The biggest change at the banding lab since its inception in the Fall of 1995 is the number of folks that volunteer their time to help out. There hasn’t been a day this Fall when I’ve been on my own. This is a good thing. And I’m always interested in a) how they found out about us and b) where they’ve come from. Today there were 3 folks helping out and all had come a long way: Ben and Stephanie Oldfield came from Lowville (at least a 50-minute drive) and Erich Bauer came from Woodbridge (well over an hour’s drive). The most interesting thing about Erich was that he got here earlier than I did – “I wanted to see what it was like to open the nets”. Well, he got a good chance to see what it was like….and it didn’t scare him off: “I’d like to spend a week straight banding so I’ll remember all the little stuff that I forget by banding only once a week.”

It was a bit of a slower day as we handled only 65 birds: 47 banded, 18 retrapped. And there wasn’t a lot of variety to be seen – only 41 species on the day (although one was an adult Bald Eagle and another was an immature Black-crowned Night Heron that Erich turned up on census). The temperature began to get up there by 10:30 at which point the bird activity dropped right off.

Banded 47:
2 Mourning Doves
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
1 Brown Creeper
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
6 Hermit Thrushes
1 American Robin
1 Gray Catbird
1 Nashville Warbler
9 Myrtle Warblers
1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
7 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
8 White-throated Sparrows
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
1 American Goldfinch

Retrapped 18:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
2 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Chipping Sparrows
4 Song Sparrows
4 White-throated Sparrows
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows

ET’s: 41 spp.

Birds banded per 100 net hours: 39

Rick