by Chan Mendiola Orizaba, songbird bander and social media intern
This fall we unexpectedly returned to Camas National Wildlife Refuge for another season of migratory songbird banding. We were banding at Camas in 2023-24 as part of a two-year project to replicate our previous banding research there in 2005-2007. While we banded in both the spring and fall in prior seasons, this year we were only able to return for fall migration, but with a specific and exciting goal in mind…
After conversations with Refuge Biologist Andrea Kristof, we began to wonder how birds might be using the entire refuge, especially in light of recent habitat changes. Due to our lead bander Lucian Davis’ determination to pursue potential funding, we were able to secure funding to return to Camas and establish a new banding site on the wetlands. Our historic banding site is centered around the Refuge headquarters in a mixed riparian woodland habitat that has faced significant vegetation loss due to drought, changes in water use on the Refuge, and increased agricultural water use.
This habitat change was the primary reason we returned to Camas two years ago; we were interested in determining if or how these changes might be affecting songbird populations, especially as Camas is a critical migratory stopover site. Now we’re also interested in determining how songbirds might be using the willow-dominated riparian habitat closer to the main wetlands of Camas NWR, especially given the loss of cottonwoods and riparian habitat around the headquarters.
Our first step when returning this fall was to set up our historic banding site and then establish our new site. This new site is nestled between Two-way Pond and Camas Creek and was affectionately named “Tower” after the nearby wildlife viewing tower. Similar to our other monitoring sites, we placed ten nets in areas where birds are likely to forage, with our banding station roughly in the center. Some nets were placed in areas where refuge staff will be planting native plants like Golden Currant and Narrowleaf Cottonwood in the future, with the hope that we can collect data on these areas before and after restoration!
Once we had our sites established, we started banding on a six-day schedule, with three days at HQ and three at Tower. Prior seasons at Camas have been constant-effort, meaning that – weather permitting – we band daily throughout the season, with a five-person crew that alternates days off so there’s constant coverage. That wasn’t feasible with our smaller three-to-four person crew this fall, so we created this six-day schedule instead and aimed for equal effort at both sites.
From our first day on August 1st to our last day on October 15th, we captured a grand total of 2,513 birds, with 173 of those being recaptures, and had 56 unique species! Breaking down the numbers between sites and looking at our net hours gives us better insight to how the season went…
We banded 1,304 birds at HQ and 1,035 at Tower which, compared to 3,930 in Fall ‘23 and 3,204 in Fall ‘24, seems substantially lower, but we had various factors impacting our capture totals this season. The 2 main factors were (1) for budget and logistical reasons, we started 10 days later than in past seasons and (2) our maximum effort in 2025 was 6 days/week versus 7 in past years.
When comparing our capture rates, i.e., total number of birds caught per total hours that we operated, this fall at HQ was almost exactly the same as our 2023 season, which was the better of the past two seasons! The capture rate at Tower was surprisingly just slightly lower than our 2024 season at HQ!
Our crew would’ve predicted completely different results, as our three-person team had all banded at Camas before and felt that it was much slower this fall.
It wasn’t an uncommon sight to see us standing around, hands on our hips, asking “where are the birds?”.
Numbers at HQ were more evenly distributed than in past years, with a slower peak but a busier beginning and end, making it feel slower than it actually was. Tower being significantly less diverse than HQ also made the days seem to drag; Tower only caught 3 species that HQ didn’t, while HQ banding a whopping 22 species that Tower did not!
The lack of water on the Refuge likely played a part in Tower’s capture rates. While the Refuge has struggled against drought and other water loss over the years, they normally are able to at least keep water in some of the major lakes and ponds during fall migration. Due to a curtailment ordered in late July, the wetlands were completely dry with the exception of Sandhole Lake about 1.5 miles away from our station.
In late May, two of our banders had tested out a few potential net lanes to help us prepare for this pilot season at Tower. While we only banded for three days, we had some interesting catches, including lots of Yellow-headed Blackbirds (a very exciting catch), and plenty of expected waterfowl observations! When we returned in the fall, we caught zero blackbirds of any species and were lucky to even observe blackbirds or a single duck flying over. When our crew went birding at Sandhole, we counted nearly 700 Sandhill Cranes, about 3,000 ducks, and 100 Red-winged Blackbirds in one trip alone! It’s hard not to wonder what this fall at Tower might’ve looked like had there been water on the rest of the wetlands…
Despite the slower-going at Tower, it still deserves its flowers—one of our busiest days of the season was at this site, with 28 Brewer’s Sparrows in one net alone! It also caught some of our more interesting species this season with two Barn Swallows and one Marsh Wren. And, of course, we can’t forget HQ where the beloved Wilson’s Warbler comes out on top each season, but we also get oddballs like Common Nighthawk, Loggerhead Shrike, and our first ever Sagebrush Sparrow!
Our crew faced the unknown with excitement and had a blast establishing this new site! Our efforts this season will help us as we plan for another fall season running both sites at Camas next year. Currently we have partial funding for next fall and we are actively looking for sources of long-term funding for this project.
We hope to keep banding here into the future, and ideally keep building a community outreach program around the banding effort!
We want to take a moment to thank those who helped fund this unexpected but exciting season. Friends of Camas, Great Basin Institute, Rocky Mountain Power Foundation, and the Idaho Chapter of The Wildlife Society all contributed greatly to our return to Camas this fall. And of course, we want to thank the Refuge staff for accommodating us and their constant willingness to help us out whenever we needed!
We’re looking forward to another year at Camas and hope you’ll join us for the ride!
This article is part of our 2025 end of the year newsletter! View the full newsletter here, or click “older posts” below to read the next article. Make sure you don’t miss out on IBO news! Sign up to get our email updates.