August 20th
On Wednesday, my mum Emma and her now retired co-worker Kim joined me to visit the farm for some banding and site prep before the Bobolink event. The weather showed possible rain up until an hour after sunrise but we decided to give it a go, and we were rewarded with clear skies. There was no sign of rain, although the wind did pick up pretty early so we had to close some of the nets early. The first two net runs provided not a single Bobolink in the nets and only one observed, so I was worried the day might be a “flop”. However, I was shocked at the third net run when there were 13 Bobolink in the two nets. At this point, unfortunately, the wind had picked up, so we had to close those nets. Just think about how many there could’ve been had the wind stayed low!
Banded 18:
2 Swamp Sparrows
13 Bobolinks
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Grey Catbird
And no recaps this day.
On the slower net rounds of the morning we were able to put up a sign that we have been working on. We used some old pieces of wood laying around our garage that we painted and then varnished to weather-seal them. As Keira said, the wooden sign makes HBO look very “official”!
August 22nd
The weather on Friday was better than you could ask for, very light north breeze (encouraging Bobolinks to migrate south), no rain and clear skies. Alex and I were the only two at the station this day, so we just opened the Bobolink nets and a couple others. However, we ended up with only Bobolinks captured (no complaints here!). We prepped for the event by putting up some signs around the site and a tent over the picnic table. We walked the path down to the river after a slower net run and were surprised to see a very moulty American Woodcock running along the path in front of us – so cute!
Banded 17:
17 Bobolinks (!!)
August 23rd – Bobolink Bonanza Event
In the morning before the event we conducted normal banding, with Keira, Riley, Sam, Alex, Eila and I showing up at the crack of dawn to open all of the nets. Faye and Amy joined us mid-morning to help with setup before the public arrived. We closed half of the nets once people showed up, and left the far end (nets 1 – 4), as well as the Bobolink nets open so we could continue to catch birds to show to the visitors. Luckily, the Bobolinks were plentiful that day and continued to come throughout the morning even as the wind gusts started to pick up. We had about 25 visitors and made lots of money for the organization! The visitors were very happy to see bird banding (many for the first time) and learn about and explore HBO.
Banded 38:
4 Song Sparrows
2 Swamp Sparrows
18 Bobolinks
7 Common Yellowthroats
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Northern House Wren
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Great-crested Flycatcher
3 Grey Catbirds
Recaptured 2:
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 Baltimore Oriole
A huge thank you to all of our volunteers – none of this would have been possible without you! The event was a great success and we received amazing feedback from all the visitors. Hopefully we can do it again next year!
We have now banded 65 Bobolinks this fall in only four days, and with only two nets. This is only 23 short of our total for the entire fall season last year (88).
