01.10.23
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Fall 2022 bird banding highlights

Fall 2022 was LLCC’s 20th banding season (11th fall season) since the station’s inception (fall 2012). Below are a few of the highlights:

  • We banded 1,568 birds of 78 species over 68 banding days. This translates into 23.1 birds banded per day.
  • We also had 325 repeat captures (birds banded earlier during the fall 2022 season) and 58 return captures (birds banded during a previous season).
    • One of the more interesting recaptures was a Black-capped Chickadee that was originally banded in fall 2015.
  • Our highest one-day total for the season was 121 birds banded on Oct. 7.
  • The top five species banded (by abundance) for the season were as follows — species (# banded): Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler (214), Dark-eyed (Slate-colored) Junco (204), American Goldfinch (117), White-throated Sparrow (84) and American Robin (80).
  • The cumulative total number of birds banded (over 20 seasons) at the LLCC BBS is 33,142 birds of 134 species.
    • We did add a new species this season to our cumulative station list: Pine Warbler.
  • The weekend after Halloween (Nov. 4-7), we had an owl banding event during which we captured/banded one Northern Saw-whet Owl.
  • We continue to host many volunteers and guests, including a number of LLCC biology classes, dual credit biology classes (Lanphier High School), UIS graduate students and employees from the Illinois Natural History Survey’s Havana Field Office.
    • This past November, a UIS graduate student (Kayla Ferron) presented a poster at the annual meeting of the Inland Bird Banding Association. For this project, Kayla utilized data collected at the LLCC BBS. Stacey Olson and I were co-authors of this poster, and we are continuing to work on this project.
  • Our spring banding operations are scheduled to begin March 15, 2023.

If you are interested in following our daily/weekly banding activities, we have two Facebook pages you are welcome to follow: Lincoln Land Community College Bird Banding Station (daily reports/photos of our banding activities at LLCC) and Lincoln Land Association of Bird Banders – LLABB (~ weekly reports/photos of banding activities at other sites throughout central Illinois).

Tony Rothering, professor of biology