Last Day at Niagara Boat Launch

Yesterday was our last day of banding at the Niagara Boat Launch site. It was a beautiful sunny day with a nice cool breeze off the lake. We didn't catch too much, but added a few new species to the photo list.

This was the first male Brown-headed Cowbird that I've photographed this season. They've been shadowing the females all spring. The Yellow Warblers are now in full nesting mode, so the female cowbirds are probably targeting them now rather than the local Song Sparrows.

We kept hearing an Eastern Wood-pewee calling for much of the morning. He suddenly stopped, and we quickly learned why.

They're a very fierce member of the family Tyrranidae. He kept snapping his bill and doing his best Olive-sided Flycatcher impression, raising his crest and trying to look big. He looks especially fierce here.

When trying to identify Empidonax flycatchers, one of your first tasks is to eliminate this species, which belongs to the genus Contopus. Characteristics to look for include the big crest, orange mandible, lack of an eye-ring and longer, more prominently forked tail. The "Pee-O-Wee" song helps too, as its very different from the short sneeze-like songs of the Willow, Acadian, Least and Acadian Flycatchers.

Our final catch at Niagara was this SY male American Redstart.

He was a bit of a challenge as he should have more black on his face by this time of the year. Old females can also have some black feathering, but the feather wear and lack of a brood patch convinced me that he was a he.

I had planned on doing one last day of banding at Fry's Landing tomorrow (Friday 1 June), but with the weather forecast almost guaranteeing rain, I decided against it. I'll be writing a few more posts this weekend, but as of today, we're done banding at Presque Isle for the spring of 2012.