September 9th – Caught Between a Park and Soft Place
5:45 the alarm goes off. Rats. But….what’s this? The sound of raindrops splattering on my window. It’s raining!!! I can roll over and go back to sleep. But no! Guilt will not let me be. “What if it stops and you don’t have the nets open and miss the best day of your career”, it whispers in my ear. I roll onto the other side and try to fend it off. No luck. Rats!
Well, the rain did stop and I was ready with the nets open shortly thereafter (about an hour later than usual). But it wasn’t a career day. In fact, it was eerily quiet. The trees in front of the Mansion that have been teeming with birds the past two weeks were virtually empty. By the end of the day I had encountered 44 species, which is half decent, but there was usually only a single or a few of each one. I’m particularly concerned about the lack of American Goldfinches. At this time in past years we would be seeing 50+ and banding them hand over fist but not this year. Other than one quite ill adult bird I haven’t seen anything to indicate an epidemic but their lack would suggest there has been one.
Banded 17:
3 Eastern Wood Pewees
2 Black-capped Chickadees
4 Red-eyed Vireos
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
3 Magnolia Warblers
1 Black & White Warbler
1 American Redstart
1 Scarlet Tanager
Retrapped 9:
1 Hairy Woodpecker
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Swainson’s Thrush
1 Gray Catbird
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Red-eyed Vireo
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
1 Black & White Warbler
ET’s:Â 45 species
Rick
__________________________________________
September 8th
A bright and sunny day for the most part – at least once the fog burned off and before the sky clouded over. Small groups of birds were moving all day long, but nothing in any extraordinary numbers. In short, a steady but unspectacular day.
A Hooded Merganser was spotted on the river but the most interesting observation was of a large cloud of Common Green Darners sheltering in the dip of land between Nets 4 and 5. There were at least 20 individuals darting back and forth in this relatively small area. Very neat! I hope they were feasting on mosquitoes.
Banded: 27
Nashville Warbler 1
Yellow-Bellied Flycatcher 1
Magnolia Warbler 2
Chestnut-Sided Warbler 1
Least Flycatcher 1
Bay-Breasted Warbler 1
House Wren 2
Alder Flycatcher 1
Common Yellowthroat 2
Chipping Sparrow 4
Red-Eyed Vireo 5
Swainsons Thrush 1
Scarlet Tanager 1
Grey Catbird 1
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak 1
Northern Flicker 1
Blue Jay 1
Retrapped: 13
Lawrence’s Warbler 1 (put on 1.4g since being banded 2 weeks ago)
Magnolia Warbler 2
Black-Capped Chickadee 2
House Wren 1
Chipping Sparrow 1 (banded as a SY in 2007)
Eastern Wood Pewee 1
Red-Eyed Vireo 1
Song Sparrow 1
Grey Catbird 2
Mourning Dove 1
B
I think the goldfinches are all on the Hamilton mountain. They’re dripping off the feeders here.
That’s interesting, because there’s only a few here when we’re used to big numbers of them.