No sooner were the martin houses put up than we got Purple Martins visiting them. -G. MacLellan
Our hard-working crew got the martin houses just in time. From left: Ben, Stephanie, Anne, Nancy, Alessandra, Faye, Giovanni.
Migration monitoring is serious work. But that doesn’t mean it can’t be fun. We had a great group of volunteers out today, many of whom (despite the youth of some) have been coming to Ruthven for 8 or more years. And with that level of experience, things get done well but seemingly effortlessly and everyone has a good time, caught up in the camaraderie.
Irene, Faye (seemingly cold in the balmy weather), Nancy, and Bob discussing the finer points of migration…..or muffins (one or the other).
Birds were on the move. We encountered 7 “new” species for the year: Pileated Woodpecker, Yellow-bellied Sapsucker, Belted Kingfisher, Purple Martin, Chipping Sparrow, Purple Finch, and Pine Siskin. Further, we handled 71 birds: 35 banded and 36 retraps.
The Eastern Bluebirds are working hard trying to maintain a nest box in light of the Tree Swallow onslaught, which has just begun. -G. MacLellan
This picture of a Pileated Woodpecker was taken a few days ago by Fred Smith at his home a couple of k’s downstream. But one was seen today by Stephanie Oldfield on the Fox Den Trail. -F. Smith
The Purple Martins were an interesting story: Nancy, Anne, and Faye put up the nesting gourd array and fastened the doors on the aluminum boxes in readiness for their arrival which we were expecting in another 3 or 4 days. Within an hour of going up Purple Martins appeared and my hunch is that we will see martins every day now until they finish breeding and head south, sometime in early August.
Banded 35:
1 Blue Jay
5 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Northern Cardinal
7 American Tree Sparrows
8 Song Sparrows
8 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Purple Finch
4 American Goldfinches
Species List: 46 spp (our highest count to date)
More Photos:
Turkey Vultures on the move – we have been getting a good number of them every day. -G. MacLellan
Alessandra with our pet owl….Hooter.
Two Chorus Frogs…..fending off hypothermia. -G. MacLellan
This female nuthatch is in its 8th year. -A. Wilcox
Checking out the new bird bags from Irene.
Rick