[obol] (no subject)

[Luke Redmond]

After what has seemed like an eternity, the weather at Malheur seems to be getting better.  
Still lots of migrants around on the refuge (some staying later than I've seen in the past) such as 
Yellow-rumped, Townsend's, Wilson's, and MacGillivray's Warblers, and Western Tanagers.  The Lewis' Woodpecker 
north of Knox Pond is still hanging around.  Common Nighthawks arrived on the 27th and on 
the same day I saw a Blue-gray Gnatcatcher on the CPR near Buena Vista.  This year, like the last, looks to be relatively bad for Short-eared Owls: so far I've only seen one.  The best sighting for me in the last few days, though, was of a color-banded Eastern Kingbird with the 
combination Aluminum/Red Blue/Orange.  To me and a few others, this particular kingbird is 
better known as Antonio.  Antonio was banded as an adult in 2002, and is now taking part in at 
least his seventh breeding season at Malheur.  One of the great things about working with 
a color-banded population of birds is learning the different birds' personalities.  Antonio, for example, 
not only dominates all other males in the immediate vicinity of his nest, he's quite attractive to female kingbirds.  Not 
only is he the genetic sire of the nestlings in his nest, he usually ends up fathering nestlings laid by females 
other than his mate.  During the several years that we have data for, he is one of the most prolific male kingbirds
in the population.  I'm always anxious to see if he makes it back at the start of a new year, and this year he gave
a little scare, as he was almost a week late of his typical arrival.  One bird, which was kicked out by another, settled early in Antonio's traditional territory, 
but true to his nature, Antonio showed up a few days ago and easily displaced the second male and then took his female.  Such is the life of a first-time breeding male.  Good birding.Luke RedmondFrenchglen, for the rest of the summer
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