While I was opening nets in the dark this morning the stars were starting to dim and there was a cloud bank moving in from the north. It was quiet in the flats without the ‘chipping’ notes from the sparrows and the wind was calm. A lovely morning to be out early, anticipating the start of a new day and the numbers and variety of birds that would be handled. When I was nearing the end of opening all of the nets and the sky was getting brighter than the White- throated Sparrows started their morning chorus to herald in a new day. Our first net check was busy with White-throated Sparrows hanging heavy in Rick’s nets that we call net 8X and net 8R! These new net lanes have been productive in catching numerous sparrows, thrushes, and a few other species (Brown Creeper, Black-billed Cuckoo).Audrey Heagy and I had a full day today with 165 birds banded and 35 retraps! Right from the beginning we were busy handling birds. It was a type of day for weather that we anticipate a lot of action because it was unsettled and there were short, intermittent showers throughout the morning with a mix of sun/cloud. At one point Audrey was on a net round and she was caught in a shower and it was at that time there were more cedar waxwings in the one net than she had bags for. Every available bird bag was been used today for the net checks and it was great seeing all these bags hanging in the lab. For a couple of hours this morning we had the help of Rick and Mike Furber to band and scribe during the flurry of activity. Despite the purple poop ‘flying’ onto our clothes and leaving our hands purple from extracting the numerous Cedar Waxwings, it was a great morning.
Banded: 165
1 Brown Creeper
1 Winter Wren
5 Golden-crowned Kinglet
7 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
7 Hermit Thrush
2 American Robin
47 Cedar Waxwing
1 Tennessee Warbler
20 Myrtle Warbler
1 Blackpoll Warbler1 Northern Cardinal10 Song Sparrow43 White-throated Sparrow4 White-crowned Sparrow9 Slate-coloured Junco2 Purple Finch1 House Finch3 American Goldfinch Retrap: 351 White-breasted Nuthatch1 Brown Creeper1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet2 Hermit Thrush1 Blackpoll Warbler1 Field Sparrow4 Song Sparrow1 Swamp Sparrow8 White-throated Sparrow10 Slate-coloured Junco1 House Finch ET’s – 42 Nancy