October 7th – Long-Distance Volunteers

An adult Bald Eagle catches the early morning sun.


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.”

Stephanie and Ben hard at work.


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.

Field Sparrow.


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

Ben Oldfield feeding himself to a Red-bellied Woodpecker.


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.

Gray-cheeked Thrush.


Birds banded per 100 net hours: 39

Brown Creeper.


Rick

One thought on “October 7th – Long-Distance Volunteers

  1. It warms my heart to see the young interested in the birds. Looking forward to getting over there before you close up shop for the season.

Leave a Reply