Friday and Saturday, June 17 and 18
Throughout these next two days, our trio tried to catch more birds. On Friday, at the end of the day (at 1930, which was our longest day in the field), Edward caught HETH 2! He was finally able to catch one of the birds and take off its transmitter! That same day, we caught two more thrushes close to and inside HETH 3’s territory. On Saturday, as I was way down in HETH 1’s territory trying to catch him, Edward and Olivia caught a male Hermit Thrush near a nest! Mark and Marilyn had found a nest just that morning, and so Olivia and Edward set up a net to try to catch one or both of the parents. I went up to see the nest (standing back about 15 meters as to not attract predators to the nest), and inside were four babies! They were quite old, almost ready to fledge, and I got to watch as an unbanded adult fed the nestlings twice. Mark explained that this nest was more like nests often found out West -- it was in a baby spruce tree about a meter off of the ground. This was the third type of nest that Mark and Marilyn have seen in North Carolina’s mountains. They had found one on the ground in a swath of sedge (much like the Dark-eyed Junco nest, I suppose), one on a large rock outcropping, surrounded by small ferns; and now one not far off of the ground in a baby spruce tree. It was fascinating to learn about all of these microhabitats to which Hermit Thrushes have adapted.
After banding the male thrush near the nest, Edward had to leave and go home. Our parents joined us on Saturday afternoon and stayed until we left Sunday. Olivia and I took them out to the trail as we tried in vain to catch HETH 1 and 3. Though we were unsuccessful, it was fun to be able to practice our net skills. Hermit Thrush 1 circled my net (which was by the lunch spot where I first heard a Canada Warbler sing) coming close multiple times to flying in. We decided to try that same spot again tomorrow.
Sunday, June 19
Today we got up early and went out to try and catch HETHs 1 and 3 again. I took the antenna with me as I played playback for 0.615. As I walked the trail in his territory with my family, two male Hermit Thrushes came in. One was unbanded, and approached very close to shed, a bit toward the Parkway. The other was a banded thrush that came in to the exact spot that I had tried to catch HETH 1 the afternoon before. It was crazy to see the territorial fluidity of Hermit Thrushes. Two male thrushes in HETH 1’s territory, with 0.615 nowhere to be seen? Weird.
We all went down to HETH 3’s territory and Olivia and I set up a net. The playback caused two Hermit Thrushes to come in and try to scare each other away. Finally, we caught a banded bird! Olivia and I ran to get the bird out of the net before it escaped, but it wasn’t HETH 3! This bird had evergreen bands and no transmitter. So, after trying again to catch HETH 1 with no luck, we were finished with the study for the summer. Even though we were unsuccessful in re-capturing HETHs 1 and 3, we were able to see how much male Hermit Thrushes travel into the territories of others.
After packing up a bit, Olivia and I drove to see our Governor’s School friend in Asheville. We had a lot of fun with Leah, walking around Asheville and eating delicious food. We stopped to watch a large group of street performers playing jazz music, with all sorts of instruments and a singer whose rich voice was filled with layers of emotion. We ate at a delicious vegetarian/vegan restaurant, where I got an Almond Dream mocktail and a yummy vegetarian meal. After walking around a bit more, Leah took Olivia and I to the Chocolate Lounge. Yes, it is as heavenly as it sounds. All of the chocolate is fair trade, and all of it is amazing. I got a chocolate creme brulee with a crunchy sugared top that I had to break through to get to the creamy chocolate below. I also bought the best chocolate chip cookie I have ever had. It was half an inch thick, with large dollops of sweet chocolate chips. YUM!
Finally, it was time to go home.
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