“It ain’t over till the fat lady sings” the phrase goes. Well, she’s been warming up but tomorrow she’ll give full throat to the song: “It’s Over”. Actually, at the Farm, it (the migration) has been over for about a week now. All new birds banded (and in small numbers) have been or will be local nesters. The long-haulers have passed us by. We seemed to know this but…hope springs eternal and we were hoping for one last push. But it never happened. So tomorrow we’ll close the chapter on the poorest Spring we’ve had in 6 years. In the sense that no data is still data, poor data is also data and we’ll have to try and make sense of what we got dealt. Especially how long strings of lousy weather impact migrants moving through the site. But that’s an activity for the Summer. Right now we just need to get it over with.
We’ve taken down half the nets and will finish that job tomorrow. [Taking down nets makes it seem so…final. As it should, I guess.]
What we lacked in birds, however, we made up for with the excellence of the volunteers that contributed so meaningfully to our efforts. The repartee and the edibles made each day interesting and fun – and that, in the long run, is what it should be all about. So the bird numbers (we banded just 12 over the past 3 days) are just a small part of the experience. I think it’s the people I’ll remember from this Spring. They more than made up for it.
Photos from the last few days:
Rick