What the title implies….is that we weren’t overwhelmed with birds this morning. I think I described it in the notes as “slow but (fairly) steady.” But as any optimist will tell you: every cloud has a silver lining. [As opposed to: behind every dark cloud there’s another.] Today’s silver lining is that we got to talk a LOT about birds and their behaviour with the visitors we had AND we were able to begin to teach 2 bird aficionadoes how to band. So it was what we will call a “good teaching day”. It was a nice way for the 2 young women to start as they both got really nice birds, long-distance migrants: Laura had a male Black-throated Blue Warbler and Debbie got a Red-eyed Vireo.
The best bird of the day from my perspective though was an Orange-crowned Warbler. We see very few of these at Ruthven and usually only in the Fall. This one seemed to sense my enthusiasm for its species and jumped into the net while I was watching. Marvellous!
The movie shoot has been going ahead full tilt and the parking lot and environs of the Mansion is very busy. But the trails are quiet and a pleasure to stroll. The main plus of the movie shoot is that we have unrestricted access to the food wagon!! Given the paucity of baked goods this season (Elaine refuses to come when I’m there and plies Nancy with her wares; Carol is refusing to bake under the pretense that she is protecting me from myself; Irene has been hurting and unable to bake; visitors are not aware that the norm is to bring baked goods to the banding lab; and the Baggers are getting so good that the McMaster Rule rarely has to be invoked.) this is a good thing!!
Banded 24:
1 Eastern Wood Pewee
1 White-breasted Nuthatch
5 Swainson’s Thrushes
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
2 Magnolia Warblers
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
5 Yellow-rumped Warblers
3 Blackpoll Warblers
2 White-throated Sparrows
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 46 spp.
Photo Gallery:
Rick