I had a wonderful start to the day! As I drove East along River Road, Venus, the morning “star”, shone brightly through the windshield and in the rear view mirror I could see an almost full Hunter’s Moon descending in the West. It was very quiet as I was opening the nets in the dark. Overhead Orion and the Winter Triangle kept watch, slowly fading as the sky lightened. Glorious.
For the past month or so Blue Jays have been fattening and gathering into flocks heading south. Their clarion calls signal that Fall is here and Winter can’t be too far behind…I hope, although the recent temperatures would seem to question that. Over the weekend there was an important gathering of Blue Jays in Toronto. They were growing fat on Yankee pitching and now are headed South to the Big Apple to continue their journey. Hopefully there will be a reverse migration and they will head back to Toronto to fatten even more. Go Jays!!!
I was running solo today so didn’t open all the nets; I left the nets in the prairie meadow furled as I didn’t want to be overwhelmed. But the trend I’ve been seeing over the past several days in which the banding totals have slowly diminished, from a high of 82 several days ago, seems to be continuing. Although there were still lots of sparrows darting above the grasses, the number finding the nets was going down. The 33 birds I banded today were plenty, especially when the 23 retraps were added in. It was a good day to be alone.
Interestingly, we see a good number of Eastern White-crowned Sparrows along the laneway on the other side of River Road, but they don’t seem to find their way into the grasses or as far as the edge. Field Sparrows, though, are starting to show up.
October 5th; Banded 49:
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Northern House Wren
1 American Goldfinch
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
9 White-throated Sparrows
19 Song Sparrows
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
6 Swamp Sparrows
1 Common Yellowthroat
7 Myrtle Warblers
1 Wilson’s Warbler
October 6th; Banded 33:
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Field Sparrow
8 White-throated Sparrows
15 Song Sparrows
2 Lincoln’s Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
1 Myrtle Warbler
Rick