Tree Swallows huddle in a sheltered area, catching the early morning sun. -P. Thoem
Brrr…it was cold again this morning. With the thermometer reading -2 I was fully expecting the nets to be frozen and the poles iced up. But, no. They opened readily enough. The first net round produced an encouraging 2 Yellow-rumped Warblers but after that it was pretty slow. I say that, but we handled 60 birds: 26 “new” ones and 34 retraps. Most of the juncos and still-remaining tree sparrows are showing good fat scores and good weights so I don’t think they’ll be with us much longer.
We banded the first warblers of the year: 2 Yellow-rumped Warblers.
We did have a minor flight of Common Loons – 7 flew over in the space of about 20 minutes, starting about half an hour after sunrise. All were headed north.
An Eastern Phoebe was a treat.
We had a large (but very good) mix of volunteers around this morning – to the point that we went completely through 2 batches of muffins!
A Mourning Dove with a keratin disorder. (We trimmed the extra off before releasing it.)
Banded 26:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Blue Jay
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
2 Yellow-rumped Warblers
1 Chipping Sparrow
2 Field Sparrows
5 Brown-headed Cowbirds
1 House Finch
8 American Goldfinches
Species Count: 46 spp.
Rick