Author: aims_admin

Greetings from Appledore!

Strong activity continued on Saturday, with a season-high total of 181 birds banded — including 75 Common Yellowthroats! The morning was busy not only with birds but with a bird banding group led by Eric Masterson that came over from Star Island for the morning. Bill did yeoman’s duty taking groups of birders on net runs and teaching them about mist netting, and everyone pitched in to make sure the visitors were able to see plenty of birds and learn about the banding operation and about the Mobile Avian Recording Studio (MARS). Thanks to all!

Anthony was a very welcome arrival at 10:30, providing some badly-needed additional help and enabling us to open all the nets for the first time in a couple of days. We did collapse the nets for about 20 minutes in the afternoon because Captain Ben was nice enough to mow the grass in the net lanes for us — thanks, Captain Ben!

Banding highlights included another Bay-breasted Warbler, the first Red-eyed Vireos of the season, and the first flycatchers of the season. We also caught a very interesting adult male American Redstart with salmon-colored tail feathers on the right side and yellow on the left!

Cheers from Liz, Anthony, Bill, Lauren and Katherine!

Greetings all!

Friday seems like a long time ago. So much so that I don’t remember a lot of details other than that we had birds. With a small-ish staff, we were only able to run four or five nets for a big chunk of the day — we opened the apple tree net at 05:10, shut it down at 05:45, and never re-opened — but we still banded 157 birds with a nice variety of species.

Some highlights:

• Liz was delighted to band her first Tree Swallow.
• Lauren was delighted to band her first Bay-breasted Warbler.
• Katherine was delighted to release an Orchard Oriole.
• Despite the busy-ness of the day, Katherine was able to process all but one of the 65-ish MARS (Mobile Avian Recording Studio) birds that were captured.
• Day Two of Dave Adrien’s visit meant more sightings for the day’s list and more nice photos for the daily report.

Cheers from Liz, Bill, Lauren, and Katherine.

*Alert readers may note that we didn’t band an Orchard Oriole on Friday. The picture should have been posted on Thursday but I forgot.

Relatively leisurely conditions continued on Thursday, with a total of 43 birds banded. Blackmail photos of banding staff taking advantage of downtimes could be obtained from the radar tower webcam at multiple points during the day.

We enjoyed visits through the day from Dave Adrien, who was on the island to visit Bill. Dave is a Massachusetts birder who has submitted many sightings of Appledore banded gulls in Massachusetts and New Hampshire over the past couple of years. He and Bill spent the day scouring the island for banded gulls and contributing to the day’s list of birds seen.

Highlights in the nets included an Eastern Towhee and a 5th year Gray Catbird, originally banded in fall 2012 by Lindsay Herlihy and color-banded the following spring by Peg Ackerson.

Activity picked up on Friday (hence the lateness of this report) so stay tuned!

Cheers from Liz, Bill, Lauren and Katherine.

Inbound migrants on Wednesday included Lauren and a short surprise visit from Dr. Julie Ellis! Outbound migrants included Chef Charlotte (very temporarily, we hope), Peg and a lot of birds. Wednesday was a much mellower day in the banding station, which (like most things) was both good and bad.

The good: having more time to look at and learn about the birds — and there were some nice ones! Katherine’s id skills are coming along great, and she’s very nice about it when we accidentally reveal the id on a quiz bird.

The bad: well, fewer birds.

And there was no ugly to be found on another beautiful Appledore spring day!

Cheers from Liz, Peg, Bill, Katherine, and Lauren

The winds died down, we saw a beautiful sunrise, and then were immersed in birds for the day.

The banded report will show that the banding station was quite busy from dawn to dusk. Again, with good teamwork, 169 birds were banded. We can only imagine how many more birds would have been banded with more help. The nets were shut down for a spell until we got caught up with banding. Therefore, this report is mainly pictures contributed by all:

1) Sunrise.

2) Bill Clark and Katherine Carbeck just after sunrise.

3) Rose-breasted Grosbeak biting on an apple slice instead of Peg’s finger – thanks to Mara Weisenberger, bander at the San Andres NWR in NM, for that great tip!

4) An Orchard Oriole (SY-M) – Katherine brought in this nice surprise.

5) A stunning Scarlet Tanager feeding right outside the Grass Lab.

6) The Gull Banding crew busy working.

Greetings from a tired crew,

Peg, Liz, Katherine and Bill

Because of constant gale-force winds, the net lanes were closed all day. At times, if there was a Martha on the island, she would have been blown out to sea! Andy departed on the 9:15 boat and had a very rough ride back to America going against the strong westerly winds; Liz Burton arrived at noontime, along with Bill’s gull team. The roughest part of the boat ride coming to Appledore was getting onto the dock being tossed about by strong waves.

