Despite the cold Spring we’ve been experiencing, these Tree Swallows arrived today and started staking out a nest box. -N. Furber
Yesterday was April Fool’s, right? So everyone realized that the picture and paragraph on the Open-billed Stork was an April Fool’s hoax….right? Well, everyone except Carol Jones had this realization. Carol showed up this morning wanting to know if the bird was still around as she wanted to see it!? And this was no hoax. Now this normally would have brought a bout of derisive laughter on my part but….she had also brought still-warm bran muffins – the first muffins of the Spring Season. So no derisive laughter…..but raised eyebrows for sure.
Unlike yesterday, there was not a lot of activity today. There had been a big “push” yesterday so today felt quite subdued (e.g., 85 tundra Swans vs 500+). And the cold westerly wind had a bite to it for most of the morning (it didn’t warm up until after noon) making for fast net rounds.
Relatively dull-coloured female American Robin on the left; male right.
On the day we handled only 27 birds, banding 14 and retrapping 13. We still had a good species count though: 37 species, including the sighting of the first Eastern Phoebe of the year and another cryptic American Woodcock.
Banded 14:
3 Golden-crowned Kinglets
1 American Robin
1 American Tree Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
7 Dark-eye Juncos
1 American Goldfinch (in past years we have lots of these by now…)
ET’s: 37 spp.
Rick
WOW! Tree swallows already?! Still feels like a long way from that here, though there was a big flock of robins in the crabapple tree this morning along with the first Song sparrow.