It’s amazing the subjects that can be covered when a group of bright young people sits around the picnic table. Take the above picture. (Don’t tell us what you see – keep your deep, inner thoughts….and urges…. to yourself….) You see, it’s really not an inkblot a la Rorschach. It’s a picture of a facial mite that Keira took out of her nose! Well, not literally out of her nose….that would be kind of disgusting for picnic table interaction while consuming muffins. As an experiment, she put a piece of tape on her nose before going to bed. And when she woke up the next morning, examined the tape under a microscope for little parasites called facial mites. And there you see one. Evidently, everyone has them and, according to Keira, you get them from your mother shortly after birth and they stay with you for a lifetime living in tiny openings on your face/head like pores and hair follicles. (To combat them, I’ve reduced the amount of hair on my head….). Also evidently, your genetic lineage can be traced through the DNA of your personal facial mites. See! I’ll bet some of you think that all we talk about is the relative merit of Timbits vs home baking. This morning it got a lot heavier than that.

The weather over the last few days has been a roller coaster with temperatures ranging from low single digits accompanied by cold gusting winds and drizzle/rain to 27 C. and bright sunshine – t-shirt conditions. And, although migrants having been moving through, we’re now starting to see some of that exciting movement. I’m not sure what it is about warblers but they’re somehow special and when you begin to see (and catch) them it’s a great feeling.

The conditions have caused us to make a lot of adjustments to our catching: opening some nets but not others that the wind is billowing; in some instances depending primarily on ground traps; closing early as the wind builds. It can be a struggle but the arrival of long distance migrants keeps it exciting – you just never know what the next round may (or may not) bring.
April 23rd; banded 14:
1 Northern Flicker
4 Tree Swallows
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Brown Thrasher
1 American Goldfinch
1 White-throated Sparrow
1 Swamp Sparrow
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
ET’s: 43 spp.

April 24th; Banded 14:
2 American Goldfinches
3 Swamp Sparrows
4 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
3 Common Grackles
1 Northern Waterthrush
ET’s: 44 spp.

April 25th; Banded 12:
1 Blue Jay
3 White-throated Sparrows
6 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
1 Common Grackle
ET’s: 34 spp.

April 26th; Banded 22:
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Gray Catbird
3 American Goldfinches
5 White-throated Sparrows
2 Song Sparrows
1 Swamp Sparrow
1 Red-winged Blackbird
2 Common Grackles
1 Western Palm Warbler
3 Myrtle Warblers
ET’s: 42 spp.






We’ve slowly making progress on the outfitting of the new cabin. It’s interesting how useful connections are made. I was looking for some ideas to put on the floor so that it would be easier to sweep up at the end of the day and to wash when needed. So Keira showed a picture of the building in the flood; she showed it to someone else who just happened to have a couple of rolls of rubberized flooring that, once they were put into place, seem ideal. And the cost? The donor just wanted to get rid of the stuff…perfect!

Rick