What a surprise: a Grey Wagtail!! Despite being a long way from home this bird was in its preferred habitat – beside a stream.
The black bib on the male Grey Wagtail.
Did you hear those west winds last night!? I didn’t…..but Carol and Marnie assured me that they were really strong (I was sleeping off some serious jet lag). But I saw the effects of that wind. A pair of Grey Wagtails was feeding along Rick’s Rill first thing in the morning. Now, this Eurasian species is a regular Spring migrant to the western Aleutian Islands but I guess those winds just pushed them this way. What a treat!! Fortunately I had seen them in the Azores and then again in southern France within just the past 3 weeks so I could make the identification confidently. What a treat!!
Marnie with the first banded bird of the 2018 Spring season: Field Season.
Other than the wagtail excitement, we got off to a slow start, banding only 6 birds. The first one of the new Spring Migration Monitoring season was a somewhat early Field Sparrow. But we had a couple of nice birds on census: a Pied-billed Grebe and a solitary Tree Swallow (that must be hard put to find sustenance in
these cold blustery conditions).
Banded 6:
1 Tufted Titmouse
Aidan with a local Tufted Titmouse that he’s just banded.
1 Northern Cardinal
1 American Tree Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 34 spp.
News Flashes:
Finally……construction has started on our SPA.
As many of you know, I have been pushing for a spa for about as long as this banding station has operated (we’re starting our 23rd Spring banding season). Well…..it’s finally happening!! As you can see the foundation is just being put in. It will be quite spacious. The only “catch” (but really it was just an act of goodwill on our part) is that we will lease it to Ruthven/Lower Grand River Land Trust for the next 25 years as office space for Marilynn, Natalie, and Madeline.
Our Bagger program is starting to pay off: Ben Oldfield was just awarded a banding subpermit!!
One of our long term goals has been to promote an interest in birds in young people. This has started to pay off as Ben Oldfield has just received his banding subpermit from the Canadian Banding Office!
Rick