I like to put “pressure” on our growing group of young ornithologists to “be all they can be”. Writing up a blog post is just part of this learning curve. Doing it in a timely fashion is also a part of it. Maggie, as you can easily see below, did a great job! And the only reason you didn’t see this last night was because of my lacking technological skills that required her to resend the pictures in a different format. I really like her…..tongue in cheek….approach!
Today was Global Big Day. All over the world, birders are counting the number of
species they see in an international census. Like Ben, who saw the province’s
first ever hepatic tanager (it was only the third spotted in all of North America!)
With twenty three banded and two recaps, in 17 species, we didn’t have big
numbers. We did have, however, lots of visitors. Everleigh, Kai, and Denika
joined us today, learnt about handling birds, and ate baked goods (This is your
reminder to bring food when you go banding, I can’t feed us alone) After a very
successful first net run, things slowed down a bit, but we continued to have good
variety. I both saw and banded my first tanager, saw a gray cheeked thrush, and
heard my first northern parula. We played around with Merlin, a bird app that can
identify bird calls with….decent accuracy? Doubt crept in when it identified a
Willet, a migratory shorebird that frequents mudflats and rocky beaches.
Fortunately, we weren’t relying on Merlin to id our birds.
Totals:
Banded: 23
House Wren-1
Gray Catbird-3

Gray-cheeked thrush-1
Swanison’s Thrush-1
American robin-1
Lincoln’s sparrow-2

Ovenbird-2

Tennessee Warbler-1

Common Yellowthroat-2

American Redstart-1
Magnolia Warbler-3

Wilson’s Warbler-1

Scarlet Tanager-1
Northern Cardinal-1
Rose-Breasted Grosbeak-1

Recaps: 2
Black capped chickadee-1
Indigo bunting-1
Maggie