These very mild nights and hot days – for the end of October – are unsettling. I wonder what their impact will be on the trees. But I don’t think the birds are fooled. The long-distance migrant warblers are long gone; they didn’t stick around to enjoy these unusual conditions. And the overall variety of birds that we’re encountering is slowly going down. Predictions are for a much cooler – and normal – weekend. Hopefully I’ll start to see junco and tree sparrow in larger numbers. But I’m not complaining! The more I get to experience sparrows the more I like them – they’re no longer LBJ’s (Little Brown Jobs); their intricate colours and shading are exquisite, especially when you can see them up close. And we are. Today we handled 6 species. We’re seeing Field Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows in much larger numbers than we have before. And Swamp Sparrows and White-throated Sparrows are approaching last year’s record numbers.

I wasn’t expecting much today as the SW winds, which are the worst for billowing our nets, were gusting up to >40 kilometers per hour. So I opened only about half. But our first round was remarkable as we banded more than 30 birds. Thank goodness Amanda has been making such good progress – she was a big help!

Banded 43:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Swainson’s Thrush
4 Purple Finches

5 American Goldfinches
3 American Tree Sparrows
2 White-crowned Sparrows
14 White-throated Sparrows

6 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
4 Red-winged Blackbirds
2 Northern Cardinals
ET’s: 26 spp.
Rick