Glancaster – May 1st & 3rd

One of the best things about bird banding and getting up in the early morning, are the sunrises.  I wonder if more people knew how beautiful and peaceful these were if they’d make the effort to grab that cup of coffee and just find a spot to sit and enjoy it for the first few minutes of their day!  The bird song in the morning continues to include an wider variety of birds every morning.  The Orioles have returned to my feeder as of Saturday, along with Bobolinks in our back field and as of Tuesday May 3rd, I had the first hummingbird at my feeder around 5pm.

Beautiful sunrise looking back into a field that fills with Red-wing Blackbirds, American Woodcocks, Bobolinks, Willow Flycatchers, and Eastern Meadowlarks, to name just a few.

When I head out in the morning to open my nets, I take my dog, Briggs, along with me and after opening, we continue down the road to hear what other birds are around.  This morning a Brown Thrasher was singing his loud, varied 2-note song from the top of a shrub, with Savannah Sparrows and Meadowlarks as his back-up singers.  It’s a good thing there were lots of bird songs to document as the birds in hand have been the slowest since I’ve started this spring; Sunday being the slowest with only 4 birds (although to be fair, I did have to close around 9 due to rain).  However, there were just enough to wow my young, 7 year old visitor, who has been interested in birds for about a year now.  She’s quite adept at using the Merlin Bird App and has now been introduced to using a field guide and documenting what birds she has seen and where.  The younger generations are so interested in the world around them!  It is clearly evident in my classroom as I continue to share the birds I’m banding at home.

Future bander-in-training, delighted to release the Black-caped Chickadee after she withstood his pecks and pinches!

Today when I shared the picture of the Baltimore Oriole, with my students, they were so quick to pick up on the shape of the beak and how pointed it looked, along with how sharp the claws looked.  They are now keen to find this bird in the small forest beside our school as I’ve seen a few in there in years past.  Yesterday when we were outside for a literacy activity, I could hear a Downy Woodpecker nearby in the woods beside the school.  We stopped, watched for movement and listened to the call.  This morning I had one in my net, so I brought in the picture for them to see what it looked like up close.  One boy, who obviously spends a lot of time with his family watching birds asked, “Is that a Downy Woodpecker or a Hairy Woodpecker?”  Wow!  This lead to conversations about noticing what was different and to their favourite part about birds, listening to their calls.

First Eastern White-crowned Sparrow for my site on May 3rd.

First Baltimore Oriole of the season. He showed up not 2 minutes after I put out my jelly feeder Saturday morning.

Banded Sunday May 1st

1 – Swamp Sparrow
1 – Red-winged Blackbird

Recaps:
1 – Song Sparrow
1 – Black-capped Chickadee

Banded Tuesday May 3rd

1- American Goldfinch
1 – Baltimore Oriole
1 – Brown-headed Cowbird
1 – White-throated Sparrow
3 – Eastern White-crown Sparrows

Recaps:

2 – American Robins
1 – Song Sparrow
1 – Downy Woodpecker

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