April showers bring May flowers….ya, ya…..but I’m not sure what frigid rain and cold winds bring. Maybe it’s just that I’m getting old but….I seem to have a growing hankering for heat. These raw days don’t do much for me. They don’t seem to bother the birds too much though. Mother goose is still riveted to her nest and I’m looking forward to seeing her ushering her goslings around the pond in the near future. Song Sparrows are numerous and busy setting out and defending territories. [Interestingly, we banded a large number of Song Sparrows in the Fall and we currently have a large number of them around. We also banded a large number of Swamp Sparrows but so far we’ve banded only 2 this Spring. They’re still not back in any numbers, not even singing as they define their territories. I wonder where the two species spend the Winter….]. Today we had a small “hit” of Golden-crowned Kinglets move through, non-plussed by the conditions and there were at least 3 Eastern Phoebes about – one we banded, one was a retrap from last year, and one was simply singing its way around the pond. And to top it all off there was a plethora of Chorus Frogs singing like crazy, also nonplussed.
Flooding around Net #6. DOL
The rain we got yesterday and last night has raised the level of the pond by a few centimeters and flooded the wetland downstream of it to the point that I couldn’t open two of the nets. Even without them we had a good banding mmorning.
Banded 30:
1 Eastern Phoebe
8 Golden-crowned Kinglets (7 males)
1 American Robin
9 American Goldfinches
1 Field Sparrow
1 American Tree Sparrow
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
5 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
ET’s: 36 spp.
Rick