The arrival of dawn did not inspire much confidence that banding would be productive today. The sky contained a band of rust-coloured haze and everywhere there was the call of…nothing. Silence reigned (and likely not in tribute to the late Pavarotti either..it was “dead”). The air was moist and unpleasantly thick, in stark contrast to the iron-hard cracked, dry soil.
The first net round was predictably disappointing, although it did yield the single bird necessary to break 100 for the fall season. The second net round however was probably the best of the young season so far. There were 3 Scarlet Tanagers and 2 Yellow-Throated Vireos in Net 2, 4 Blackpoll Warblers in Net 4, and 2 Australian birders (to be honest one has lived in Fiji for the past 40 years) around Net 7. All this plus a scattering of other birds and a welcome box of Timbits (Ruthven’s unofficial motto “Goodies consumed while you wait”).
A Wild Turkey briefly made the acquaintance of Net 4 – hanging up slightly before being sprung back out again. No damage to the net nor to the bird which promptly perched incongruously in a tree while making peevish chipping sounds.
A high wind came up mid-morning preventing the further capture of many more birds. Leaves however were another matter (another Ruthven unofficial motto “If a leaf falls in the forest, we’ll catch it”).
Banded: 33
Nashville Warbler 1
American Goldfinch 3
Magnolia Warbler 1
American Redstart 1
Chipping Sparrow 3
Philadelphia Vireo 2
House Wren 1
Eastern Wood Pewee 2
Blackpoll Warbler 4
Red-Eyed Vireo 3
Yellow-Throated Vireo 2
Scarlet Tanager 3
White-Breasted Nuthatch 1
Grey Catbird 1
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 1
Yellow-Billed Cuckoo 1
American Robin 3
Retrapped: 7
Black-Capped Chickadee 3
Blackpoll Warbler 1
Red-Eyed Vireo 1
White-Breasted Nuthatch 1
Grey Catbird 1
B
Ruth Lechte and myself heard about Ruthven at the Marshville Festival. When we stopped by on the 7th Brian was hard at work. We live in Australia and felt extremely fortunate to participate in this event. If Brian reads this, I hope he will be in touch with us as we took some good photos and we’re planning to do a short article for the Bird Observers of Australia magazine. Thanks to Ruthven and the team doing this important work.
Hi Diane, I’m glad you and Ruth got back home safely. We’d love to have some of your photos for the blog. Probably the best way to reach us is through the natureblog address under the “Information” heading. Addresses posted here tend to get bombarded with adds for sketchy stock tips and sundry compounds to enlarge a number of body parts, so it acts as a way to keep the spam down.
See ya.
B