This bright adult male Baltimore Oriole was caught at the same time as two of its fledglings.
Maybe it’s old age, but I’m finding that I just can’t jump right into a full banding season and hit the road runnin’ anymore….successfully, anyway. I have to sort of work up to it. So I went out this morning to get the feel again of doing net rounds on a full complement of nets – opened all but the 8R (River) nets. And I was hopping from the getgo. Or, I should say, we were hopping as I was joined by Nancy Furber, Ben and Stephanie Oldfield, and Joanne Fleet (with Simon, Elliot and Jack – naturalists of the future for sure).
Ben with one of two Blue-winged Warblers banded today. S. Oldfield
We banded 53 birds and retrapped 19. Many of the new banded birds were young ones. Some were caught with their parents who are probably still feeding them (e.g., Baltimore Orioles) but some were on their own (e.g., the Yellow Warblers). As this wasn’t a “migration monitoring” day, I didn’t open the nets a half hour before sunrise and I didn’t keep them open for the full 6 hours. Like I said, this was just a training run. But the numbers and the variety and the company made for a good day. And you got the feeling that things are under way – the migration has started, if only just. By the “official” start of Fall banding on September 1st things should be getting into high gear. But we’ll be ready!
Great-crested Flycatcher -S. Oldfield
Banded 53:
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Great-crested Flycatcher
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
2 House Wrens
2 Blue-gray Gnatcatchers
1 American Robin
9 Gray Catbirds
5 Warbling Vireos
1 Red-eyed Vireo
2 Blue-winged Warblers
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Canada Warbler
2 Northern Cardinals
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
6 Song Sparrows
5 Baltimore Orioles
1 American Goldfinch
Retrapped 19:
1 Hairy Woodpecker
4 Downy Woodpeckers
2 Eastern Wood Pewees (both banded last year)
2 Eastern Tufted Titmice
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Gray Catbirds
1 Red-eyed Vireo
3 Chipping Sparrows
1 Song Sparrow
ET’s: 39 spp. (although no census was done)
Simon, Elliot and Jack - naturalists of the future.
These 3 young guys have what it takes to be the naturalists of the future. On one net round they found and had to point out to me (as I was oblivious) a beautiful DeKay’s Brown Snake and then a Black Swallowtail catepillar.
Black Swallowtail catepillar found by the boys.
Two of the reasons Ruthven is such a pleasant place to be.
Rick