The third day in a row with large numbers of birds in the banding lab and
the business of net checks, extraction, and banding. It was a dark,
overcast, warm morning with a light drizzle that didn’t last and
eventually, the weather cleared and it was a pleasant afternoon. In
total, we handled 151 birds, banding a total of 121. A great day, with a
good crew to work with.

Banded 121
1 Eastern Phoebe
1 House Wren
1 Winter Wren
5 Golden-crowed Kinglet
12 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 Hermit Thrush
3 American Robin
17 Cedar Waxwing
2 Tennessee Warbler
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Magnolia Warbler
37 Myrtle Warbler

1 Black-throated Green Warbler
1 Wilson’s Warbler

3 Song Sparrow
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow

1 Swamp Sparrow
25 White-throated Sparrow
1 White-crowned Sparrow
2 Slate-colored Junco
4 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 42 species
Nancy

[Note that the number of birds banded in these 2 days is exactly 500!!!! Congratulations to the 2 banding crews – all young women.]

Fern Hill – Oakville:
We had our best day of the Fall today banding 37. Our catching has been plagued by the loss of our feeder chickadees, which didn’t return after the Summer holidays. Feeding chickadees draw others to them. So some of our catches this season have been pretty low. But today change was in the wind – and maybe the 3 chickadees we caught will stick around and things will get even better. We did get the first Fox Sparrow of the season – always a treat!

Yesterday was pretty nasty weather-wise so I was very surprised to see a large ‘kettle’ of Turkey Vultures forming over the parking lot. The birds rose until they began to disappear into the low ceiling and then drifted off to the SW.

Banded 37:
3 Black-capped Chickadees
6 Golden-crowned Kinglets
11 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Hermit thrush
2 American Robins
1 Yellow-rumped Warbler
1 Chipping Sparrow

1 Fox Sparrow
6 Song Sparrows
5 Dark-eyed Juncos

ET’s: 26 spp.
Rick