May 15th
A beautiful spring day, and there was even a good mix of birds around. Ruthven is alive with the local breeders now–Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, Yellow Warblers, Catbirds, Phoebes, Titmice, Bluebirds, and all the regulars. Those birds alone are enough reason to visit the park, but today there was plenty more.
We had 5 or 6 new species for the year, including Wilson’s Warbler, Eastern Wood-Pewee, Alder Flycatcher, Northern Parula, Cape May Warbler, and Blackburnian Warbler (not sure if it is new). All could be heard singing around the park.
In addition to those birds, we had a number of other warbler species, including Nashville, Chestnut-sided, Magnolia, Blue-winged, American Redstart, Common Yellowthroat, and maybe an Ovenbird (only heard it once and I didn’t have much sleep last night so maybe my mind was making things up).
Banded 40:
2 Orchard Oriole
1 Blue Jay
1 Veery
3 Gray Catbird
2 Nashville Warbler
6 Yellow Warbler
1 Chestnut sided Warbler
3 Magnolia Warbler
1 American Redstart
2 Common Yellowthroat
1 Wilson’s Warbler
5 Rose-breasted Grosbeak (ouch!)
2 Field Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
5 Baltimore Oriole
2 American Goldfinch
Retrapped 16:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Black-capped Chickadee
3 Yellow Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
4 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
2 Chipping Sparrow
4 Baltimore Oriole
Estimated Totals: 64 species.
Jeff
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May 14th
Pretty much a rainout. Brian’s hat was the highlight of the day (see previous post).
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May 13th
A nice and sunny spring day. That doesn’t lead to lots of birds, but it was still a good day to be at Ruthven. There were no new species on the day, but a few interesting birds showed up–a Brewster’s Warbler was banded, and a Bobolink was observed singing in the field beside the parking lot. The diversity is increasing these days too, and 10 warbler species were around the park.
Irene Schmidt, a regular Ruthven visitor, made her annual birthday visit today. She was lucky enough to be around for a couple of nice looking warblers and Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, and she even got a good look at one of the resident male Bluebirds. Happy Birthday Irene!
We banded 24 and retrapped 11, but I lost my list of birds so someone will have to fill in this post later.
ET’s were 56 species–lower than the day before, but I didn’t get a census in.
Jeff