November 5th

A beautiful June day…in November. With the temperature hitting the mid 20s it certainly felt like an early summer day rather than the prelude to winter. The birds that teemed earlier in the week seemed to have evaporated with the warm temperatures. It was very quiet.

A tad noisier were the chorus frogs that were singing in the valley and there was a late dragonfly still buzzing around.

Banded: 16
Brown Creeper 1
American Goldfinch 6
Black-Capped Chickadee 2
American Tree Sparrow 1
Slate-Coloured Junco 1
Song Sparrow 2
Northern Cardinal 3

Retrapped: 14
Brown Creeper 1
Slate-Coloured Junco 9
Black-Capped Chickadee 1
White-Throated Sparrow 1 (banded mid-October this bird has put on 8.5g – 25% of its current weight)
White-Breasted Nuthatch 1
Fox Sparrow 1 (the one with the crossed beak)

32 spp observed

B

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November 4th, Another Goldfinch Day

In September we were concerned that something had happened to goldfinches as we weren’t catching any. How things have changed! The 28 we banded today pushed our Fall total to over 400 – 402 to be exact. Now this is a lot less than the record 1250+ we banded last year but still getting up there. I would like to know if the birds we’re catching now are local birds or birds from elsewhere that are just moving through. I would suspect the latter.

What a beautiful day it was! Who would think that we would be getting 20 degree weather in November!? Incredible.

Banded 52:
1 Mourning Dove
1 Red-bellied Woodpecker
3 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Brown Creeper
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
5 American Tree Sparrows
1 Fox Sparrow
2 Song Sparrows
1 White-throated Sparrow
7 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 Rusty Blackbird
28 American Goldfinches

Retrapped 12:
1 Downy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
4 Black-capped Chickadees
2 White-throated Sparrows
4 Dark-eyed Juncos

ET’s: 33 species

Rick