We've heard several reports of male Painted Buntings appearing at our Florida friends' feeders again! These sightings are going to be sparse, but will continue to increase over the next couple of months. The peak of fall migration is usually in mid-October to November, but these "early birds" are a welcome sight to our Florida friends who have been missing their Painted Buntings. For those of you in Florida (and all along the migration routes) who haven't spotted a Painted Bunting yet, now is a great time to make sure your feeders are thoroughly clean and filled with white Read more »
WORKSHOPS IN SOUTH CAROLINA, AUG 27th AND 29th
Please join Dr. Jamie Rotenberg for one of our FREE Painted Bunting Workshops this weekend in coastal South Carolina! On Friday, August 27th from 3:00-4:30pm, Dr. Read more »
BAND COLORS ON FAQ PAGE, ADDING YOUR NOTES
After a long delay (my apologies) the photo of PBOT's band colors is available on the FAQ page! I hope this will help you recognize lime green versus light green, as well as all the other old and new colors. At the bottom of the photo are the new split bands we started using this year to differentiate birds banded in North Carolina (red/yellow split) from those banded in South Carolina (blue/pink split). In addition, we have added a section called "Notes" at the bottom of the Spot Sighting and Timed Sighting report forms - t Read more »
Late summer observing and banding
My morning was spent making observations at the Brunswick Town State Historic Site (BTSHS) feeder. It was a pretty slow day for observations. After completing my observation session, I returned to the BTSHS visitor center and spoke to Jim, an employee, about the PB feeder needing to be refilled. Read more »
Intern meeting, new spotting scope
Today I attended a mandatory internship meeting with Dr. Rotenberg at his office at UNCW. Only 3 interns showed up, and that is including me. Some of the interns were out of town and had let Dr. R. know in advance, but a couple just didn’t show up. (Not a good thing to do when your grade depends on it!) Chelsea, Keith, and I were able to review previous intern’s portfolios and ask questions about what our portfolios should and should not include. Read more »
Despite looming rain, banding activity was brisk!
This banding session at Ft. Fisher Air Force Recreation Center was scheduled for the early morning hours. Dr. Rotenberg was by himself when my husband and I arrived to assist with the banding, but he already had captured over a half-dozen Painted Buntings for banding. I immediately got to work as his scribe, writing down the measurements as he called them out, and choosing band colors for the newly banded PBs. Read more »
Identifying band colors can be difficult
I arrived around 8:45 a.m. to conduct my observations at Brunswicktown State Historic Site, only to find that Jessica, another intern, was already there. I decided to stay for observations anyway, so that we could discuss the site and compare our observation data from previous visits. Read more »
Typical, but frustrating, end-of-summer male activity
This banding session at Carolina Beach State Park was a little different because a photographer from NC Wildlife magazine was once again trying to get photos of adult male and female Painted Buntings. Read more »
OUR ERROR MAY MEAN SOME EDITING FOR YOU
Thanks to our great summer interns (whose blogs you should definitely read!), we caught an error that may have affected you! If you have reported banded birds since we debuted the new website (on July 13th), please check your reports for accuracy. Due to an oversight, we had arranged the band color boxes on the Report Forms to read: upper left (UL), upper right (UR), lower left (LL), lower right (LR). This is not the correct order for reporting bands and is a change from the old Read more »
Helping a visitor spot their first Painted Bunting
I chose to return to Brunswick Town State Historic Site (BTSHS) to conduct another morning observation to see if my numbers were consistent. Once again it was sunny, hot, and humid with a clear sky. Very little breeze was blowing off of the river and the tractor/mower was not out, so I had high hopes for observing PBs at the feeder. Read more »