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December 09, 1962 - Netting and Banding at Tiana BeachNetting and Banding at Tiana Beach Exclusive Sunday Review Sketch by Dennis PaIeston of Brookhaven Focus on Guest Writer Walter Terry You will remember the job Walter Terry did last year reporting to us on his mist netting and bird banding at Tiana Beach. I thought you might interested in a letter he wrote concerning this year's "Operation Recovery." ps This is a brief outline of results of the recently completed annual bird banding activities Tiana Beach under "Operation Re covery," which, although initiate in 1955 as an Atlantic Coastal N ting Project, seems to be spread ing out.and now includes banding stations — as far west as Iowa, also small stations in Bermuda an Venezuela. This project is car ried out mostly by licensed band ers in cooperation with and un the guiding hand of the Fish an Wildlife Service of the Depaft meat of the Interior. 1962 was by far the best sea LeRoy Wilcox and I (Walte Terry) have had at Tiana Beach netting. and bantling a total 545¢ birds in 53 days betwee August! 30 and October 31. Pr vious totals for preceding year were 3170 for 1959, 4153 for 1 and 4036 for 1961. The numbe of species banded for those- thref years were,87, 85 and 89, respec trively. We aye happy to r a new high of 99 species ba in 1962. Weather : conditions aver-aged better- than normal, few days be- ing lost on- account of inclement weather. And no hurricanes, fo which we were truly thaaful. Many abnormally high tides tend- ed to flood some of our locations and many times it was necessa to wear boots all day. By all day we mean from before daybreak until generally around one or two o'clock in the afternoon. In 1961 a hurricane about mid- September really gave us a bad time, ?nigh tides were well over Dune Road several times and washed a great deal of debris Into the mist net lanes. We usually operate about four to 10 nets each (a net is about 40 feet long) depending-. upon the number of birds present and also weather- conditions. Optimum con- ditions, reaped only once or twice during the two month per- iod, for netting the most birds,- are. cloudy weather, no wind and plenty of birds. This year a great,: wave of :'migratory birds$. the larger we have seen at Tiana in our five years of opera- tions there, was experienced in the five day period between Oct 14 and 15. During this period one individual banded a total of 1117 birds, by far the most birds band- ed at Tiana by one person, in a like period. Nature by Paul Stoutenburgh, Cutchogue We had some very good birds this year including several spec - itNe ies we had not banded previous- ly. An immature blue grosbeak, ear an accidental, v4sitor frpm , the net. south, was banded. orb. Oct 11, a the first for Operati on* Recovery I at Tiana, although;;w� had previ- ously banded three in7 the spring me of 1961 including -one .at _ Center a- Moriches and two ai Blue Point. On Oct 6 a yellow- throated warb- the ler was banded. This is also a bird from the south, rarely seen on Long Island. Aknost as rare at and also the first banding was a e- prothonotary warbler banded on d Sept 13. It seemed to us quite et- a coincidence to have banded a d- blue grosbeak, a yellow- throated and a prothonotary warbler this sofall, all three being rare birds d from the south, alithough there _ had been no tropical storms in r this area during that period. r Southern birds marry times are der d blown up the Atlantic Coast in - the relatively quiet vortex or center of a hurricane. ggn This year, early in September, r a few nets were set up on the tidal mud flaats in Shinnecoek Bay at low tide. Here a greater n yellow -legs and a semi - palmated Pre sandpiper were banded for the S first time at Tiana. Our first 0 night haw* was banded at dawn r on Oct 1. Before the bird was identified we could not imagine what species would be making report such a great hissing . noise. Al- though a common bird in this area, our first meadowlark was �}, banded on Oct 13. A cliff swallow, locally the rarest member of its family, migrating with a flock r consisting mostly of barn swal- lows was banded on Sept 12. Two Ac a d i a n sharp- tailed sparrows were banded this year for the ry first time. Overall color of these birds appeared more blue -gray than the common sharptail of which it is a� subspecies. Other birds we rarely band' - included seven winter wrens; two long - billed marsh wrens, one orange - crowned and two mourgi -ig warb- lers. Other species banded in 1962 but not in 1961 included 13 barn swallows, three -Canadian warblers, and one, each sparrow hawk, pigeon hawk: and clapper rail. This year we' banded no white - breasted nuthatches al- though five were banded in 1961, no kingfishers although three were banded in 1961, no crested fly - catcher, cowbird or Connecticut warbler aithouglT one each was banded in 1961. Numbers of many species bemd- ed vary considerably from, year to-year. For example, 31 brown creepers were banded in 1961 and 61 in 1962, including 15 on Oct 1; 43-brown thrashers in 1961 and 79 in 1962; 22 hermit thrushes in 1961 and 72 in 1962; one veery in 1961 and eight in 1962; 22 cedar I waxwings in 1961 and 68 in 1962; two magnolia warblers in 1961. and 18 in 1962; one bay�breasted warbler in 1961 and 13 in 1962; eight yellowabreasted chats in 1961 and 21 in 1962; eight Balti- more orioles in 1961 'and 27 in 1962; four Lincoln's sparrows in 1961 and 13 in 1962.: Other species more or less un- common on Long, Island banded at Tiana in 1962 include two black billed cuckoos, five ruby - t h r o a t e d hummingbirds, 12 Yellow-ibellied sapsuckers, three hairy woodpeckers, three mock- ingbirds, three blue-headed vir- eos, eight Tennessee, 19 Cape May, _two Black+burnian -and three Can- ada warblers, three rusty black- birds, 10 scarlet tanagers, two rose-breasted grosbeaks, eight i:r- digo buntings, four dicksissels, 10 Purple finches, four grasshopper sparrows, 15 sharp - tailed, one sea- side, 12 vespers and two fox spar- rows. Birds found to be the most abundant on the barrier beach banded this year include 176 Yellow - shafted flickers, 274 golden-crowned and 186 ruby - crown kinglets, 1195 myrtle wart. lers, 184 palm warblers, 279 Sav- annah sparrows,;68o slate- colored juncos, 406 • wii1e- throated, 123 swamp and 622 song sparrows. Some of' our most abundant brills are`, infrequently - banded at Tiana, ;FOr- example, we banded only ode -blue jay, six starlings, five English sparrows, 10 black - capped chickadees, and a tree sparrow. Although': many flocks of s?,arlings fly over the area is the morning in an easterly dir- ection enroute to their feeding grounds, very few are low enough to be trapped. Thousands of tree swab'.ows migrate westerly over the, barrier beach, usually well above the nets. Early in Septem- ber many small shorebirds are found on the mud flats in 9hinne- cock Bay. So far we have not attempted_ to band these birds in great numbers since the pri- mary objective of Operation Re- oovery is to band warblers.