Banding Report- February 28th-- 126 Rosies captured!!

[Rosyfinch]

The banding team had an exciting day yesterday!

Hi all,

Today was another good day at the Crest House.  We only newly banded 2 Brown-capped Rosy-Finches but we recaptured 124 other Rosy-Finches.  Seven of these were birds from previous seasons that we had not seen before.  One was a Black Rosy-Finch that we originally banded on 5 February 2005.  She is now in her 7th year [more below].

The road was clear but there is a lot of ice between the parking lot and the Crest House.

...We had another Rosy-Finch from our first full season of Rosy-Finch banding today.  This time it was a Black Rosy-Finch that Raymond banded (with Carol recording) on 2/5/05.  It was a second year bird then and is now in its 7th year.  We all wanted to know if Ryan had banded this bird but his initials were not associated with this bird.  Raymond had the honor on that day.  I can imagine that there was a discussion about who would get to band the single Rosy-Finch that day.  We only banded 2 birds that day.  The other bird was a White-breasted Nuthatch...

Nancy & Steve

[roisenp]

New to the forum--We travel to Crest House today (March , 2010).  Snow moderate  with heavy accumulations at the House.  Not sure when the snow stacked up but guessing there was no banding yesterday.  Only people up there were casual visitors, snowboarders, skiers and snowplows) but no staff.  Staggered through the snow to view the rosy-finches but saw none.  Black-capped Chickadee only bird I found.  Female Pine Grosbeak somewhere between 10K and Ellis trailheads.

Will return around March 21-23.  Are the rosy-finches expected to stay through that period of time?  

[Rosyfinch]

If sufficient staff cannot get up to Crest House, they will not open their doors. The manager no longer resides on-site, so instances of closing in bad weather may be a bit more frequent. We are sorry about your experience.

By mid-March, the number of rosy-finches and the sizes of individual flocks will start to decrease. Some species may depart earlier than others. Since Gray-crowned Rosy-Finches have been scarce this year, I would not be surprised if they become harder to find.

However, flocks have persisted past the middle of March in 7 of the past 10 years, and stragglers often continue into early April. All in all, you have a fair chance of seeing  at least two species.

Please let us know about the results of your next trip.

See the charts and links to earlier years' sightings logs on this page.

[Rosyfinch]

I should have pointed out that Black-capped Chickadees do not venture up into the mountain. If you saw chickadees at Sandia Crest, they were Mountain Chickadees. Both species may be seen in the valley, e.g., at the Rio Grande Nature Center.

[roisenp]

Rosyfinch,

  I suspected a Mountain Chickadee but it did not have the eyestripe I expected so I assumed BC as the most likely.  Of course, conditions being what they were it is certainly possible that I just missed the face pattern (it was sitting straight up above me about 35 feet).

Thanks for the correction.  We will try March 22 or 23rd.

God Bless,

Paul Roisen
Sioux City, IA
Woodbury County
712-276-0371(H)
712-301-2817(C)