The 2016 Spring migration monitoring season at Ruthven went out with sort of a fizzle. But we had fun helping it out. We banded the few birds we caught; took down the nets; and enjoyed an impromptu lunch provided by the Sisters of Mercy – Elaine Serena’s Larks group.

Although it was a bit of a slog, we had a very successful season banding 1,976 birds – our 3rd highest total going back to the beginning: 1996. We banded 85 species and encountered 153 species overall.

The Top 5:
1/ 362 American Goldfinches
2/ 155 Brown-headed Cowbirds (record)
3/ 151 White-throated Sparrows (record)
4/ 142 Yellow Warblers (record)
5/ 97 Gray Catbirds

Rick

Fern Hill – Oakville:

The last day of Spring Migration was quite slow in terms of the number of birds we banded but it was a beautiful day to be outside birding. The students at Fern Hill Oakville spent the last day monitoring ground traps and nest boxes. We have a wonderful group of Young Ornithologists who have been monitoring the boxes regularly. In fact, just yesterday they recorded observing eggs in one box, today when we checked them together we found one day old tree swallows!
At lunch time we met up again and banded two female tree swallows in the boxes. It was great for me to sit back and watch them work so well together.

Banded:
2 Tree Swallows

ET 17 species.
Katherine