13 April 2017 – Lincoln’s Sparrow

The Mourning Dove was still there this morning, but it has been disturbed a bit and is now on its back.

New this morning was an unfortunate Lincoln’s Sparrow at the main north entrance to the NRC. As is so often puzzling, this was a bird that had to have been traveling south to hit the glass there even though the net movement of Lincoln’s Sparrows in April in Oklahoma is north.

This bird had 0 fat, was of indeterminate sex, and looks to be a SY.  Note trauma to the bill tip indicating the point of collision.

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26 September 2016 – Lincoln’s Sparrow

We finally had a decent cold front push through with the first nip of autumn in the air but, unfortunately, it also brought us the first Lincoln’s Sparrow casualty of fall.  This was an AHY-U, bulging with fat (scored it a 3).  This one is also the first window casualty in front of a treated window.  I can’t tell if the bird flew into an untreated pane above the treated area or if it hit one of the treated panes.  That’s a design flaw of my study, stemming from the logistical challenge of treating such large expanses of glass.

Lots of birds were moving through campus today.  I found a pair of Brown Thrashers and this Grasshopper Sparrow flitting around the plantings in the southwestern alcove.

22 September 2016 – Indigo Bunting

The photos illustrate how obvious it is to find many of the carcasses at the Noble Research Center.  Today it was an Indigo Bunting in the southeast alcove.

This was a hatch-year bird and probably a male owing to the faint bluish tinge in the wings and tail.  Were those blushes of color resigned to the upper tail coverts, female would be a bit more likely.  Fat = 0 on this bird.

 

19 September 2016 – Nashville Warbler

That southwestern alcove continues to get a workout this fall, but again, the unfortunate victim was found in front of untreated glass panes.

Today it was a hatch-year (HY) Nashville Warbler; sex undetermined with fat score = 2.

 

When I found the bird in position on the cement as indicated in the above photo, it had already been heavily scavenged by ants. I moved the carcass to a location on the grass on the north side of this southwestern alcove (see photo, top right) to set up a removal trial.

12 September 2016 – Yellow Warbler

The southwestern alcove was again the site of a window-killed bird this morning but, again, it did not appear to have struck one of the treated panes of glass.

The unfortunate victim was an after hatch-year (AHY) female Yellow Warbler, and the ants had gotten to her, big time.

7 September 2016 – another hummingbird

I initially reported “no casualties” for September 7, but Chrissy Barton’s sharp eyes found one for me.

Some time between my survey that morning and Chrissy’s walking through that entrance around noon, a Ruby-throated Hummingbird – apparently another HY male, struck an untreated pane at the southwest alcove and died. Both it, and its partner from a couple of days earlier, were removed before I got back to check on the morning of the 8th. I recorded this second hummingbird as scavenged/removed on day 0.

 

5 September 2016 – Ruby-throated Hummingbird

The HY male Ruby-throated Hummingbird I found this morning means that, for 2016, a young male of this species was both the last casualty of “spring” (on July 11th) and the first official casualty of fall.

This bird was in the southwest alcove, illustrating the urgency with which I must complete my ABC bird tape treatments of the west entrances!