We ventured up to the Mansfield ridgeline Thurdays night to begin our 19th season studying songbirds in the high elevation forests. It takes a long time to understand demographic changes. We were hoping the diminished winds and clearing skies forecast for the morning would prevail and allow us to get in our first mist-netting session for 2011. We awoke in the pre-dawn to winds howling from the NW and the ridgeline bathed in clouds, temperature hovering at 35F. Not what we hoped, but we managed to find a few sheltered spots and put up 10 nets. Avian activity was low, to say the least. We caught 5 birds total, including 2 Bicknell's Thrushes. One thrush was hatched last year and another was a recapture. We had not seen this bird since 2009 when it was just a year old. It is now in its 4th year.
We found the following birds on our ridgeline study area:
Common Raven 1
Winter Wren 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1
Bicknell's Thrush 7
American Robin 2
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle) 5
Blackpoll Warbler 8
White-throated Sparrow 6
No red squirrels up there, but that won't be the case a year from now, as a banner crop of fir cones is on the way. Bicknell's Thrushes and others better crank out the young this summer, because 2012 will be a challenging year, with red squirrels.
Photo: Male and female flowers on a Balsam Fir tree on Mt. Mansfield. Wind pollinated, the cones will mature later this year. Photo by KP McFarland.
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