We dodged some light rain to run some nets Saturday morning and then we had Haldimand Bird Observatory’s AGM on Saturday afternoon. This made for a rewarding but pretty hectic day. It actually got off to a pretty auspicious start when, at exactly 5:58 AM, just as I started to open, I heard a tremendous crack followed by the crash of a tree falling…and then a bevy of chortling Wild Turkeys. Interestingly, on entering the park this morning, Kim heard another big tree crash down and found it across from a section of the Carolinian Traill (below Net 10). In both cases there was almost NO wind blowing to push these giants over. So what’s going on?
The answer was hinted to me by the chortling turkeys. As most of you know, Wild Turkeys roost high up in the treetops over night. In the Spring they get pretty frisky and the young males (you know what dumb things frisky young males can get up to) all crowd onto a single big branch to see how many of them it takes to cause it to keel over. It’s sort of like “cow tipping” in certain parts of the world.
Although we’re still not getting much diversity, some bird species are on the move. At Ruthven it appears to be American Goldfinches; we banded 41 in two days. And we banded our first warblers: a Myrtle Warbler on the 28th and a Western Palm Warbler today. The dam is about to break!
April 28th; Banded 37:
1 Mourning Dove
5 Ruby-crowned kinglets
2 American Robins
1 Myrtle Warbler
4 Chipping Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrows
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds
18 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 49 spp.
April 29th; Banded 42:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 Tree Swallows
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Chipping Sparrow
2 Swamp Sparrows
2 White-throated Sparrows
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
1 Pine Siskin
23 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 49 spp.
Photo Gallery:
From the AGM:
Due to the prolonged cold wet weather we’ve had some “bogs” develop around some of the net lanes. The worst is at Net 7. Anna found a solution:
Rick