There was a fairly violent thunder storm with intense (but brief) rain during the night that woke me up. The rain persisted, as light showers, until opening time and delayed the start of the day by about half an hour. As it looked like it could storm again at any moment, I didn’t open nets 8 & 9 – just in case I had to race around and close them in a downpour. Another storm didn’t come but wind did, causing me to close exposed nets early. There were some interesting birds around: both species of Cuckoo (I banded 2 Yellow-billed), 3 Blue-winged Warblers (2 males and a female) and 6 Blackpoll Warblers (at least – 5 males and a female). This is quite late for Blackpolls and suggests that the migration has been backed up by a week or so by the earlier cold weather. It’s a good thing that Brian is going to continue to band for the first week of June – while I take off for the Arctic (June 4th).
Interestingly, I was by myself all morning – no one else, banders or visitors, showed up. Now, I like solitude but I was also growing to like all the socialization that visitors require…..plus the goodies they bring. I guess you just can’t win.
I had one really interesting retrap – a Great Crested Flycatcher; originally banded here as an adult bird in July of 1999 – making it at least 10 years old!!

Banded 24:
2 Yellow-billed Cuckoos
1 Willow Flycatcher
1 Traill’s Flycatcher
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 House Wren
1 Wood Thrush
4 American Robins
1 Gray Catbird
3 Blue-winged Warblers
1 Yellow Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
6 Blackpoll Warblers
1 American Goldfinch

Retrapped 6:
1 Great Crested Flycatcher
1 Black-capped Chickadee
2 Yellow Warblers
2 Orchard Orioles (one of them was not one of “ours”)

ET’s: 57 species
Rick