It was quite a chilly night: -3.6 degrees. And a heavy frost, which coated all the nets and made the hills (even the little ones) pretty slick. Still, it was beautiful – the Winter Triangle was high overhead with Sirius (the Dog Star) glistening down on me as I made my rounds, opening the nets. It stayed clear for the rest of the day, except for a few puffy cumulus clouds around noon.

There was a little activity along the edges early including a bunch of Yellow-rumped Warblers that flew up into the trees by nets 5 and 7 after having spent the night hunkered down in the goldenrod. But we didn’t catch much – in fact, it was pretty much retraps and goldfinches. The kinglets that were so noticeable yesterday seem to have moved on – yesterday we banded 30, today just 5. It appears that juncos have made their arrival though; we banded 7 and estimated that there were at least 50 around.

Banded 35:
1 Black-capped Chickadee
5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Field Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows
7 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Purple Finch
1 House Finch
16 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 22:
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
1 Song Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
1 Dark-eyed Junco
13 American Goldfinches

ET’s: 36 spp.

Rick