We had an absolutely gorgeous Winter day on this, the 16th day of Spring. It started off cold (-10) so we didn’t open any nets until the sun was well up and heating up the ground…and then we opened just a few. Of course, the only nets getting any action were those associated with the feeders – many birds trying to keep their fat loads up in this cold snap were taking advantage of the rich food supplements.
Between the nets and traps we handled 59 birds: 39 banded and 20 retraps. One of those retraps was a lovely female White-breasted Nuthatch that was 8 years old…and still going strong.
The cowbirds have started to show up in good numbers. Again this year we are shipping the ones we catch to the University of Western where they are performing behavioural studies on them. It’s a good way to reduce our cowbird nest predation problem.
Banded 39:
1 Blue Jay
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Northern Cardinal
6 American Tree Sparrows
2 Song Sparrows
9 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Common Grackle
6 Brown-headed Cowbirds
1 House Finch
10 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 32 spp.
Rick