It was a very busy morning – the busiest so far of the this Fall. Watching birds pile into the nets, I knew that I would need some help. Fortunately my wife Marg is just a phone call away. Not only did she show up quickly but she came bearing edibles! We worked steadily till mid-afternoon.
But the rescue actually started last night. Looking at the wind direction and the drop in temperature I decided to give Northern Saw-whet Owls a shot. This was a difficult decision as I had to choose between the possibility of catching an owl and watching the Blue Jays playoff baseball game from New York. Hmm. Tough decisions. But, why not have both. I opened nets and tried for owls once it got dark and Marg texted me inning by inning results. Perfect. Sadly, I got no owls; happily, the Jays won.
I finished at Midnight and decided to sleep over in the banding hut. That way I wouldn’t have to get up quite so early in the morning. What I wasn’t counting on was the lack of insulation that my sleeping bag offered in +2 C temperatures. A warm bed and a 20 minute car ride would probably have been a wiser choice.
I opened early. As I walked along the edge I could hear restless sparrows chipping and knew it was going to be a good day. And so it was. We ended up banding 117 birds (the high so far for this season) and handling 24 retraps. A large majority of these birds were sparrows (see below). The Vesper Sparrow was a very pleasant surprise and we got our first Dark-eyed Junco of the season. Interestingly, we also got a very late Magnolia Warbler.
Banded 117:
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
5 Hermit Thrushes
1 Vesper Sparrow
4 Field Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
16 White-throated Sparrows
37 Song Sparrows
3 Lincoln’s Sparrows
35 Swamp Sparrows
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Magnolia Warbler
4 Myrtle Warblers
1 Northern Cardinal
Rick