Blowin’ in the wind: bird bags drying out after the rain.
We had two big “hits” at the same time: a surge of birds into the nets at the same time as a horde of visitors descended on the banding lab….just as the rain began to fall. There’s nothing that challenges your skill -and tries your patience- like the disentangling of a wet bird from a net with an intense wall of concerned faces a few feet away oohing and aahing. But we did it: extracted the birds, closed the nets, processed the birds, and taught the visitors about the birds they had come to see and experience.
Hannah has learned the true essence of bird banding…….
We even did justice to the wonderful baked goods provided by Hannah and Alessandra – because, as everyone knows, a banding program marches on its stomach. But for an hour and a half the banding lab was a happening place while we processed…and waited for the rain to stop so we could re-open.
Orange-crowned Warbler.
There was a large movement of birds last night that ran into a bank of cloud and fog and came down to the ground – a “fallout”.
A late HY (note the brown eye) Red-eyed Vireo.
A late HY Gray Catbird. -A. Wilcox
Banded 93:
1 Brown Creeper
12 Golden-crowned Kinglets
15 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
4 Hermit Thrushes
5 Cedar Waxwings
1 Red-eyed Vireo
3 Nashville Warblers
1 Orange-crowned Warbler
12 Myrtle Warblers
1 Western Palm Warbler
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Chipping Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows
14 White-throated Sparrows
12 Dark-eyed Juncos
3 Purple Finches
1 House Finch
1 American Goldfinch
ET’s: 38 spp.
Rick