urban setting!

I am back in Austin as of several days ago. It is March 11 and we have not detected any GCWAs yet! They are LATE!!! There have been a couple reports in other areas, but this region is oddly silent. We are impatiently waiting...

goodbye Texas

2009-05-19T19:43:00.008-05:00

I am late in writing this final entry to the 2009 season because my last week was very hectic trying to wrap up everything. I was out in the field every day until 7 or 8 at night. Friday, May 8 (my last day in Texas) I was in Bastrop where my dad and brother were picking up my vehicle before the big drive. I ended up missing a lunch and meeting in Austin I planned on going to, but I got my ride fixed!

I got one final morning of banding in on Thurs and banded 2 more bringing our grand total to 100!

Century bird was nicknamed stoplight (guess why):

We had a great turn-out to our mini-open house and everyone seemed to enjoy the show!

The final results for the season: 104 GCWAs banded (4 banded after I left), ~95 by me

32 nests found (as of when I left), 22 found by me (my best result since I was usually doing banding or point counts and I finished May 7)

2 rounds of point counts

I was presented this special cake at the May staff meeting:

I had a fabulous, exhilerating, and exhausting field season.

I headed north on I-35 Friday afternoon, spent the night in Ardmore, OK and arrived in KC the following afternoon. Randy and I enjoyed his birthday (our 1st together since I am always in field season mode).

Sunday I picked up a field assistant at the airport and thus began field season #2.

I miss my GCWAs already. Until next year...

wrapping up

2009-05-01T20:12:00.003-05:00

Time is of the essence. I have been fighting time since I got here and I am now resigning myself to the fact that the end of this season (for me) is rapidly approaching. I have only 1 week! Today Lisa and I banded the remaining 3 GCWAs on Forest Ridge that we wanted to get so that plot is officially completed! Now if only the other plots were that complete. That makes 98 banded!

I found my 20th nest (on the road along Emma Long!) while I was walking between point counts. Things have been pretty slow since Monday when I found 2. We have bad weather all week, so I had to postpone point counts Tues and Wed, but yesterday and today were OK and now I am done with 2 of 5. I'm on track to complete those by early next week.

I beat myself again

2009-04-20T22:14:00.002-05:00

I had a very busy today. After changing out a battery and SD card at one nest camera, I began hauling a battery out to the further nest on Forest Ridge. En route, I found 3!!! nests - 1 building and 2 with kiddoes. I hauled that battery out and turned right around and dragged down a full camera set up and put a camera on the furthest nest (easy to climb). So 3 nests in under 1 hour! Then I went over to another site, St Edwards, that I haven't been to in a couple weeks and found 1 more nest there. So 4 total. I wanted to set up another camera but after hauling the 6 ft ladder to my car at 6:00 pm, I didn't have the energy to go home, retrieve a set up and drag all that equipment plus the ladder out to the nest. Plus I had to go buy more batteries - and while the 30 lb batteries are considerably better than the ones I used to haul (~70 lb), it is still tiring. Unfortunately that adds to the to-do list for tomorrow. I have now found 16 nests and have cameras on 5.

all in a days work

2009-04-18T21:44:00.003-05:00

Yesterday was mostly a bust due to rain almost the entire day. Last night when I did my last weather check it was 100% chance of rain again for today, so I slept in, which was great, except the rain never materialized (or if it did, it was overnight). Chance of rain was 10% for the rest of the day!

So I got a late start - I didn't arrive to my plot until 10:00. The birds were singing like crazy today - a great day to be tracking birds. I monitored the 2 nests I found at 3M last week - 1 is active and the other, well ? I found another seemingly complete nest only 50 m from the ? nest and no female on either. BUT a female foraging nearby the entire time I was in the area (>40 mins) and 2 males were singing nearby. So I don't know what is going on there. After I gave up trying, I stumbled upon another nest. I waited 20 mins to determine if the nest was active, and as I was finally walking away sullenly, I saw a female fly in and add material! After that, I found 2 more nests with nestlings.

FINALLY! I beat myself finally! This is my 5th season and my first 4-nest day. Many 3 nests days, but never more. So this is me, tooting my own horn, for finally beating myself. I may have even bested that, but I had to set up a camera at the nest with the incubating girl mentioned earlier and 1 of the ones found today with nestlings. All of that hauling and moving equipment and waiting around watching the adults take time so I ended up in the field til 7:00. But 4 nests and 2 cameras make it all worth it.

catch of the day

2009-04-17T18:27:00.002-05:00

Yesterday, while banding with a couple staff biologists, this beautiful adult sharp-shinned hawk flew into the net. Luckily no warblers were harmed in the meantime, because no male came in and a female was hanging out in the area but not that close to the net. This hawk does prey on small songbirds, and very well may have been responding to the tape recording we were playing of golden-cheeked warbler. I extracted it and left it go - both the bird and net unharmed!!!

what a beauty

2009-04-17T18:16:00.001-05:00

adult male (>2 years old)

slow down

2009-04-14T20:09:00.002-05:00

Things are finally starting to slow down, banding-wise. With the addition of 2 more males, I hit 82 today! But alas the majority of birds on the 100 acre plots are finally banded, and the remaining unbanded are not cooperative. We may hit 100 yet, but we may not. I am glad though that things are slowing down because I would like to refocus the majorit of my remaining time to resighting banded birds and locating nests. Time in this very abbreviated field season is running low and I have only located 5 nests thus far. Tomorrow will mark my first day devoted to surveying territories and I am quite hopeful for >1 nest. I did get the first camera up on a nest a few days ago and will do my battery change tomorrow. She was sitting on 4 eggs!

