Captain Courageous – Giovanni arriving at 7:00 after cycling from downtown Hamilton – a trip of two and a half hours. He had to get up at 4:00 to do it. Now that’s dedication!
What a day! At 6:15 I was wondering if we would be able to open the nets as they were covered in frost. By 10:30 I was peeling off layers and basking in the wonderful sunshine.
The warmth brought out the first butterflies we’ve seen – Mourning Cloaks – and swarms of midges. The midges were a boon for the swallows and martins that have been having a hard time of it for the past 10 days. The little insects were around in swarms and the aerial insectivores were taking full advantage. Well fed now, the swallows were checking out all the boxes and chasing each other in preparation for pairing up and breeding – which won’t be far off. Yesterday (and for several days before) there were 3 Purple Martins around. This morning there were 9! Their chatter adds to the magic of the place.
And the frogs….did I mention the frogs? The Chorus Frogs below Net 8(M) were making a din. Usually an approaching human will cause them to drop their ruckus until the intruder moves off. Today only the frogs in the immediate area reduced their singing – the rest of the pond could care less. Spring was in the air and they wanted to take full advantage of the heat.
A sure sign that Spring has sprung – Dorothy and Dianne visit for some birding. It’s uncanny, but almost every time Dorothy visits a Pileated Woodpecker shows up….as it did this morning.
We had a surprise visit from Chris and Christine, who cameo to clean out the nesting boxes in preparation for the coming season – one day after Chris successfully defended his Master’s thesis!!
We have an excellent crew of young banders….of all ages. Amongst them a (hopefully) friendly competition has sprung up with various individuals taking “ownership” of particular nets. Here’s the list of competitors:
Nancy – Net 1A
Ben – 2B
Carol – 4C
Rick – 6A
Alessandra – 6W
Elaine – 7E
Mia – 8M
There are two competitive categories: most (unbanded) birds caught overall and most (unbanded) birds caught per 100 net hours. If you’d like to put a friendly wager on one of these my only “tip” is that betting on 6A would be like laying down money on a dead horse. The deal here, for the banding program, is that each person responsible for a net will keep up the net lane as much as possible. (So far we have let Elaine off the hook….but only because of her long-standing history of taking care of the banders.)
Mia shows off her net – 8M. The battle heats up.
Alessandra proudly displays her new net: 6W. She officially enters the best net competition – it will be a fierce, no holds barred contest….so I hear.
Captain Courageous learned the hard way never to say: “Alessandra, your net sucks.”
Banding-wise we had a solid mid-April day, banding 36 birds of 16 species.
Banded 36:
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
A striking male Yellow-bellied Sapsucker.
1 Tree Swallow
Our first captured Tree Swallow. Midges were out in swarms so the swallows, well fed now, could concentrate on chasing each other around….and flying into nets.
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
2 Hermit Thrushes
Sharon with a Hermit Thrush.
1 Brown Thrasher
The first Brown Thrasher of the year.
1 European Starling
1 Northern Cardinal
5 American Tree Sparrows
1 Field Sparrow
Our first (banded) Field Sparrow.
Lily holding the Field Sparrow.
3 Song Sparrows
6 Dark-eyed Juncos
Mia with her first banded bird of the year – a junco.
1 Red-winged Blackbird
3 Brown-headed Cowbirds
Cowbird with an orange band – a returnee from Western. Since it had not been adopted, Ben took it on and gave it the name of Eddie.
2 House Finches
5 American Goldfinches
Species Count: 49 spp.
Rick
A great Canadian day brought to life for those of us listening to Chiff chaffs here in Ireland.