That “don’t mess with me” look. -C. Scholtens
The temperature dropped through the night and rain started, making for a raw morning (actually, day). Due to the conditions we opened only the feeder nets and only during lulls in the drizzle. We also had traps on the go – goldfinches really seem to like the hanging trap – a cage surrounding a niger feeder.
We ended up handling 39 birds, two thirds of them recaptures. One of the latter was particularly interesting: a male American Goldfinch that was originally banded by Loretta Mousseau as a HY bird way back on October 22, 2009, making it 7 years old!
Banded 11:
1 Blue Jay
2 White-breasted Nuthatches
4 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 Purple Finches
1 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 23 spp.
Pictures from the last few days:
From last Saturday night: Birds of a feather: Samuel, Giovanni, Caleb, Ezra, Ethan. Alessandra banding the first Saw-whet of the night. -C. Scholtens Fringe on owl wing edges makes for silent flight. -C. Scholtens Caleb showing this owl’s underwing. -E. Campanelli Samuel with his owl. -E. Campanelli Giovanni doing his “owl-eyes” impression. -E. Campanelli From Fern Hill Oakville – yesterday: Han with Young Ornithologists’ mascot, Fred the Chicken…..being photo-bombed. -K. Paveley Isabella trying to age and sex Fred the Chicken. -K. Paveley Sonali with Oakville’s first American Tree Sparrow of the season – it will be interesting to see if it stays around for the Winter or is a passage bird. -K. Paveley Is the bird setting off the beautiful henna hand design or the other way round? -K. Paveley White-breasted Nuthatch. -K. Paveley Laura and the Young Ornithologists, teaching the Grade 1’s about birds. -K. Paveley Even the Moms are getting into it – Patty with a Blue Jay. -K. Paveley From the baby shower(!) for Christine Madliger on Sunday (see what happens when researchers spend a lot of time together in the field): Oliver Love letting his hair down. -M. Havelka Oliver Love showing his artistic/sensitive side. -M. Havelka
Rick
