We started Spring banding early on the premise that beginning on the traditional date of April 1st did not reflect the “new reality” of climate change – that birds were moving earlier. So, March 23rd it was. And we banded pretty steadily up until the 8th after which time I had to head out to Halifax to do 3 weeks of seabird counts in the North Atlantic for the CWS. But…banding will not come to a complete stop as Sarah has volunteered to be the BIC (Bander-in-Charge) for a number of days and Martin Wernhart and Teri Groh will take over on another day. That’s a good thing as we’ve been catching consistently – by the end of the day on the 8th we had reached 309 birds. And as a treat on that day, we banded the 1st Ruby-crowned Kinglet and Savannah Sparrow of the migration.


April 8th; Banded 16:
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 American Goldfinches
1 Savannah Sparrow
1 American Tree Sparrow
3 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
4 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Common Grackle

And, oh yes, something else happened on the 8th – a full solar eclipse. Initially, when I had first heard about it, I thought: so what’s the big deal? Well, my friends, it IS a big deal! What an experience!! Nighttime in the afternoon isn’t something I’ll forget. Even the birds stopped singing for about 10 minutes – it looked like night to them too.
Rick