The table below shows birds banded during the Current Period (Columns 1 & 2), each species' Yearly Tally (Column 3), and a Grand Total for each species (Column 4) since banding began at Hilton Pond North on 10 March 2024. Any new species for the current year are in RED.

BANDED BIRD RECAPTURES/RETURNS

AT HILTON POND NORTH

16-24 March 2026

Recaptures of seven resident Carolina Chickadees and returns of seven migratory American Goldfinches were of particular interest this week. Birds in RED are in at least their fourth year; two AMGO (*) were in at least their FIFTH year.

NOTE: List does not include our many same-season recaptures, some of which are same-week or same-day.

Carolina Chickadee banded here 03/28/24; now after 3rd year unknown

Carolina Chickadee banded here 04/10/24;

NOTE: Since CACH are non-migratory, it's likely all are year-round residents produced locally or near Hilton Pond North. CACH dispersal after hatch is generally less than 2.5 miles.

American Goldfinch banded here 03/14/24; now 4th year male

American Goldfinch banded here 03/23/24; now 4th year male

American Goldfinch banded here 03/24/24; now after 4th year male *

American Goldfinch banded here 04/03/24; now after 4th year female *

American Goldfinch banded here 10/29/24; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 12/18/24; now after 3rd year male

American Goldfinch banded here 01/27/25; now after 3rd year male

NOTE: It is likely all these AMGO migrated away from Hilton Pond North the spring after banding and then returned in a later winter.

Tufted Titmouse banded here 04/05/25; now after 2nd year male

Tufted Titmouse banded here 06/21/25; now 2nd year unknown

NOTE: This species shows similar dispersal to CACH (see above).

White-throated Sparrow banded here 12/17/25; now 2nd year female

NOTE: A true medium-distance migrant that most likely breeds in Canada and occurs at Hilton Pond North only in winter.

White-breasted Nuthatch banded here 09/05/24; now after 3rd year male

NOTE: This species shows similar fledgling dispersal to CACH (see above) and may be even more restrictive with dispersal less than a mile.

If you missed our 2025 Ruby-throated Hummingbird Banding Summary, it's still posted HERE.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

BIRD BANDING RESULTS FOR

HILTON POND NORTH DURING CURRENT PERIOD

16-24 March 2026

All banding at Hilton Pond North is done by Dr. Bill Hilton Jr. (federal master permit #21558) under auspices of the U.S. Bird Banding Laboratory and NC Wildlife Resources Commission, following standard humane procedures for capturing, handling, banding, and releasing wild birds.

NEWLY BANDED BIRDS

AT HILTON POND NORTH

16-24 March 2026

Hilton Pond North's Bird & Nature Cam is up and running; turn on "Sound" to hear bird calls. Click on the name YouTube in the image above to access our 24/7 channel; there you can subscribe to the livestream and stay abreast of exciting year-round Nature Cam happenings in upper Ashe County NC, the heart of the Blue Ridge Province. (Current temperature also shows up, and sometimes you'll see snow, rain, or fog; the livestream also serves as a weather cam!)

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

In the southern Appalachians our flickers are the "yellow-shafted" form, with characteristic golden-yellow underwing and undertail linings (above) that flash brilliantly; a more westerly "red-shafted" form was found to breed freely with "yellow-shafted," causing the two races to be lumped as one species under "Northern Flicker." Both types have a red nuchal (nape) crescent (photo below), and—in males—a distinctive black malar "mustache" stripe.

Another species banded this week and worthy of mention was a solitary Pine Siskin (PISI), our first captured since 20 March 2025 and just our ninth in three years at Hilton Pond North. (We never had more than two at a time at our feeders this winter.) We've been a bit surprised at this relative dearth of PISI; they often migrate with American Goldfinch flocks and were our fourth most commonly banded species during 43 years at our former South Carolina study site. This latest capture was definitely a male, indicated by an abundance of bright yellow in its tail and primary feathers (above); note, however, this field mark is highly variable.

Thin-billed PISI are known as an irruptive species, migrating south in large numbers only during winters when tree seed crops fail on breeding grounds in Canada's boreal forest. (Appropriately, we caught this latest siskin on a snow day; you can see a few small flakes sticking to his plumage.) Pine Siskins have a remarkable physiological cold-weather adaptation, capable of ramping up their metabolic rate as much as 40% above the already-elevated baseline of comparably sized finches, and they cache food in their crops to fuel overnight thermogenesis. Thus, siskins pre-load calories to burn through on frigid nights, a survival strategy that makes them hardier in cold snaps than small size would suggest.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Chipping Sparrows (CHSP) in breeding plumage are one of the most identifiable of all North American emberizids: Rusty cap, thin black line through the eye, and a bright white supercilium (eyebrow); not the black bill. At elevations like Hilton Pond North (3,000 feet), "Chippies" are summer residents, typically arriving late March or early April and departing by October, with occasional individuals lingering into November. They favor the ecotone between open ground and conifers—making White Pines and mixed forest edges of upper Ashe County NC attractive nesting habitat. That said, we've never seen them locally during breeding season (or winter), with all nine captures in three years having occurred during spring or fall migration:

          04/21/24

          10/19/24

          10/25/24 (two birds)

          11/2/24

          03/28/25 (two birds)

          10/15/25

          03/23/26

(That one April bird, showing no signs of being in breeding condition, was likely just a late spring migrant.)

