Yellow-billed Cuckoo Field Work...My first 2 days in Blythe, CA

Yesterday, Alex and I started our first day of work for Southern Sierra Research Station on a Yellow-billed Cuckoo project (check out a post about our road trip here). This is the same project we worked on last summer.  We are based out of Blythe, California, and have field sites on both the Arizona and California side of the Colorado river.  The sites are Cottonwood and Willow restoration sites managed by the Bureau of Reclamation for the benefit of Yellow-billed Cuckoos and other riparian species.  Mainly due to overpopulation and agricultural practices, the Colorado is a pretty sad looking river in this region, and important riparian areas that many bird species depend on have suffered.  Because there are not many other trees around, our sites are loaded with tons of bird species, including the endangered subspecies of the South Western Willow Flycatcher in migration.

On our first day of work, Alex and I joined Shannon and two other technicians for banding.  We help set up the net, but then Alex and I just roamed around in the distance, on call incase any birds needed to be flushed into the net.  We ended up catching 3 cuckoos!  I didn't stick around to take pics, because I was kind of antsy to start looking for cuckoos.  I ventured to the infamous "Black Annie" territory, a cuckoo we banded last year.  She'd been recaptured this year, but not given a radio-transmitter, as she had the year before.  She is clearly faithful to her territory, so any resight is very valuable information.  Unfortunately a Yellow-billed Cuckoo is just about the hardest bird to resight color bands on.  They sit low on branches and crouch over their feet, hiding their brightly colored bands..so, you have to be looking at the bird *as* it lands, or *as* it takes off, or as it scrambles around a tree trying ti hide from you.  Black Annie nested last year, but we couldn't capture her mate.  I was hoping to see the pair, but only got a brief glimpse of a cucko near her old nest.  It could have been her, her mate, or a fledgling from last year.  Nearby, a fledgling from last year was recaptured and given a radio-transmitter, showing natal site fidelity! (this bird is nicknamed "Fuzzy Jr." since his dad was named "Fuzzy."  Even though these sites are small, we are learning a ton of information about cuckoos because of them.  I was also able to check on a nest found a few days ago by Shannon that miraculously has 4 eggs in it (Yellow-billed Cuckoos typically have 3).  Here is a picture of the bird on the nest.  Despite having caught 2 birds near this nest, neither seem to be associated with it (one of them is "Fuzzy Jr." and the other was a cuckoo that migrated out of the site last night).

Yellow-billed Cuckoo on nest

Today Alex and I tracked Fuzzy Jr.  He stayed near his roost tree for awhile, but didn't seem to be responding to any contact calls in the area.  He sometimes called, but got no answers.  He is probably unmated, but we followed him anyways.  He showed himself a few times, foraging in the tall cottonwoods on the edge of the road, and he didn't move around very much.  At one point, he did a voice exchange with another cuckoo (potential mate?!), but he didn't move towards the bird.  Hopefully in the next few days we can start tracking birds on roost, which may lead to some nest finding!
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