The four poster children for the perils of not getting enough beauty sleep.
I awoke to heavy rain and loud thunder during the night and thought about rolling over and going back to sleep. But these days you just never know if visitors are going to show up…and so it was this morning. When I arrived at the gate there was a car full of volunteers anxious to get going (having already waited half an hour for me to get there). But this turned out to be a good thing in the long run as Ezra, Giovanni and Caleb have been helping out for many years (despite their young ages) and the nets were quickly put up, a net check done, and a census started in no time. [You know, at this rate, I should just bring a chaise lounge and turn the operation over to the next generation…..]
The rain stopped around 7:00, which made for a late start, and didn’t start up again until late in the afternoon. The cloudy skies and threat of rain kept birds low and feeding…which brought them into the nets. Interestingly, Nets 9 & 9A were the top “producers” today – the first time this season they have figured significantly in the catch. Yellow-rumped Warblers and Cedar Waxwings seemed to be everywhere – the waxwings after the grapes and the warblers interested in the dogwood berries. I think the birds were aware of the coming bad weather (and making up for last night’s storm) and were feeding frenetically in preparation. There was never a let-up during the day – I was catching right up until I closed in the middle of the afternoon.
Banded 138:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Blue Jay
1 Brown Creeper
6 Golden-crowned Kinglets
8 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Swainson’s Thrush
5 Hermit Thrushes
1 American Robin
1 Gray Catbird
21 Cedar Waxwings
2 Blue-headed Vireos
1 Philadelphia Vireo
5 Nashville Warblers
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
69 Myrtle Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
2 Blackpoll Warblers
3 Common Yellowthroats
3 Song Sparrows
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 47 spp.
Rick
We have another set of galleries from Caleb Scholtens and Ezra Campanelli below.
Caleb’s photos:
Ezra’s photos
