Field notes for March 26, 2009

I'm a little behind in posting field observations since I just got the blog up and running, so I'm posting observations from my last few visits to Springbrook Park today.

March 26, 2009:
This was my first visit to the park this spring. I was excited to see which towhees had survived the winter and if any towhees that hatched last year had claimed territories in the park this year. Since my mom was visiting me from Ohio, I brought her along so she could see what it was all about. When we arrived near the tennis center I heard towhees calling right away. I saw an unbanded male hanging out in the tennis center area (North N3). He was perched in a tree and sat there calling for a long time. He was perched in such a good spot that I let my mom borrow my binoculars and she was able to get a good look at the towhee. An unbanded female soon appeared from the bushes, probably his mate. I ID'd a banded female towhee who was calling right next to the road in M2. Her band combination was ORBA. To read the towhees' band combinations, we start with the top band on the bird's left leg, then the bottom band (closest to the toes) on the bird's left leg, then the top and bottom of the bird's right leg. "A" stands for Aluminum (the silver band with the unique number on it), "B" = Blue, "G" = Green, "N" = Pink, "O" = Orange, "P" = Purple, "R" = Red, and "Y" = Yellow. Also in M2 I saw a male towhee calling near the road. I didn't see his left leg, but his right leg had R and A. To note that I hadn't seen his left leg, I noted his combination as ??RA.

On the North-South Primary trail in P6 I saw BBAG (a male) singing for about 5 minutes near the top of a pine. Last year BBAG's nest was just a few feet from the bench at the intersection of the North-South and East-West Primary trails. Last year we were able to catch BBAG's mate building the nest. BBAG is the father of YPAY and GAGO. YPAY was one of our 14 fledglings that we tracked via radio telemetry last year.

A little farther down the North-South Primary trail in R4-6 we saw BARO (a male) calling with an unbanded female foraging near him. In S4 YGAN (a male) and ??OA (a female) were foraging. ??OA is most likely PBOA, his mate from last year. They ended up with only one fledgling last year, BABY. BABY's brood mate was very small and disappeard from the nest a few days before BABY fledged. YGAN and PBOA's second nest was depredated later in the season. BABY was also one of our radio tagged fledglings.

In T and U 10 we saw BGAN (a male) calling and foraging with an unbanded female. I was pretty excited to see that BGAN was claiming a territory. He is the first of our fledglings from last year to return. BGAN is the son of a towhee that seemed to have an injured foot last year. We were never able to see his left leg because he always held it close to his body. His right leg combination was BR, so we called him StubBR.

In X15 I saw ??AN (a male) and ??AY (a female) foraging. They are most likely GOAN (the male) and GPAY (the female). GOAN and GPAY were prolific breeders last year. They had two successful nests with 3-4 fledglings each, and then unfortunately one nest that they seemed to abandon. The third nest was very late in the season, though, and we assumed they abandoned it because there wasn't enough food to feed the nestlings. Last year GOAN spent a lot of time in the backyard just across Wembley Park Road. I am worried that this year he might decide to nest over there and we won't be able to monitor the nest.

The leaves are starting to come out on many of the plants in the park. The new green leaves of the Indian Plum shrub are just starting to appear. Waterleaf is starting to emerge just a few centimeters above the ground. Hazelnut leaves are also just beginning to unfold.

All in all it was a wonderful first day back in the park. I'm excited about what the new season has to offer.