Cake made by Keira and Sarah to celebrate the end of the Fall banding season. -DOL
November 10th is something of an arbitrary pick for the end of the Fall season – but fairly consistent with other Fall seasons. I’m sure we’d continue to catch birds for the next week at least as it seems that American Tree Sparrows are at the height of their migratory return (we’ve banded 84 during these 3 days) and other sparrows, although diminishing in numbers, are still moving through. Still….you have to end sometime and I’ve got other things to do. And it’s been a very successful season…..so…time to move on.
The overwhelming opinion is that American Tree Sparrows have the “softest” plumage of all the sparrows. -KDC
These last 3 days have been very productive although weather has had an impact on them, different on all 3 days: Friday saw increasing gusting winds that caused us to close early as the nets were billowing; Saturday started off quite cold (-2 C) but winds were light and skies clear; today we had a 3 hour “window” before the rains started (knowing this I opened only half the nets). Yet each day produced good numbers of birds (especially sparrows) as well as some interesting ones.
November 8th; banded 40:
3 American Goldfinches
24 American Tree Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
7 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
1 Red-winged blackbird
1 Northern Cardinal
ET’s: 22 spp.
November 9th; Banded 55:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Northern Mockingbird
Our first Northern Mockingbird of the year and a nice banding tick for Amanda. -JYL
2 House Finches
Female House Finch. -KDC
5 American Goldfinches
2 Field Sparrows
38 American Tree Sparrows
1 Fox Sparrow
Fox Sparrow…always a treat…especially for Joyce. This was the first one she’d ever seen. and she got to band it. -JYL
1 White-throated Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows
Song Sparrow with a bill anomaly. -DOL
ET’s: 31 spp.
November 10th; Banded 35:
1 Purple Finch
Male Purple Finch. -AN
5 American Goldfinches
22 American Tree Sparrows
5 White-throated Sparrows
2 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
ET’s: 22 spp.
Gallery:
I’m not sure what Joyce was trying to prove here but she was bound and determined to experience the bite of a Northern Cardinal. -AMA
Fortunately the bite didn’t injure her drawing hand – check out these line drawings of a nuthatch and Downy Woodpecker she pulled off while simply doodling. -DOL
Amanda doing her thing…always with a big smile. -DOL
The rain forced inside this morning. From left: Sam, Keira, Sarah, and Andy; a very efficient crew. -DOL
Sam and Sarah with a load. -KDC
Sarah with her 1st banded bird – an American Tree Sparrow…naturally. -KDC
Keira – in her native tongue it means “a bundle of energy”…most appropriate. SVL
Initial Season Results:
I’ve just started to look at the results for this season.
We banded 2,173 birds of 65 species. This is a new record surpassing last year’s mark of 1,791.
Top Ten: Bold numbers represent a new season high; old record in brackets.
486 Song Sparrows (old mark: 479)
388 Swamp Sparrows (359)
271 White-throated Sparrows (124)
148 American Tree Sparrows
97 Indigo Buntings (16)
88 Bobolinks (0)
78 American Goldfinches (55)
67 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
57 Red-winged Blackbirds (20)
57 Common Yellowthroats (48)
Rick