April 9th
It was a clear morning to start, but dark clouds moved in and I closed up shop after only 2 hours due to rain. Cold wet rain. I guess that goes without saying, but I feel better having said it.

Banded 3:
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Dark-eyed Junco

Retrapped 2:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Black-capped Chickadee

Loretta

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April 8th

Another warm, sunny day made it nice just to be outside wandering around – banding made it even better. There was a noticeable reduction in the amount of waterfowl traffic along the river. Duck numbers were down and geese were much less evident – 10’s versus 100’s. Three American Wigeon and 2 Northern Pintails kept it interesting though. Also, there was a small flock of 8 Bonaparte’s Gulls over the river feeding by picking something – emerging insects? – from the surface. They’re very agile and graceful birds.

We encountered 4 new species for the year: Common Snipe, Northern Flicker, Field Sparrow, and Fox Sparrow.

Banded 19:
3 Black-capped Chickadees
3 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 American Robin
1 Field Sparrow
1 Fox Sparrow
3 Song Sparrows
2 Dark-eyed Juncos
5 Brown-headed Cowbirds

Retrapped 9:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
2 American Tree Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 Brown-headed Cowbird

Some of these retraps were interesting. The 4 Song Sparrows were originally banded in July ’07, April ’07, November ’06 and October ’05 while the Brown-headed Cowbird was banded in April ’05.

Rick