So it begins...

I'm currently enrolled in an ornithology class, which is the study of birds. Our first field trip was this morning. We left at 7am this morning to go to the Ridges, which is the site of the former Athens Lunatic Asylum (for those of you not from around here). It's very close, so it was only 7:15 by the time we got there, if that. While it started off pretty comfortable, temperatures quickly rose to the high 70s early in the day. It was a still day with little wind, and little-to-no cloud coverage.

Once we arrived at the Ridges, we had to set up mist nets. I worked with mist nets a lot over the summer when I had my bat internship, and they look like this:

Photo credit:Tommy Thompson Park

They come in variations of length, but all the ones I've seen range from 6m to 18m in length. While bat nets are a little different from bird nets and I'm used to a different setup, the general concept is the same. We set up 8 nets in total, spread out from each other. Nets are often placed in small forest clearings, such as along a trail or a in a powerline corridor.

Altogether, we caught five birds this morning of five different species. While we did take some pictures on the designated ornithology camera, those aren't online yet, so I'll be using other people's pictures. The birds we caught were all "processed," meaning that we banded them, determined their age and sex (if we could), and took measurements. Each band has a unique number, like a serial number for that bird. If the bird is ever captured again, researchers would be able to know where it came from and who banded it. Measurements taken depends on the bander and the research project they might be working on, but common examples are wing chord (wing length) and rectrix length (tail feathers).


This is the northern waterthrush

Copyright: Lloyd Spitalnik

This was the first catch of the day!  Like all birds, the northern waterthrush can be identified by a four-letter code, which comes from the bird's name. For example, the northern waterthrush is called "NOWA." It usually isn't found in this area, and must have been passing through on its way south. It's easily confused with another warbler called the Lousiana waterthrush, but it can be differentiated by the black streaking across its throat and its yellowish supercilium (line above the eye) that tapers towards the back of the head. We were able to determine that this bird was a female by wing chord, and her age was AHY (after hatch year). This means that she was born before this summer.



This is a northern cardinal (female)

Copyright: Will Sweet

The northern cardinal (NOCA) is one of the most easily-identified eastern bird, especially the males. Ours, however, was a female, so she lacked the distinctive red plumage. She also still had a brood patch, which is an area of bare skin on a female bird's belly that facilitates heat transfer between her body and her eggs. While the NOWA was banded with an aluminum band, this NOCA got a stainless steel one because her beak is strong enough to bend aluminum. She was also AHY (after hatch year), and we were able to tell this from her brood patch (if she was born this year, she would not have raised chicks).


This is a Swainson's thrush

Copyright: Laura Meyers

On first look, it might appear similar to the NOWA from earlier, but it can be differentiated from other thrushes by its buffy (pale yellow-brown) distinctive eye ring, almost like it's wearing spectacles. Like the NOWA, though, the SWTH usually isn't found in Ohio, and was only passing through on its way south. We couldn't determine the sex of this bird, but its plumage (feathers) showed that it was also AHY.


Next was a chipping sparrow

Copyright: Kelly Colgan Azar

Unlike the first three birds we caught today, this chipping sparrow (CHSP) had hatched this year (age = HY). Because it was a young bird, its plumage looks different from how it will next year. I'll include a picture of an AHY chipping sparrow for comparison:

Copyright: Tom Smith

The adult has a rusty cap and no spotting on the chest and throat. Differences like this can make it hard to identify juvenile birds.


Last but not least, a Carolina chickadee!

Like the CHSP, this Carolina chickadee was also a juvenile, although its coloration isn't very different from an adult. Sometimes you can determine a bird's age by how "worn out" its feathers are. Carolina chickadees look very similar to black-capped chickadees, but the black-capped usually aren't found this far south in Ohio. We were unable to determine sex in this bird because the males and females appear the same.

In addition to catching these five species, we also heard and saw many more! Some birds that I heard/saw included:

• Blue jay
• Pileated woodpecker
• Tufted titmouse
• White-breasted nuthatch
• Eastern towhee
• American goldfinch
• Eastern wood-pewee
• White-eyed vireo
• Red-bellied woodpecker
• Carolina wren
• Downy woodpecker
• Cedar waxwing
• Turkey vulture
• American robin

Other birds heard or seen by my peers were:

• Yellow-billed cuckoo
• Red-eyed vireo
• Ruby-throated hummingbird
• Northern mockingbird
• Mourning dove

 That's all I have for you today! Take a look around your own backyard and see what species are coming to visit you; you'll be surprised at how many there are!