May 4th – Tricklin’ Through

The day started off with overcast (despite largely clear skies through most of the night) and when I was into the census, I was greeted by a peal of thunder, a flash of lightening, and a brief shower…..and then it cleared into a beautiful sunny day. Which was a good thing for the 50 or so Dunnville Grade 9 students that were visiting this morning. This is a tough age for these kids as it’s uncool to show any interest in something so nerdy as birding – even when it was obvious that many wanted to get right into it. David Brewer did a great job in engaging them.

We had a slow trickle of birds all morning, handling 45 birds over 6 hours. New encounters for the year were a Magnolia Warbler (a spectacular adult male) and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird. We had a mini-flight of Common Loons – 14 went by in the course of an hour.

I’m trying not to get too excited about this for fear of jinxing it all but…there were 2 pairs of Purple Martins at the boxes ALL morning. This marks about 7 days in a row that there’s been martins present. If ever we were going to establish a colony this could be the time….

Banded 29:
2 Mouring Doves
2 Tree Swallows
1 House Wren
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
2 American Robins
2 Blue-winged Warblers
4 Nashville Warblers
2 Yellow Warbers
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
2 Orchard Orioles
2 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 16:
1 Tree Swallow
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Blue-gray Gnatcatcher
1 American Robin
1 Blue-winged Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
4 Chipping Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds

ET’s: 57 spp.

Rick

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