Orion was high overhead when Matt Timpf and I started to open and it was cold – only 2 degrees with heavy frost in the low-lying areas; net 4 was frozen and I had to wait 3 hours before I could get it unfurled. Still, the White-throated Sparrows were undeterred and started “chipping” as soon as it began to get light. Other birds opted to sleep in a little longer……

All the Golden-crowned Kinglets that we had just a few days ago seem to have moved on – we encountered only one through the whole morning. And there were only a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets. Hermit Thrushes hit the nets early whereas Myrtle Warblers waited until the sun was well up and the temperatures were rising. There were a few more Juncos around – just the beginning of the hordes to come. American Goldfinch numbers continue to baffle – I estimated that there were, maybe, 12 around but none at the feeders and we didn’t catch any.

We had another two classes of grade 9’s from St. Thomas More high school in Hamilton (there are about 2,000 kids at that school). We broke the banding team into two groups (amazing how specialized we’re becoming): Rhiannon handled most of the banding with Bev scribing for her while Matt handled the retraps with Carol as his scribe. Me? I just wandered around and cleared nets and gave opinions on aging and sexing the trickly ones – a pretty good gig for me, wouldn’t you say?

Matt did the census and recorded 38 species, one being a young Northern Goshawk.

If you’ve been in the banding lab in the last 2 weeks or so, you may have noticed the hot-off-the-press Map of the Birding Areas in Haldimand County. This was an initiative of the Haldimand County Economic Development & Tourism Division, spearheaded by Joanne Wolnik. She and a couple of colleagues, as well as a reporter from the Sachem, was around for a photo op this morning – which she took full advantage of…..check out the picture. (If you don’t have a map and want one, you can pick them up at the lab.)

Banded 60:
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
1 Black-capped Chickadee
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
8 Hermit Thrushes
2 Cedar Waxwings
1 Nashville Warbler
17 Myrtle Warblers
1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
2 Chipping Sparrows
3 Song Sparrows
12 White-throated Sparrows
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
4 Dark-eyed Juncos
2 House Finches

Retrapped 17:
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Chipping Sparrow
5 Song Sparrows
4 White-throated Sparrows
5 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows

ET’s: 46 spp.

Birds banded per 100 net hours: 48

Rick