Week of Awesome Birds, Part 2

So, last time, we talked about the Rusty Blackbird and the Downy Woodpecker and the supposed Lesser Yellowlegs. Here is the exciting conclusion to last week's cliff-hanger!

Solitary Sandpiper, not!LesserYellowlegs.

We went home and I posted pictures on Facebook. I didn't have time to caption any of them. On Sunday, Dayna proposed a radical theory: perhaps it was actually a Solitary Sandpiper and that's why its biometrics were so tiny. We checked the SOSA biometrics (wing cord, tail, bill length, tarsus length, etc.) and our bird fit them perfectly. Also, brown butt. We were both feeling rather stupid at this point. I checked Facebook when I got home Sunday afternoon and good ol' Uncle Tim (my family contains many bird nerds) commented on one of my photos: "Nice Solitary Sandpiper!" -_-;;; This is me feeling very VERY dumb.

Other characteristic examples of Sarah Being Dumb:

Solitary Sandpiper with only kinda-yellow legs.

Exhibit A: 2008 (the year of The Great and Epic Fail) Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) Northwest training camp in Grant's Pass, OR, day 2. Ted Snyder is checking on the extraction skills of his newest intern on a tiny little bird with a yellow patch on its head. "So, Sarah, what's this bird?" I look at it for a minute. "A baby... Golden-Crowned... Sparrow?" This should have resulted in a wrathful glare and a smack to the head, but Ted is nicer than that. "How about a Golden-Crowned Kinglet?" *FACEPALM*

Exhibit B: 2009 IBP Wenatchee National Forest, Rattlesnake Springs (I think) banding station, near Naches, WA. Our biologist and boss is visiting for a few days and Erika (fellow intern & field partner) and I are going about business as usual, banding and processing, etc. We get a rather large flycatcher and are going about trying to figure out what species it is. We're taking lots of measurements and trying to match them to anything on Pyle's Empidonax flycatcher chart... without success. All the measurements are just way too big. Erica (biologist) watches us for a few minutes and then cuts in: "Uh, girls... that's not an Empid." Twin blank stares. Re-examine the bird: grayish brownish greenish, rictal bristles, large-ish bill, buffy wing bars. Definitely a flycatcher. Wrack brain some more... light bulb of guilt. Sheepish and appropriately contrite: "It's a Western Wood-Peewee, isn't it." *FACEPALM*

I feel that an allowance of one egregiously stupid moment per year is not too much to ask.

(Saturday 14 May) Banding Summary: 15 birds, 8 species (CORE, SCJU, MYWA, AMRO, SOSA, RUBL)

Nice little Hammond's Flycatcher.

Sunday went fine, with the exception of on very badly tongued Rusty Blackbird... the worst one I've seen among the several thousand birds I've extracted. "Tonguing" (bird's tongue caught on the net) happens on occasion, most commonly with birds who tend to yell in the net. Usually this is restricted to robins and woodpeckers. Birds tongues are forked in the back, and this is where the net gets caught. Generally, a dexterously applied toothpick will fix this problem. Woodpeckers are another matter because their entire tongue is barbed. Blackbirds usually aren't a problem, but this one was a borderline avian microsurgery problem. I eventually got her freed and apart from some bleeding in her mouth, seemed fine.

Cool birds: Gambel's White-Crowned Sparrow, Rusty Blackbird (1 male, 1 female), Hammond's Flycatcher (x3)

(Sunday 15 May) Banding Summary: 25 birds, 9 species (SCJU, CORE, BCCH, MYWA, AMRO, FOSP, GWCS, HAFL, RUBL)

Male Blackpoll Warbler!

Monday was cloudy and quite warm (41 at opening and 65 at closing). Net 25 (triple high and a general pain in the butt) came down while Cheyanna was setting it up, so we took it down and re-did the support lines... opened fine at 8:00.

Cool birds: Solitary Sandpiper (x2), Orange-Crowned Warbler, nice male Blackpoll Warbler (a new one for me!)

(Monday 16 May) Banding Summary: 25 birds, 9 species (MYWA, SCJU, AMRO, CORE, HAFL, FOSP, SOSA, OCWA, BLPW)