I recently read a marvellous editorial by the CBC’s Michael Enright, which aired on his September 7th show, Sunday Edition”. It was entitled “Optimism in the face of a world gone mad”. In it he notes the optimism of his son (whom he was taking to his first year of university) in the face of the carnage that we older folks seem to have made of the world, either directly (wars, poverty, disease) or indirectly (impacts of carbon emission-driven global warming).

Despite the woe and turmoil we, and especially the young, carry on toward a “bright future”. As Enright notes, quoting National Post columnist Robert Fulford, “Without optimism, we are bereft”.

During the migration we go out early every morning, not just hopeful, but positively thinking that this will be a good day. This in spite of the fact that we know that bird numbers have been plummeting in face of the human juggernaut – industrial farming, toxic wastes, garbage, environmental warming, environmental destruction….and on and on. And yet, every morning, I start opening nets thinking that this will be a good day…that I am “perpetually on the verge of something, something dynamic…” But(again quoting from the editorial) maybe I’m just groping “for shards of optimism to sustain [my] enthusiasm”. It’s hard to say. All I know is that when the nets are all open and I’m sitting at the picnic table listening to the birds come alive and waiting for the sun to clear the horizon before doing the first net round, I’m excited about the day to come and about what birds might be found in the nets today.

Banding-wise it was a pretty ordinary day with just 38 birds of 22 species ringed. But there were good things happening, big numbers or no: the passage of an uncommonly seen Green Heron; the movement of 12 Broad-winged Hawks (making for the southwest); the banding of the first Swamp Sparrow of the season (and quite a young one at that causing one to think it might have been raised locally); the first appearance of juvenile Cedar Waxwings checking out the grape crop around net 4C; and, overall, the sighting of 55 different species (including 10 warblers). Add all this in to the mix of good people we had out and it was a pretty good day….and makes you look forward to the next one. Optimism.

Banded 38:
3 Mourning Doves
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
1 Least Flycatcher
1 House Wren
2 Gray-cheeked Thrushes
4 Swainson’s Thrushes
[all 6 thrushes had low fat scores and weights for this time of year]
2 Warbling Vireos
1 Philadelphia Vireo
2 Red-eyed Vireos
3 Chestnut-sided Warblers
5 Magnolia Warblers
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
2 Black-throated Green Warblers
1 Blackpoll Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Scarlet Tanager
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeak
1 Song Sparrow
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
2 House Finches

ET’s: 55 spp.
Rick