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03/24/08
Rosy-Finch Banding Wrap-up
Filed under: General, Birding & Outdoors, NM & SW US, Sandia Crest
Posted by: Ken @ 7:51 pm

Waving Flag-- Rosies have returnedUpdate on the Rosy-Finches of Sandia Crest, New Mexico.  The flag is waving– smaller flocks of  Rosy-Finches are still visiting the feeders at Sandia Crest House. Feeders to remain up until the end of March if bears don’t start appearing. Banding operations have been discontinued.

Summary of Results of Rosy-Finch Banding

Last night, Nancy Cox, who with her husband Steve, supervises the
banding of rosy-finches at Sandia Crest House in New Mexico, sent us
this nice note, along with an updated spreadsheet of the results of
their banding activities to date. She mentions the fact that the bills
of most rosy-finches turn black as the breeding season approaches
(quite the opposite of what happens with European Starlings, whose
bills turn from black too yellow in spring).

Hi Ken,

We were glad that the pressure was on for us to band today.  We did better than we had on the last two Sundays combined.  (except for no OLD repeats).

I will keep watching your web site to see how long they stay this year.  We saw some really gorgeous Blacks out there today.  We saw a lot of black bills on the birds.

Thanks again for maintaining your wonderful website.  We appreciate it and know that many visitors and potential visitors really enjoy it.

Nancy


This year’s rosy-finch banding data, with daily breakout of numbers and
species mix, is available as an Excel spreadsheet at this link (a Free
Excel Viewer may also be downloaded there, if needed). The following table
summarizes the number and species of newly banded rosy-finches for the
past 5 winters. Banding actually began with a couple of sessions in
January, 2004, which accounts for the low numbers for that winter.
Trapping methods greatly improved in the more recent winters, when
banding was conducted almost every weekend from mid-November through
mid-March. 


Rosy-Finch Species Key:  BCRF = Brown-capped; BLRF = Black; CGRF = Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch

   



Species Winter 2004 Winter 2004 -
2005
Winter 2005 -
2006
Winter 2006 -
2007
Winter 2007 -
2008
Totals, all
seasons
             
BCRF 0 50 44 8 295 397
BLRF 23 34 221 579 70 927
GCRF-Interior 6 13 28 82 68 197
GCRF-Hepburn’s 0 0 5 104 29 138
             
Totals 29 97 298 773 462 1659
Species % Winter 2004 % Winter 2004 -
2005
% Winter 2005 -
2006
% Winter 2006 -
2007
% Winter 2007 -
2008
% All seasons
             
BCRF 0.00 51.55 14.77 1.03 63.85 23.93
BLRF 79.31 35.05 74.16 74.90 15.15 55.88
GCRF-Interior 20.69 13.40 9.40 10.61 14.72 11.87
GCRF-Hepburn’s 0.00 0.00 1.68 13.45 6.28 8.32
             
Totals 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00 100.00

This winter, the team recaptured 48 rosy-finches that had been banded
in previous winters. Remarkably, 6 Brown-capped Rosy-Finches were from
the winter of 2004-05, when only 50 of that species were originally
banded. This is a remarkably high rate of return and indicates winter
site fidelity.



Recapture
Summary
BLRF BCRF GCRF Totals
         
Winter 2004/2005   6   6
Winter 2005/2006 13 5 1 19
Winter 2006/2007 16 1 6 23
Totals 29 12 7 48




April 11-13, 7th ANNUAL PRAIRIE CHICKEN FESTIVAL in Milnesand, NM.

Information available at www.wildlife.state.nm.us 

The contact
person is Tish McDaniel (505-762-6997), chickenfestival@yahoo.com 

The number of participants is limited to 100 people.


May through October,

TUESDAY MORNING GUIDED BIRD WALKS
in the Sandia
Mountains, sponsored by the
U.S. Forest Service and Central New Mexico
Audubon.

Birders meet at 8:00 a.m. (8:30 in May and October)

at the
Sandia Ranger Station, 1176 Highway 337, in Tijeras.


Thursday Birder
and Central NM Audubon Field Trips

Sandia Crest House Sighting Logs (199 - 2008) Table and Spreadsheet of all Banding Results

CORRESPONDENCE: Narrative Banding
and Sighting Reports

ID Tips: the Four Rosy-Finch Races at Sandia Crest

Check Weather, Webcams and Road Conditions Rosy-finch and Nature Center Banding Schedule
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