Summer 2007
We have completed our BEVEP program for 2007 and will continue to post curriculumn, reports, findings, and stories. We do hope to continue a banding eduction program in 2008 so check back with us in the spring.
Thanks to all who visited our banding stations. And thank you especially to all who came out bright and early those hot and buggy summer mornings to help with banding and education efforts - we could not have done this without the aid of volunteers and student interns.
Kids loved our BEVEP prgram -- can you tell?
Check out our story about BIRDS AND FIRE STORY (August 7, 2007).
BEVEP PRODUCTS: 
Teaching Bird Identification (ppt)
Summer 2007 CURRICULUM
Teacher lesson plans (w/ CFWEP)
2. BEVEP lecture handout
3. BEVEP pre-post test
4. BEVEP eval test
COLLABORATORS:
Clark Fork Watershed Advisory Committee.
For more teacher resources see their Teacher's Academy.
Grank-Kohrs Ranch National Historic Site
Clark Fork Coalition's Dry Cottonwood Creek Ranch
This Past Summer's Program:
Are you curious about Montana’s birds? Would you like to meet some of our favorite riparian birds up close and personal? Join the ASC this summer for a morning of bird banding and bird watching at one of our 3 locations in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin OR join us for special riparian bird walks.
Families, kids, and individuals of all ages welcome!
BIRD BANDING occurs at these locations:
• Valley of the Moon Nature Trail on Rock Creek
• Grant-Kohrs Ranch NHS in Deer Lodge
• The Clark Fork Coalition’s Dry Cottonwood Ranch near Galen
For more information about what to expect and for directions to the sites, download this ANNOUNCEMENT.
Summer 2007 Bird Banding Schedule
| Rock Creek | Grant-Kohrs Ranch | CFC’s Dry Cottonwood Ranch |
| Sunday, June 3 | Wednesday, June 6 | Saturday, June 9 |
| Sunday, June 10 | Thursday, June 14 | Saturday, June 16 |
| Wednesday, June 20 | Thursday, June 28 | Saturday, June 23 |
| Saturday, June 30 | Saturday, July 7 | Sunday, July 8 |
| Wednesday, July 11 | Sunday, July 15 | Monday, July 16 |
| Wednesday, July 25 | Sunday, July 22 | Monday, July 23 |
| Saturday, August 4 | Sunday, August 5 | Monday, August 6 |
Bird Walks
These events are designed for everybody from beginning birders to those with more experience. Participants will gain experience using binoculars to track down some of Montana’s most gorgeous birds, and we’ll learn a number of common bird songs.
Our bird walks take place near Deer Lodge and Butte. They begin at 7:00 and conclude around 10:00 am. Interested in joining us for a bird walk? Participants must sign up for these events in advance by contacting Kristina Smucker (kristina.smucker@mso.umt.edu) or 243-2035.
Summer 2007 Bird Walk Schedule:
Sunday, July 1st at Grant-Kohrs Ranch and Cottonwood Creek, in Deer Lodge
Saturday, July 14th at Silver Bow Creek, near Rocker
Saturday, July 21st at Silver Bow Creek, near Rocker
Summer 2006
We were awarded two grants to begin our Birds' Eye View Education Program. In 2006, with help from MT Fish Wildlife & Parks, we piloted a new banding station at Beavertail Hill State Park that was open to the public.
The State of Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program awarded the ASC an additional grant to
develop educational materials for the 2006 pilot program and expand our program during the spring and summer of 2007. The primary goal of this Education Program is to provide families living within the Upper Clark Fork River Basin a Bird’s Eye View of the effects of past mining activities and of current restoration and remediation projects aimed at repairing mining related damages. This program is unique because it takes place during the summer months and targets both children and adults that live within the basin. Through this program, participants are invited to observe birds up close at our banding stations, learn about Montana’s riparian birds and how to identify them, and interact directly with biologists collecting scientific data on bird communities – thus it represents an opportunity for citizens to make their own observations, form conclusions, and take part in the process of science.
You can read more about our 2006 season below. You can also download our draft Educator's curriculum guide (pdf).
Birds’ Eye View Education Program
2006 Pilot Season Progress Report
In the summer of 2006 we received two grants to develop a new education program: one from the State of Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program and another from Mt Fish Wildlife & Parks. Through this new program, called the Birds’ Eye View Education Program (BEVEP), the public is invited to observe birds “in the hand”, learn bird ID skills, interact with biologists, and gain a bird’s perspective on past mining activities and current restoration efforts in the Upper Clark Fork River Basin.
BEVEP operated a bird banding station at Beavertail Hill State Park on five dates between May 31 - July 12, 2006.
