As an educator, I really appreciate HBO’s core belief of providing people of all ages the opportunity to get out and learn more about the birds that live and pass through our province every spring and fall.  The station in Lowville is there today because Ben connected with HBO at a young age (I’m sure there’s a photo of him somewhere!).  As I arrived in Lowville early Saturday morning, teenagers (yes, teenagers) were already there set to spend their day off studying birds.  Their dedication to learning and sharing their knowledge with each other is truly inspiring.

On a side note, something truly uninspiring was the utter lack of baked goods!  Now I will acknowledge that Maggie did contribute a box of delicious chocolate cookies, they were were however, store bought.  Rick had better come back soon and whip these guys into shape.

Saturday was my first time to meet Sarah, who has been coming out to Lowville for a while and had the opportunity to also volunteer at Long Point this year.  Her quiet confidence and her readiness to share what she has learned with the others, and HBO’s newest bander, Micah, made my role for the day purely supervisory! While the day was pretty light on birds, they made the most of it and left with dreams of one day getting a painted bunting in one of the nets…

The group of mostly teens out for the morning.

Micah banding his first bird.

Renessa walking him through how to band and determine the other data collected when banding.

A very elated Micah, ready to release his first bird.

The meadow just as the sun was rising. By the afternoon it was filled with the droning of the bees as they gathered pollen. Surprisingly few monarchs, in fact I’m not sure I saw even one. The day remained quite cool though, even until we closed around 11:30am.  I believe Ben now has 6 nets set up in the general area with the promise of some great birds to come.  Now that I’m thinking of it, the meadow there may be about as concentrated in bees as my net near the hives!  Perhaps there is something to the birds and the bees…

First Eastern White-crowned Sparrow of the season (RJV)

Total: 20 (15 banded, 5 recaps)

In my purely supervisory role, I was lax in gathering the species count after all the day’s totals had been counted.  I do know we had our first Eastern White-crowned Sparrow and the first Ruby-Crowned Kinglet for the season.  Should someone get the chance to check the book next time they’re out, we could add the species count in after the fact 🙂