One of three Northern Saw-whet Owls cuaght and banded during the night. -N. Furber
At last! After 7 anxious empty nights the Northern Saw-whet Owls finally made their way to Ruthven. We had begun to get pretty concerned that they might not show this year (like American Goldfinches) but early this morning (around 3 AM) Nancy found a HY, a SY and an ASY owl in the nets. Better late than never!
An American Woodcock – these secretive birds are rarely caught at Ruthven but are porbably commoner than we think.
We had large steady catches of migrants until the late morning when their numbers tailed off (but didn’t quite stop). One interesting catch was an American Woodcock. We get very few of these secretive birds so they’re always a treat.
The mix of plain gray and brown mottled wing feathers indicate that this American Woodcock is a young or HY bird.
Yellow-rumped (Myrtle) Warblers continued to pour through again today along with White-throated Sparrows. Dark-eyed Junco numbers are also beginning to climb.
Banded 123:
1 American Woodcock
2 Brown Creepers
9 Golden-crowned Kinglets
5 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
5 Hermit Thrushes
4 Cedar Waxwings
44 Myrtle Warblers
6 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp Sparrows
32 White-throated Sparrows
2 Eastern White-crowned Sparrows
9 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 American Godlfinch
ET’s: 39 spp.
Rick