During these 5 visits, we captured 122 birds representing 24 diffe
rent species (Table 1). The five most common species were Black-capped Chickadee, American Robin, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo, and Song Sparrow, respectively. Many of the birds captured at this site are believed to depend on riparian habitats. These include the Red-naped Sapsucker, Yellow Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Gray Catbird, and Song Sparrow. We also captured a number of species more common in coniferous forest (e.g. Western Tanager and Hammond’s Flycatcher). Likely, this is because of the conifer forest adjacent to the riparian area or because there are a smattering of Ponderosa Pine trees present within the Cottonwood dominated riparian vegetation.
Our most exciting capture of the season was a male Pileated Woodpecker – what a gorgeous bird!
Other highlights of the season included a capturing a relatively large number of Calliope Hummingbirds, brilliant male Audubon Warblers, and examining the poka-dots on Red-naped Sapsucker’s wings!
Juvenile birds (i.e. birds born this summer, mostly likely at or near Beavertail Hill SP) made up 13% of captures, but this proportion would probably have been higher if we had been able to continue banding later into the summer (see below).
Of those individuals for which we could determine the sex, either by plumage characteristics or by determining whether the bird was in breeding condition, 45% were female and of these 77% had a brood patch, indicating they had made a breeding attempt this summer. Of the male birds captured, 85% had a cloacal protuberance, indicating they were in breeding condition.
The average number of captures per banding occasion was 24 individuals, and our most productive banding date was on June 11, with 41 captures. We also “captured” 37 human visitors at our banding station – we especially enjoyed our young visitors from the Montana Natural History Center’s Summer camp and a group of teachers from the Clark Fork Watershed Education Program’s Summer Science Academy. 
While we collected valuable pilot data and learned worthwhile lessons through operating our bird banding station at Beavertail Hill SP, we did encounter some difficulties that have us considering a new site for 2007. First, our bird capture rate of 24 birds/session is low for making reliable inferences about bird populations. Second, it is difficult to run a successful educational program with so few birds for visitors to observe; a capture rate of 40 to 60 captures/session is ideal. A final difficulty with this BHSP site, from an education standpoint, was that the park was closed to the public from the middle of July to the middle of August! As a result of this closure we were unable to offer our last three BEVEP programs of the year, and this made it impossible to meet our goals for the number of program participants. For these reasons, in spring 2007 we will explore alternate locations with higher birds densities, which are more likely to result in higher capture rates, and with more reliable public access.
We’d like to recognize the efforts of our dedicated technicians who volunteered until we received the funding for this program and then served as technicians: Sara Ashline, Maureen Essen, Leigh Greenwood, Ty Smucker, and Fernando Villasenor.
Finally, we would like to thank the State of Montana’s Natural Resource Damage Program and Montana Fish, Wildlife, & Parks for providing funding to operate this station and develop education materials (BEVEP Curriculum Guide.pdf). We also thank Plum Creek Timber Company for donating the banding equipment required to operate this station.
Table 1. Species Banded 2006 at BHSP
| SPECIES | Number of captures |
|---|---|
| Black-capped Chickadee | 21 |
| American Robin | 16 |
| Warbling Vireo | 9 |
| Yellow Warbler | 9 |
| Song Sparrow | 8 |
| Calliope Hummingbird | 7 |
| Gray Catbird | 7 |
| Red-naped Sapsucker | 6 |
| Yellow-rumped Warbler | 6 |
| MacGillivray's Warbler | 6 |
| Cedar Waxwing | 5 |
| Brown-headed Cowbird | 4 |
| Hammond's Flycatcher | 3 |
| Common Yellowthroat | 3 |
| Downy Woodpecker | 2 |
| Willow Flycatcher | 2 |
| Northern Flicker | 1 |
| Pileated Woodpecker | 1 |
| Red-breasted Nuthatch | 1 |
| Western Tanager | 1 |
| Dark-eyed Junco | 1 |
| Black-headed Grosbeak | 1 |
| Red-winged Blackbird | 1 |
| TOTAL CAPTURES | 122 |
A Story from our Final Day of Bird Banding along Rock Creek, Five Miles from Fire
With all the wildfires burning in Western Montana many people have been asking us how do the birds react? On August 7th, we had a chance to investigate this question when we received special permission from the Lolo National Forest (thank you Nick Spang and others) to conduct our final morning of bird banding at the Valley of the Moon Trailhead, a site just 5 miles north of the Sawmill fire burning in the Rock Creek drainage.
We opened our nets at the usual time, 6:00 am, and all was quiet, with only a few birds singing – a few Yellow Warblers, a Willow Flycatcher, and the occasional Song Sparrow. This is not unusual for early August – at this point in the summer most songbirds have “fledged”, or left the nest and parents are busy feeding their fledglings, replenishing their own energy stores, and replacing feathers in preparation to fly south or survive Montana’s winter. So by now, most male songbirds are silent, and it can feel like the woods are empty.
