Yesterday afternoon it began to rain and did so until about 2 this morning; the people attending the wedding were glad they had a marquis tent to shelter in. My hunch is that there was a good movement of migrants as soon as the rain ended, birds taking advantage of the stoppage to push on for another 100 kilometers or so. They showed up at Ruthven in good numbers (if not variety).
White-throated Sparrows and Yellow-rumped Warblers made up a large percentage of the catch. The warblers were not carrying very much fat and it was interesting to watch them actively working their way through the gray dogwoods eating the fruit (which are high in lipids as opposed to grapes which are largely sugar).
I didn’t check the numbers before making the decision to close the nets (Carol would have been all over this), otherwise I would have stayed open for another bird or two – we ended up banding 99, just one under the magic 100 mark.
The Baggers also had a good day banding 44 birds, 26 of which were sparrows.
We had a visit from an interesting group of young ladies: CAGIS (Canadian ASsociation of Girls In Science). Thirty years ago girls in scienc would have been somewhat of an oxymoron but, thankfully, not any more. These kids were pretty keen and a couple of them would make good Baggers.
Banded 99:
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 House Wren
6 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Gray Catbird
18 Cedar Waxwings
3 Tennessee Warblers
42 Yellow-rumped Warblers
5 Blackpoll Warblers
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
16 White-throated Sparrows
2 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 41 spp.
Bagger (River Flats) Banding:
2 Gray Catbirds
8 Cedar Waxwings
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Field Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
19 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
7 American Goldfinches
Photo Gallery:
Rick