March 23rd – A Late Snow Storm

Snow on the junipers

Snow covers the Carolinian Trail

It started just after midnight – a late snow storm to quash my pleasant musings on an early Spring. I peaked out the window early this morning to find a think cover of snow. And it just kept coming so that by the time I got to Ruthven around 9:30 there was close to 25 cm of the fluffy white stuff on the ground. The NE wind was blowing hard precluding the use of mist nets so I decided to set out a couple of traps by the feeder complexes. The birds were HUNGRY and very quickly found the bait. I banded for only 3 hours but managed to catch 44 birds – 24 of them needed bands. Of the 44, 24 were American Tree Sparrows. I also got an early White-throated Sparrow.

March snow storm - birds at the trap

Late March storm hits the banding lab

Banded 24:
13 American Tree Sparrows
3 Song Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 House Finch
3 American Goldfinches

Rick

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