A beautiful ASY male Nashville Warbler
The dam has not broken but there was a big hole in it that was visible this morning. Soon the trickle of long-distance migrants that we saw today will be a raging torrent.
To me, one of the most handsome birds: White-crowned Sparrow.
Light southerly winds throughout the night aided a major push north and although we didn’t catch a lot of birds we did encounter 57 species including 6 new ones for the year: Chimney Swift, Warbling Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Yellow Warbler, Eastern White-crowned Sparrow, and Bobolink. I love the sound of Yellow Warblers singing around the grounds and today we had at least four of them. We have a large population of breeding Yellow Warblers that call Ruthven home. It’s always interesting to me (and I look forward to them with anticipation) to recapture birds banded in previous years – almost like old friends (not wanting to put too anthropomorphic a spin on it….). We had one Yellow Warbler that we caught 7 years in a row – and always in the same net!!
Our Purple Martin population hit 18 today.
The sun is rising earlier and earlier and our protocol dictates that the nets be opened half an hour before sunrise. So it definitely will be a case of the early birder sees the bird for the month to come.
Rick Ludkin and David Brewer: 120 years of birding enthusiasm. -R. Beaumont
Banded 26:
3 Tree Swallows
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 American Robin
1 Nashville Warbler
5 Chipping Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
8 American Goldfinches
The gourds seem more attractive to the martins for nesting than the boxes.
ET’s: 57 spp.
Rick