Subject: MAPS Banding - Ft Lewis
Date: May 22 13:00:46 1996
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Hi, Tweets,

Just got back (noon) from our first banding session at the Fort Lewis' =
MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) site near Johnson =
Marsh (near Roy).

A great morning (any morning without rain is a great morning...), Mike =
Selema from the Fort, Don Norman from Tacoma, a volunteer - Sean, and I =
started out at 4:30a.m. We run the nets 5 times after setting the nets =
at daybreak (5:30), every 45 minutes. Don did a couple point-counts, =
but I neglected to get his species lists/counts - lots of Yellow =
Warblers near the marsh, a fair number of orange-crowns in the brush. =
Juncos are feeding fledglings. Heard quite a few Western =
(Pacific-slope) Flycatchers, creepers, Golden-crowned kinglets and =
Tanagers.

Down at net level, though, it was kind of average (a slow day...). We =
caught and banded 4 new birds:

Song Sparrow - hatching year bird
Chestnut-backed Chickadee - 'Adult', unknown sex
Bewick's Wren - 'Adult', unknown sex
Brown Creeper - Adult Male

We also recaptured 3 birds from last year:

Bewick's Wren - Adult male, caught and banded 7/19/95 as an adult male
Winter Wren - Adult male, caught and banded 8/28/95 as an immature =
unknown sex
Oregon Junco - Adult female, caught and banded 7/27/95 as an adult =
female

And, one of the weirdest things I've seen in 15 years of banding.. we =
had 2 birds, a fledgling song sparrow in one net and an adult male =
golden-crowned kinglet in another net on the other side of the study =
area, *killed* and partially consumed by chickarees (Douglas' squirrel - =
Tamiasciurus douglasii) !! I've read reports of gray squirrels, =
chipmunks and even white-tailed deer taking birds from mist-nets out =
east, and I've seen Belding's ground squirrels take birds from nets at =
Malheur NWR, but this was my first experience with this kind of =
'predation' here in W. Washington (usually, we just have to worry about =
the neighbor's cats in my back yard...). We'll have to check the nets =
out there on a shorter time period from now on, just in case these =
mammals have learned about a free food source....

Here's some recent mail from the BirdBand listserver:

>Date: Tue, 14 May 1996 11:47:38 -0500
From: thomas labedz <tlabedz at UNLINFO.UNL.EDU>
To: Multiple recipients of list BIRDBAND <BIRDBAND at LISTSERV.ARIZONA.EDU>
Subject: Re: Mauling

Dear Mr. Blackmer,
Such maulings can sometimes be attributed to : domestic cats,
small weasels (i.e. least, long-tailed, ermine, etc.), northern
short-tailed shrews would not be above nailing a chickadee, domestic
dogs, various fox species, even traditional herbivores such as deer
and squirrels ( I had a great time watching a fox squirrel devour a
window-killed rose-breasted grosbeak) will take birds from nets.
Other banders are sure welcome to add to my list of mammals. And we
should not forget the quick mess a shrike or accipiter can make of a
passerine in a net, then roll out and be on their merry way.
Thomas E. Labedz tlabedz at unlinfo.unl.edu
University of Nebraska State Museum
Lincoln, Nebraska U.S.A.
>
> Banders,
> I had an incident that caught our attention today. As some of my staff =
went
> to check a net near a small creek, several birds were captured but =
one, a bc
> chickadee, had been mauled and torn apart almost beyond recognition.
>
> It was in the bottom tier of the net, just off the ground, and the net =
had
> been checked about 4-5 minutes earlier.
>
> My best guess is a mink, but does anyone else have a culprit that =
comes to mind?
>
> John Blackmer
> River Bend Nature Center
> Faribault MN USA
> johnrb at deskmedia.com


I've heard theories that the mammals are looking for a high protein =
source this time of year - especially deer. Squirrels aren't nearly as =
herbivorous as we usually think. I've also heard that, in some of the =
more arid regions, the mammals consider birds, etc as a fluid source. =
May be true. I don't know. Thought you folks might be interested. =
Now, it's "I owe, I owe, so off to work..."

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net