During nesting season a female Chipping Sparrow weaves her neat, compact cup of fine grasses, rootlets, and plant stems lined with animal hair, the latter sometimes plucked directly from live mammals such as deer, dogs, and even cattle or horses. (NOTE: Despite what you may have heard, do NOT put out dog hair for nesting birds. The hair frequently contains bird-harming chemicals from shampoos and other treatments. A corollary: There's a reason we don't let human children wear tick and flea collars!) After breeding, Chipping Sparrow family groups join loose flocks that forage in grassy areas before fall departure. We often see them gathering grit along roadsides.

WOOD FROGS REVISITED

By 22 March most fast-growing tadpoles—now a half-inch long—had dispersed throughout the pond and were hard at work rasping equally fast-growing algae from the muddy substrate. Seeing them spread out so widely gave an even better understanding of just how many of these larval amphibians existed in such a relatively small space. It was almost beyond comprehension. From our short video (above, click on arrow to start) you can get a feel for the fecundity of our local Wood Frogs.

Near the end of the clip you can also see at least one adult Eastern (Red-spotted) Newt, Notophthalmus viridescens, camouflaged against the pond bottom and bulldozing its way through a tadpole horde. Since the pond contains no fish, newts are likely the only aquatic predators on our tadpoles, but they don't even make a dent in the population. And speaking of predators, where ARE the birds or mammals that might take advantage of this seemingly unlimited bounty of tadpoles? Back here in the sheltered forest we see no wading birds or ducks, and trail cams show Opossums and Raccoons coming to the pond only tiptoe into its shallows for a sip of water—not a mouthful of baby amphibians. It's as if this Wood Frog nursery is a paradise for on-going metamorphosis.

Alas, Eden can’t last forever in what is essentially a closed system. We suspect algae, prolific as it is, won't be able to keep up with tadpole appetites. And without aeration other than wind the dissolved oxygen level will continue to drop, possibly suffocating a number of gill-breathing tadpoles. (It's interesting some tadpoles already pop to the surface for a gulp of air; since their lungs are developing along with everything else, this is likely a way to supplement oxygen intake.) The bottom line is this: Hilton Pond North can't possibly support the millions of tadpoles we see today, so it will be interesting to see what happens in coming days and weeks as these aquatic creatures go through remarkable life changes to become terrestrial froglets. Stay tuned! The story's not over yet!

Sunset from Hilton Pond North, 22 March 2026.

As often happens, on the 22nd clouds were hanging low beyond Phoenix Mountain to our southwest; we need to investigate what's causing that phenomenon. (Right now we're thinking it could be water vapor condensing over the North Fork New River valley.) In any case, the scenic panorama is always well worth looking at from our cozy little cabin on the ridge.

If you've been following recent installments of "This Week at Hilton Pond North," you'll know we've been intensely interested in a colony of Wood Frogs, Lithobates sylvaticus, that inhabits the small human-created impoundment on our property. (You'll also recollect Wood Frogs were one of our target species when we were searching for mountain property, so we're delighted by an opportunity for an on-going on-site study of these hardy amphibians.)

Back on Valentines Day (14 February) the pond was still frozen solid, but by the 17th had thawed enough around the edges for a few frogs to jump in and start calling. By the 20th there were already several egg clusters. Egg-laying continued until 26 February when there was a huge raft of "frog spittle" four feet wide by 12 feet long in the sun-warmed north shallows of the pond. Eggs continued to develop and by 15 March all that were fertile had hatched into tiny quarter-inch tadpoles tightly clustered and wriggling on pond bottom. How phenomenal that all this had occurred in a 30-day span at a time of year when our mountains were still frigid, with several overnight lows in the teens.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

Flickers excavate their own nest cavities, typically in dead or dying snags, and readily reuse cavities in subsequent years; in upper Ashe County, large-diameter dead hardwood snags in partially open terrain are premium nesting habitat. They're often found in park-like settings and golf courses. Flickers frequently engage in "anting," deliberately pressing live ants against feathers or letting ants swarm through plumage. Formic acid secreted by ants apparently functions as a natural fumigant against feather lice and other ectoparasites.

All photos, videos, maps, charts, drawings, and text © Hilton Pond North

We've seen many social media photos and videos suggesting flocks of Wild Turkeys are plentiful across North America, but this is quite misleading. Prior to European settlement, the continent was home to an estimated 10-15 million birds. Due to habitat loss and drastic overhunting—especially in years prior to 1900—that number today is closer to 3 million, an unimaginable decrease. We're grateful here at Hilton Pond North to have a thriving assemblage of these big birds, as noted by our two videos. In the top one (click on arrow to start), a mixed flock of young gobblers and at least a dozen hens makes its way up the paved driveway to our cabin, followed a few minutes later by three big toms (below, note their spurs) strutting along, showing their stuff. (If they head toward the pond they may make a meal of our tadpoles.)

North Carolina turkeys seem to be holding up better than in some southeastern regions, with a statewide population estimated at 270,000. Encompassing 25 of the state's 100 counties, the mountain region—with vast acreages of national forest lands and private lands offering optimal habitat—likely provides the greatest opportunity for Wild Turkeys in North Carolina, even though they can still be found from the highlands to the coast.

Photos & text by Dr. Bill Hilton Jr.

Executive Director, Hilton Pond North: Blue Ridge Birds & Nature