Today was the first day of official fall migration monitoring at Ruthven. To kick off this momentous event there was a large international celebration in Beijing yesterday with elaborate fireworks, rhythmic drumming, mysterious costumes, and breathtaking choreography. Sadly, the event was marred by poor translation. Although Ruthven Park’s banding station logo of 5 interlocking bird bands was much in evidence, our text, which should have read “Ruthven Park Bird Banding Station: Fall Migration 2008” was unfortunately rendered “Olympics 2008”. It is assumed the error was caused somewhere in translating the motto from English to Cantonese back to English.

Unnamed sources state that a celebration of this magnitude – which rivaled our annual volunteer clean-up festivities but lacked the potato salad – will not be held for another 4 years, however a winter banding fete may be held in 2010.

Everyone who received one of our special gold, silver, or bronze commemorative medallions is asked to please return them to the Gate House. We will replace the text with the correct translation when funding becomes available….

The first Canada Warblers of the fall season were observed today.

Banded: 18
Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher 1
Magnolia Warbler 1
Traill’s Flycatcher 1
House Wren 2
Canada Warbler 2
Warbling Vireo 2
Ovenbird 1
Red-Eyed Vireo 2
Song Sparrow 2
Grey Catbird 2
Wood Thrush 1
American Robin 1

Retrapped: 7
Traill’s Flycatcher 1
Common Yellowthroat 1
House Wren 1
Song Sparrow 2
Baltimore Oriole 1
American Robin 1

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