 Betty and the Band I received two phone calls from Bradley Creek last week. The first was in regards to a bird photographed at the feeder of a lady who lives out that way. She had taken a picture of a strange white bird, but could not immediately identify the bird. She suggested that it might be a McKay's Bunting, but called me to find out if I knew what it might be. While she described the bird I busily flipped through my Sibley's bird book. However, I could not make a positive id from the given description. I found the page which depicted the Mckay's Bunting, but the range alone was enough to make me question whether it was a McKay's Bunting, or just a regular Snow Bunting. I was at a loss, luckily she mentioned that she had a photograph, so I said that I would have to see the photo. Arrangements were made to drop the photo off at Parkside Centre (in 100 Mile House) so that I could take a look and make my pronouncement. The second phone call came several days later, again from the same lady. She asked me if I'd picked up the photo (I hadn't yet) but she also had another interesting bird story. Her husband discovered a dead bird in their yard, killed after it ran into a window. The dead bird had a band on its leg, and her husband said that he thought it might be a member of the accipiter hawk family, so I once again began my interrogation... ...the birds length was about ten and a half inches. Its bill was hooked, and its body was generally gray with pale underparts and russet streaks. From the size I deduced that it might be a Sharp-shinned or Cooper's Hawk. I asked for more details on the configuration of the tail tip so the lady went out, retrieved the bird, and described the tail tip as two lobes of feather rather than a fan-tipped arrangement. I suggested she had a male Sharp-shinned hawk. She now wondered what should be done about the band. I told her that retrieving a band was a very important part of the whole banding process. In fact millions of birds could be banded, but all the activity would amount to nothing if noone ever retrieved the bands. I gathered that her husband was busily trying to remove the band from the leg of the bird while we talked and finally she had the band in her hand. She read the band numbers she could make out and finally decided that it would be easier if she left the band in town where I could pick it up and take a look for myself. The next day I picked up two envelopes. The first one contained the photo of the mystery white bird. I always insinuated that if I am presented with a clear, but not necessarily close view of any of our local birds, I am likely to be able to make a good guess as to its identity. One look at this bird photo however had me scratching my head. It did indeed have some of the salient marks of a McKay's Bunting but it would take some scrutiny to make an accurate call. The next envelope was at the tourist information centre. This envelope contained a flattened band, small and silver. The size of it surprised me. The only other bird band I'd held in my hand was taken from a male Mallard and it stood to reason that a much lighter bird, such as a male Sharp-shinned Hawk, could not be burdened with such a weight for the rest of its life. My first thought was that it might be difficult to find out where to report the band but there on the band itself was a 1-800 number. Another part of the inscription on the band read “Laurel, Maryland” so I intuited the bird was most likely banded in the United States. This was just like Christmas, I couldn't wait to get home and phone the number. When I finally managed to get to a phone and dial the number, a lady came on the line right away and asked if I was phoning to report a bird band number. I said yes, and there was somewhat of a pause, I thought maybe she was switching me to another department, but the same lady came back on the line, so she was probably just digging out the required form. She asked what state the bird was found in. I told her that I was calling from BC (British Columbia.) She asked what state that was in, so I explained that I was calling from Canada, and that the name of the province was British Columbia. The name of the town, 100 Mile House, also caused some confusion, so I followed this up by suggesting that instead of a required county name, she might best mention the area where the bird was found is called the Cariboo. After requesting various place names, her next question was, “did I shoot the bird?” I laughed and said, “Are you trying to get me into trouble. It's illegal to shoot Sharp-shinned hawks in Canada.” She didn't seem to see the humour in that, and said that I would receive more information in the mail. I was beginning to wonder how much of the information I'd given was accurate enough to guarantee that happening, but I felt a little more confident that my email address was properly taken and that confirmation would get to me that way. My duty done, as far as the bird band was concerned, I turned my attention to the photo. The bird in question was certainly in the finch variety as suggested by the beak shape. It was mostly white with with various black markings somewhat like the McKay's Bunting, but its overall body profile was not that of a Bunting. Also it had pink, not black legs. Leg colour would not be variable especially for an Arctic dweller. The beak was finger-nail coloured, and this suggested that it might be a Junco. There are so few small birds marked in black and white that if it wasn't a Bunting, it had to be an anomaly of some kind. In the past when confronted with such curiosities I've enlisted the help of Dick Cannings through email. Within an hour he replied saying that it was a leucistic Junco, an individual bird that for some reason had grown odd coloured feathers. This happens among most species of birds and only yesterday I saw a White-crowned Sparrow in the park with an all white tail. Well, this was another problem solved. The next day I received an email from the organization to which I reported the bird band. The bird that was wearing the band was indeed a male Sharp-shinned Hawk and it had been banded in Nevada in 2001. I was pleased that they seemed to have been able to reach me with the information. I have yet to get the information that I've found out about the photo and the band to the lady in Bradley Creek but I will eventually. Betty has provided me with some interesting bird-related mysteries to solve and I thank her for that. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
