Another mild, sunny day. Still lots of ducks and geese moving over and along the river. I think the shallow pools created by the river flooding into the fields are attracting many of the ducks as we’ve had more diversity in these two days than we usually get. A new one to add to the list is Green-winged Teal. We also saw the first Double-crested Cormorants for Ruthven this year (although they’re not associated with the shallow pools).

We didn’t have a lot of birds around the nets but still managed to band 19 and retraped 9 – one of these was a Dark-eyed Junco that was banded in March 2004.

I was fully expecting to hear the first frogs of the year in the pool at the base of net lanes 8 & 9 but they were silent. Should be any day now. I did see 2 different species of butterflies: a Mourning Cloak and it was either a Comma, or Question Mark – I’m not a “butterfly guy” like Brian. We had a new recruit out this morning: Jackie McInnes from Caledonia. She says she’s coming back next week even though Peter Thoem (our “census guy”) dragged her around the trails for 3 hours. And Cheryl-Anne Miller was out to help (and she always brings me a muffin – which is a great habit for people to get into!).

You can tell a lot about people by the inadvertent things they say or write. Take Peter for example: On the way to Ruthven this morning, driving along Indiana Road, he saw a (escaped?) Chukar and a “flock of about 16 Turkeys on N/S of Rd at edge of woodlot”. He then goes on to add, “2 [males] displaying; [females] feigning disinterest but actually longing for male company.” I wonder how many times as a teenager at the local dance he had to bolster his hopes with those thoughts in the face of rejection….

Banded 19:
1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Northern Cardinal
1 Song Sparrow
8 Dark-eyed Junco
2 Common Redpolls
5 American Goldfinches

Rick

Click thumbnails below for a larger image.

Peter Thoem and Jackie McInnes heading out to do census.

The “lookout” to Slink Island along the census trail – now well under water.

The south end of the Carolinian Trail – the creek is backed up by the flooding river.

Cheryl-Anne Miller with an Eastern Tufted Titmouse

Peter and Jackie at the end of the census sharing a laugh while entering the data – oblivious to the fact they were entering it all in the wrong column. Jackie is a financial analyst……hmmm….I wonder what her books look like……