We didn’t really know what to expect weather-wise this morning. The sun was trying to break through a fairly heavy cloud cover. In the end it was a sawoff: a mix of sun and cloud….but mostly cloud. A NW wind blew during the night and must have brought some northern breeders in. We saw (and caught) our first Fox Sparrows of the season and Purple Finches were numerous – we banded 12! Rusty Blackbirds were more numerous than Red-wings.
We also hosted a large number of American Goldfinches, banding 32, by far the largest single day total for this species this season.
For us a “Big Day” is when we band 100+ birds. So this was a Big Day: we banded 107. We alson handled 35 retraps giving us a total of 142 birds. The school group (a very interactive Grade 6 class) certainly got their fill.
Banded 107:
1 Blue Jay
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
2 Brown Creepers
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
3 Ruby-crowned kinglets
1 Hermit Thrush
6 American Robins
16 Cedar Waxwings
1 European Starling
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
4 Northern Cardinals
5 Fox Sparrows
3 White-throated Sparrows
11 Dark-eyed Juncos
3 Rusty Blackbirds
12 Purple Finches
1 House Finch
32 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 43 spp.
Rick