Opened to overcast skies (with a few stars poking their way through) and light northerly breezes (that later became light winds)….and cool/cold temperatures.
We had a big “first round” and then it slowed down but never stopped.

We had a lot of aspiring banders out this morning: Nancy Furber, Christine Madliger, Faye Socholotiuk, Oliver Love and Tina Semeniuk. In this scenario my role essentially is to “be available for consultation” but otherwise to get out of the way. And I got out of the way pretty well….over to the work bench where Oliver had placed his home-made apple-cinnamon muffins. He perfected the making of these in the Arctic and they are delicious. So I was pretty contented to just consult….and eat.

This crew is getting really good and I hope that they will start to look at getting banding subpermits – then I could get a chaise lounge and “consult” only as a last resort.

We had the first Purple Finches of the season – including two beautiful adult males.

Banded 88:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Blue Jay
3 Black-capped Chickadees
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 Brown Creeper
1 Winter Wren
11 Golden-crowned Kinglets
19 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
5 Hermit Thrushes
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
2 Song Sparrows
3 White-throated Sparrows
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
9 Dark-eyed Juncos
3 Purple Finches
21 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 26:
2 Eastern Tufted Titmice
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
2 Hermit Thrushes
1 American Robin
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
3 White-throated Sparrow
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
13 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 39 spp.

Rick