We weren’t particularly busy today, or, at least, it didn’t “feel” busy. But if you put in the work there were birds to be found. In fact, by the end of the morning we had rung up 79 species. But many of these were in small numbers or were singles. Still, a species is a species and when you’re counting every one adds up. The relaxed pace was ideal for teaching the younger aficionados the skills of extracting and banding and we had a good number of skilled adults to oversee their efforts – so a good morning all round.
The other day Carol left some feathers for the Tree Swallows so we went out to entice them. What fun! The swallows swoop in to snatch them out of the air. They’ll chase each other until one drops the feather at which point another will tear in to grab it before it can hit the ground. Tree Swallows line their nests with feathers. Over the years we have seen a very strange assortment of them in various nests and they’ve left us scratching our heads as to what kinds of birds they have come from and how the swallows managed to get them.
Banded 44:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 House Wren
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 American Robin
3 Gray Catbirds
1 Brown Thrasher
2 Warbling Vireo
1 Nashville Warbler
10 Yellow Warblers
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 American Redstart
2 Common Yellowthroat
6 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks (bringing our total to 70; old record was 61)
1 Song Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
4 Baltimore Orioles (bringing our total to 93; old record was 51)
2 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 79 spp.
More Pictures:
Rick