We’ve had three gorgeous Fall days. I should be happy, right? Frankly, I’ve grown to like those unsettled, cloudy, threatening rain days – they make for much better banding. In nice weather, the birds just seem to fly over and we don’t get very many….and that’s what’s been happening.

Still, some good things happen. Take Carol Jones’s net (#4A). At first she was having no part of it: “It’s not my net. I didn’t pick out the location…” But on the 24th it got a “hit” of 31 Cedar Waxwings. Suddenly she was thumbing her nose at the rest of us and pointing out that “her” net had just achieved 496 birds per 100 net hours…so there. Funny how success puts a different perspective on things.

Setting up the meadow nets (#4a) -C. Jones

Setting up the meadow nets -C. Jones

The meadow nets (#4a) – C. Jones

And then of course we got the first Orange-crowned Warbler of the year (one of my favourites – its subtle, muted colours are so beautiful) and the first Blue-headed Vireo of the season. So, things are happening…just not very quickly.

Orange Crowned Warbler

Blue Headed Vireo

In a different vein, Fern Hill School passed on to me a solar cooker to take to Kenya (where the gathering of firewood takes up so much of a woman’s time and eats up the environment). Things being slow today, we decided to take it out of the box and give it a try. It’s a neat and very effective “machine”. It heated a large pot of water to close to boiling quite efficiently, internal temperatures of the oven reaching 250 degrees in a short time. So we thought we’d give it a real test. If you come to the Bird Festival on Saturday make sure you get one of Carol’s cookies – she’s going to try to bake them using this oven!

Solar Cooker donated by Fern Hill School for Rick to take to Kenya

Testing the solar cooker

Ready for Release

September 24th
Banded 54:
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Swainson’s Thrush
4 Gray Catbirds
35 Cedar Waxwings
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
4 Myrtle Warblers
2 American Redstarts
1 Song Sparrow
2 White-throated Sparrows

Et’s: 42 spp

September 25th
Banded 22:
1 House Wren
1 Winter Wren
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Gray-cheeked Thrush
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
1 Cedar Waxwing
1 Tennessee Warbler
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler
5 Song Sparrows
6 White-throated Sparrows

ET’s: 43 spp.

September 26th
Banded 14:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Winter Wren
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
3 Gray Catbirds
1 Blue-headed Vireo
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Song Sparrow
3 White-throated Sparrows
1 White-crowned Sparrow

ET’s: 37 spp.

Rick