A brilliant ASY male American Redstart
Finally….you got the feel this morning that the Spring migration was underway again. While the 48 birds we banded wasn’t large by other years standards, it was a lot more than the 19 (over half of which were goldfinches) that we did yesterday. But more significant was that this total spanned 23 different species. If you do the math, you will quickly see that we didn’t do a lot of any one species. And that was the way it was today: good variety but only a few of each – both banded and birded; e.g., 1 Least Flycatcher, 1 Veery, 1 Wood Thrush, 1 Cedar Waxwing, 1 Yellow-throated Vireo, 1 Nashville Warbler, 1 Blackburnian Warbler, 1 American Redstart, 1 Scarlet Tanager, 1 Lincoln’s Sparrow. For the day we encountered 63 species altogether.
Male Chestnut-sided Warbler
Swamp Sparrow
Female Common Yellowthroat
The important thing though is that we got an influx of new birds and we can expect a lot more in the next couple of weeks. This Spring seems very slow to me so I looked back over the last two years to get a comparison: over the first ten days, this year we have banded 312 birds; in 2011 over the same period we banded 400; and last year, 2012, we banded 739. No wonder it feels slow. Unsettled weather is called for during the next few days. This is always better for banding at Ruthven, so maybe things will pick up. We haven’t even come close to a “big day” yet….
Delicate spotting on a buffy chest indicate a Lincoln’s Sparrow
Remember that tomorrow is Ruthven’s Open House (to celebrate International Migratory Bird Day). The banding lab will be open to all and sundry so please feel free to drop in and see what’s going on (if you haven’t already – because we’re always open to the public). Matt Timpf, Ruthven’s Ace Birder, will be leading the census hike at around 7:30. You can learn a LOT by hanging out with Matt. And you are welcome to join us for our net rounds.
Male Nashville Warbler
Least Flycatcher
Bright male Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler
Female Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warbler
Banded 48:
1 Least Flycatcher
1 Blue Jay
1 House Wren
2 American Robins
2 Gray Catbirds
1 European Starling
1 Warbling Vireo
1 Nashville Warbler
4 Yellow Warblers
1 Chestnut-sided Warbler
5 Myrtle Warblers
1 American Redstart
2 Common Yellowthroats
1 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
2 Chipping Sparrows
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
2 Swamp Sparrows
4 White-throated Sparrows
3 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Brown-headed Cowbird
1 Baltimore Oriole
1 Pine Siskin (one of a flock of 8!)
9 American Goldfinches
ET’s: 63 spp.
Rick