69 and counting

2009-04-07T20:04:00.002-05:00

Today was my 1st day to band since last Thursday. I did point counts Fri and Sat morning and Sun and Mon were too windy for banding. That the first break I've had, not a day off mind you, just a break from banding. Today was a record low in the 30s so we got a late start. Despite only banding for 3 hours, we got 3 males and 1 more female banded. Then I went over to another site to resight banded birds and map territories and located a nest. So 4 birds and my 4th nest today, and perfect weather after 10:00 - all in all a great day!

so many birds, so little time

2009-04-01T20:00:00.003-05:00

In just 2 1/2 weeks, we have now banded 63 warblers. Mark and I banded 10 TODAY! We finally caught 2 females, 1 today and 1 a couple days ago.

The one downside to all this banding is a lack of time to nest search. I did find 1 nest last weekend. I found it just looking around and confirmed the female adding material the next day. I spent yesterday afternoon on a couple sites with builing females, but I didn't see any action until after 5:30!!! Another hour spent and still hadn't refound the female and my feet and knees were getting quite achy so I gave up at 6:30. Today I was banding until 6:30 so again, no time. I plan on searching tomorrow - in the 25+ mph winds...

I'm missing key nest searching days:( but catching lots of birds:)

beautiful birdies

2009-03-23T19:59:00.004-05:00

FINALLY I got some photos to upload! I brought my camera out in the field today and despite the high winds, caught and banded 5 more GWCAs. Cindy got some good pics of me holding the birds. Aren't they 'purty'!!!

off and soaring

2009-03-22T16:36:00.004-05:00

After 1 week, we have successfully banded 26 golden-cheeked warblers!!! We're off to a great start - much better than any of us dreamed possible. I am doing really well picking net lanes and getting the birds in to the net. In fact, I got a 3-in-1 on Thursday (3 males in one net)! Today was super windy (winds in excess of 25 mph in the afternoon) and tomorrow promises to be the same all day, so I might not have much success:( Hope to keep getting good numbers - however, I am now switching from all day banding to 1/2 banding and 1/2 nest searching. Females are everywhere now and will be building like crazy this week.

I have lots of photos on COA cameras, with others taking the pics while I'm holding the bird - hence the lack of pics. However, I got a photo of one today, but I'm having issues uploading it. I'll try again later.

+ 4

2009-03-16T17:50:00.002-05:00

I went out today with Jim, who banded Black-capped Vireos in the 80's, and is now volunteering as a permitted bander (married to Lisa the senior biologist). We had a long and tiring, but very productive day. We caught 4 and at the 1st and last net of the day opportunity to catch 2 birds, but neither time were we able to catch the 2nd guy. But 4 for day 1 seems pretty darn good!

catch of the day

2009-03-15T18:39:00.005-05:00

I set up a couple nets yesterday at the 1st male I heard in the area. Today started out rainy and crappy and I took a co-worker around the site to familiarize her with the area and scout out others warblers. After a brief lunch break and discovering the water was off in my apartment, I headed back out solo to see what happened. I opened up 1 net at 2:30. I heard the male singing in the distance, and after 10 mins didn't really think he was going to come in. I switched to the 'B' song and pretty soon I heard my male singing a soft 'B' in the neighboring tree. After flying over the net a couple times, he flew in! A quick release and a speedy handling and off he flew with his new pretty jewelry. Hope the ladies like it! I heard him singing in the area many more times as I was taking down the nets, but I never got to look at his new colorful legs - maybe tomorrow.

Here's to much more future success.

Black/Mauve:Blue/Silver is his 'name'

they're backkkk

2009-03-05T16:57:00.004-06:00

I've been out scouting every day this week at Emma Long.

Yesterday the first report came in from San Antonio. Today I had 2 singing at Emma Long!

Let the games begin...

Introduction

2009-03-04T18:23:00.000-06:00

HOWDY!

This is my first entry on my Golden-cheeked Warbler research. I would love to add all this to my other blog, but Randy doesn't want me clogging it up with my gcwa obsession. So here I'll update folks with the details of field life down here in Austin, Tx.

I have a master banding pemit to band gcwas this spring. I also have 7 cameras to place on nests, as I've done for 4 prior seasons.

See ya soon!