Hard to believe but this weekend marks the halfway point in this Spring’s migration monitoring. Saturday was a very nice day once it warmed up – and we banded 55 birds bringing our April total up to 859 birds. New birds for the year were: Green Heron and Black-throated Green Warbler. Today was hardly May weather: cold NE wind and drizzle on and off which limited the number of nets we opened. But we still saw a new bird for the season: a Bobolink flew over while I was doing a census. We ended up banding 16 birds, a third of which were cowbirds (where are they all coming from!?).
But today also saw an important landmark: it was Bagger Sam’s 1 year anniversary at Ruthven’s banding station. Since then he has contributed over 220 volunteer hours.
I will simply give the banding totals for the two days. The photo gallery following them will give a good picture of the weekend.
Saturday; Banded 55:
2 Mourning Doves
1 Downy Woodpecker
3 Tree Swallows
1 House Wren
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Hermit Thrush
1 American Robin
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Pine Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
3 Chipping Sparrows
2 Field Sparrows
18 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
2 Brown-headed Cowbirds
12 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 59 spp.
Sunday; Banded 16:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
5 White-throated Sparrows
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
5 Brown-headed Cowbirds
3 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 40 spp.
Photo Gallery:
Rick