But by 7:00 am it was clear that the riparian shrubs and trees along Rock Creek were not empty. We began to hear the contact notes of many different species. Unlike songs, these calls tend to be short and uncomplicated, often just a single high, thin note that is difficult to locate. These calls are easy to miss if you are busy, as we were, banding the first two Song Sparrows of the day – an adult and a juvenile born at this site earlier in the summer. Both birds had small numbered leg bands on their right legs – these were birds that we had banded here earlier in the summer, and they were still here both feasting on insects that are abundant near water in late summer and molting (i.e. replacing) most of their feathers. As we split up and hiked out to check our nets for a second time at 7:20 it was clear that something was different from when we were here two weeks earlier.
There were birds in every tree and bush – a dozen Cedar Waxwings sat in the top of the dead aspen above our bird banding station, and as I approached the first net I could see that it held two Yellow Warblers, one Wilson’s Warbler and 3 Warbling Vireos. They had been flying in a mixed species flock and had all been caught together. As I worked quickly and gently to remove the birds I could hear dozens more warblers moving through the aspen trees around me. The next net was empty but the third net held 12 more birds – two Song Sparrows, one Chipping Sparrow, four Western Tanagers, two American Redstarts, and five more Yellow Warblers. I radioed for back-up help and Tim arrived, having already removed five birds from two other nets. In between removing birds I radioed Sharon and Andrew to find out how many birds they were getting in their five nets. Sharon reached the last net and replied, “oh my gosh there are twelve birds in this net!”. Small flocks of birds abounded throughout our site!
On the way back to the banding station we spotted a group of eight Eastern Kingbirds fly-catching from a shrub hanging over the creek. Next I saw a 25 foot tall willow where I counted eight Song Sparrows, twelve Yellow Warblers, and 4 Vireos before I gave up. It felt as though the trees and shrubs were alive with birds flitting from branch to branch before erupting out of the shrub in a small flock and zipping into the next patch of vegetation. When we got back to the banding station we spotted half a dozen Evening Grossbeaks perched in the willow above our banding table, oblivious to our presence. I paused before beginning to hang up the 11 bird bags I had clipped to my shirt and tried for a moment to take in all the bird activity around me. I could hear high pitched “sweet”, “tsseet”, and “seee…” call notes in every direction, and as I tried to focus in on some of the movement I found it difficult to decide where to look first. There was so much movement in every tree and shrub that the effect was almost dizzying! “Is that a Townsend’s Solitaire?” I asked. Townsend’s Solitaires breed in dry, open conifer forest NOT riparian areas! The bird in question was perched in the only juniper shrub at our site and when it flew, flashing the buff patches in it’s wings and white outer tail feathers, my initial impression was confirmed. What in the world was it doing here?
As we began banding and collecting data on the birds we had caught in our nets, it was clear that we were capturing a number of species that breed in conifer forest: Wilson’s and Townsend’s Warblers, Western Tanager, and Chipping Sparrow. We expect many of these species to move into riparian areas at the end of the breeding season – we know that riparian areas remain lush and green and full of insects and berries at the end of summer and are important areas during spring and fall migration, again due to abundant food resources. Thus, some of the increase in bird activity was certainly due to normal, seasonal movements. But I have been in Montana’s riparian areas during early August, and I have never seen anything like this. In the past it has felt as though the patch of riparian habitat is nearly empty of birds, and then suddenly I hear call notes and a flock moves in. I have worked quickly with my binoculars to identify the birds in these flocks because as suddenly as they arrived, they disappear as they continue on their path downstream and south.
In contrast, today at Rock Creek it seemed as though there was a constant stream of birds invading every shrub and tree in the riparian area. It felt as if every bird within several square miles had been funneled down into the narrow strip of vegetation along Rock Creek. And with the fires burning just 5 miles away, perhaps that is what happened…..
By 10:00 am we could no longer see the forested hillside just a quarter of a mile away because of the dense smoke. We had sore throats and headaches, and I found myself walking slowly so that I wouldn’t have to breathe hard. Our nets had been open for four hours, which is enough sampling effort to allow us to use the data in statistical analyses. It was time to close our nets and save our lungs! In those four hours we captured 77 individuals representing 19 different species; had we kept our nets open for the full six hours we were on track to break our summer record for the most captures (107 individuals). While it’s impossible to know how much of the increase in bird activity at Valley of the Moon TH was due to post-breeding season movements typical in August as opposed to additional movement in response to wildfire, what was clear is that this patch of riparian habitat along Rock Creek was attracting both a diversity and large numbers of songbirds.
Copyright© Spectral Fusion 2004. All Rights Reserved.