Snow Buntings coming to the traps.
I got back from Kenya late yesterday afternoon, tired but happy to be home again. And, to be honest, I was missing the cold and snow. Of course this was a cerebral thing – my body had a hard time adjusting to the 42 degree drop in temperature in 24 hours. Marg assured me that the -8 temp was actually something of a heat wave when compared to the last couple of weeks. Ah Canada…you gotta love it.
Nancy scribing in the Bandingmobile.
To help acclimatize I spent the day catching and banding Snow Buntings with Nancy Furber. She’s been doing a great job keeping the site on Duxbury Road baited. Oh…and did I mention that she had banded over 1600 buntings?!
One of two retrapped birds from last February when we were applying a second band telling people who might find the bird where to report.
The birds came in early in good numbers and then just kept coming. When we knocked off around 3:00 to let them feed uninterrupted we had banded 217 plus another 2 Horned Larks as well as a scad of recaptures from this year and 5 recaptures of birds banded elsewhere. Quite a day!
Wing detail of an ASY male.
Keratin disorder? Note the overlong hind claws.
Nancy has developed an effective trap array.
This bird was missing the toes on its right foot.
Male Horned Lark.
Rick
Hey folks need any assistants
Hey Dave…contact Nancy. She could use some help over the next couple of weeks for sure.
some good info for Snow Bunting Bird Banders from Europe…
http://www.ringersdigiguide.ottenby.se/plectrophenax-nivalis/
please look all details and pictures (Many interesting pages) !!!
Géry van der Kelen, R.P.F., MBA