Man it was cold last night! Down to -20 C. – good old Canadian Weather, eh? No wonder there was a flock of 40 birds sitting at the bait site first thing this morning waiting for breakfast. Interestingly, almost all of them were Snow Buntings – after seeing just 5 or 6 yesterday and banding just one. I had the traps laid out by 7:50 and, literally within 2 minutes, I had 22 birds in them, the majority being Snow Buntings. These were very hungry birds! These birds have no problem with cold temperatures….as long as they can find food.

By the time I had finished banding them, the traps were full again. But this time the mix was much different: just 3 Snow Buntings and 20 Horned Larks. I’m not sure what happened to the buntings but I couldn’t see any around; they must have moved on. Time for the Horned Larks to take over. Shortly after I had cleared these out of the way, there were more birds in the traps, but the pace had slackened. No wonder: our local American Kestrel breezed in looking for his breakfast too. I used him as an excuse to pack up and go = of course it had nothing to do with the fact that it was -18 C. and I was freezing my ass off. Still, it was a very good morning: banded 30 Horned Larks and 22 Snow Buntings.
Rick