Due to net closures, Peg FINALLY made it up to Crystal Lake and South End. Before Andy’s departure, Peg and Andy were able to check out Broad Cove and the northern valley. The wind chill factor was 32 degrees, so no dawdling. Nine Black Guillemots were spotted off of Broad Cove, and Andy counted 117 Common Eider. Peg spotted a Northern Shoveler – drake – in the swale, and then again at Crystal Lake. A Northern Mockingbird showed up on the lawn outside the banding station.

Katherine spent the morning getting the MARS station set up. She had some challenges but she problem-solved and is now ready for birds.

And finally, another Gull Bill story. The 2016 gull season interaction contest has started: gulls – 1; Bill – 0. On his way to meet the boat at noontime, a gull knocked Bill’s hat off. No big deal, Bill is used to the reaction of gulls to his presence. Bill collected his hat and proceeded on to the dock. After helping unload the boat and enjoying lunch with his crew, Bill tried to read something and only then realized that not only his hat had been knocked off, but also his glasses! He had to walk the hill a couple of times before he finally located them. Peg noticed at lunch time that Bill did not have his glasses on and wondered why. Little did she know.

Farewell Andy, welcome Liz, and hoping gentler winds are on the way,

Peg, Andy, Liz, Katherine and Bill

West wind, very blustery, all day (25-30mph+). Bill declared it was a CKHO day (Can’t Keep Hat On); Peg declared it was an AIMS wind scale rating of 5 (small Marthas blow over). Jeff departed on the 9:30 boat. It sure was nice to have him help out at the station; too bad he could only stay for a day.

Some volunteer projects had to be changed today due to the strong wind; such as not a good day to work on the roof of K-house. The garden remake project benefited from the extra help – pictures attached.

Katharine Carbeck (MARS) arrived at 19:00. She was the only passenger and lucked out with a comparatively “smooth” ride. The boat trips today have been rough.

Great black-backed gulls have eggs; Herring gulls are setting up nests; a pair of Canada geese have 3 goslings; and European starlings are feeding young.

A very different day on Appledore. Banded birds: 48

Farewell Jeff, welcome Katherine, and greetings blown your way from Peg, Andy and Bill

What a great day! The island was bustling with volunteers, projects, and birds! We got birds!

With the arrival of Andy and Jeff, the station was able to run all the nets to greet the overnight arrivals. Between Peg, Andy, and Jeff banding and great teamwork, 144 birds were banded. The two highest numbers by species were OVEN (29) and BAWW (35). Fortunately for the station, Bill could help run the nets rather than chase gulls.

It was also a busy day in the station. Many volunteers stopped in to see some of the treasures we work with. It was a day of many showcase birds. Pictures are attached. Some volunteers brought by the bird of the day, found in the Swimming Pool (last picture).

Hal Weeks gave a presentation in the evening about his years of research locating and photographing the spots on Appledore Island where Childe Hassam painted his famous Appledore landscapes in the late 1880’s and early 1900’s.

A Childe Hassam exhibit currently at the North Carolina Museum of Art in Raleigh of Hassam’s Appledore scenes is built upon Hal’s work and turns the art world spotlight on Appledore. The “don’t miss” exhibit will move to the Peabody Essex Museum in July.

We hope that many of you will be able to experience a similar day on Appledore this spring.

Peg, Bill, Andy and Jeff

Much busier day! A warbler wave arrived, esp. OVEN and COYE.
Skies started clouding over at 9:00 a.m., fog rolled in at 13:00. Andy and Jeff arrived on the JBH at 18:00 along with many volunteers. Within a half hour we had to close the nets due to rain. Since dinner time was pushed back to 19:00, we all got to enjoy a sit-down meal.

Cheers from Appledore: Peg, Bill, Andy and Jeff

Bill Clark and I arrived on 5/11 late afternoon on the JMK which was loaded down with lumber, cement blocks and cement. Celia Thaxter’s garden beds and fence are being replaced and two cement-block sheds are being constructed for housing fuel tanks.

We got the station opened up and net lanes cleared. Bill recruited Ben – a new captain and Zack – a new engineer – to deposit the poles using the Gator. Nice!

Today, Bill the recruiter, invited Amy Simrell to help us set up the nets. Amy is here for volunteer weekend. Not only did she help us set up nets, she stayed for the entire day and became our recorder! (She’s hooked.)

The station officially opened at 13:10. First bird of the season – Downy Woodpecker – M
Slow afternoon.
I did startle 4 mallards in the net lanes: 1 hen and 3 drakes. One drake was caught in N6 at the end by the well, and fortunately managed to get out without leaving a big hole. I mean, we JUST got the nets set up!

Note: the male GBBG by the lumber pile, opposite the Dive Shed, can be aggressive.

Time for bed,

Peg