It was another unexceptional day….at Ruthven. But for Janice, for her first day running the show at Fern Hill School, it was pretty exciting. We banded 28, Janice got 35 – what a nice start for her!
There are still lots of Cedar Waxwings zipping around the treetops at Ruthven (estimated 220 around) and 10 even got low enough to get caught but without any grapes I don’t know how much longer they will be here…..unless they develop an appetite for Gray Dogwood berries of which we have tons. But waxwings prefer fruit with sugar (grapes) rather than fruit with lipids (dogwood). Still we got the waxwings today as they were coming out of dogwoods.
One big surprise (and concern) for us is the almost complete lack of American Goldfinches in the area. We have only banded 2 so far this Fall and today we estimated that there were only 8 around! And we’ve been seeing these low numbers throughout September.
We had an interesting retrap today: a male Common Yellowthroat that we originally banded as a SY (second year) bird in May of 2010 – making it 6 years old.
Ruthven; Banded 28:
1 Yellow-bellied Flycatcher
1 Blue Jay
2 Swainson’s Thrush
2 American Robins
2 Gray Catbirds
10 Cedar Waxwings
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
2 Ovenbirds
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Song Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrows
ET’s: 45 spp.
Fern Hill; Banded 35:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Hairy Woodpecker
6 American Robins
1 Gray Catbird
1 European Starling
1 Red-eyed Vireo
2 Northern Cardinals
1 Chipping Sparrow
3 Song Sparrows
6 House Finches
12 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 30 spp.
Rick
As you may have noticed, my shirt is wearing the coveted mark of the Order of the Blue P.. Wich, on the white uniform shirt of the Fern Hill banders does not look so good (ask Nash!).
Many birds feed on the blue berries that grow plenty around our nets.
We are having a good season start, and now that the students have setlled in their new routine, more of them are coming in the morning. Some parents have confided in me that the prospect of coming early to banding is having a significant impact on the time needed to get the children going in the morning. We all know how this can be difficult, the job of the parent consisting in pushing and pulling until all are in the car!
We will keep you posted on our progress. Thanks to Rick, Nancy and Janice for supporting us so nicely.
Bernard Dussault