October 1st – Catching Up | Haldimand Bird Observatory

It was somewhat less frenetic and more relaxed today although we still handled over 100 birds. Almost half of the birds banded (41 out of 83) were American Goldfinches – we’ve banded almost 130 in the past 4 days!

The day's intellectual menu.

The dust is still settling after the Bird Festival on Saturday. I thought I’d try to “get it out of my system” by posting some of the better pictures of the event:

Tony Gaston (who talked about birding in the western Himalayas) and Rick

Erica Nol, from Trent University, talking about the co-existence of humans and birds.

Joanne Fleet (left), Matt's proud mother, and Matt Timpf.

Mark Peck (left), who spoke about Red Knots, and Rhiannon Leshyk.

The Raptor show was a big hit.

Mary and Norm Pomfret - Ruthven's butterfly people.

Dave Swan (left), Rick Ludkin, and David Hussell.

Dave Swan discussing the "farming" behaviour of Brown-headed Cowbirds.

As I said, it was more relaxed today – slow but steady with nothing exceptional showing up in the nets or on census…..except for the 3 Northern Saw-whet Owls that Matt and Adam Timpf caught and banded last night. We now have 6 in 3 nights. We didn’t start catching these little hunters until October 17th last year.

Banded 86:
3 Northern Saw-whet Owls
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
1 Northern Flicker
1 Blue Jay
1 Black-capped Chickadee
1 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 Eastern Bluebird
2 Swainson’s Thrushes
2 Hermit Thrushes
4 Cedar Waxwings
1 Nashville Warbler
1 Black-throated Blue Warbler
10 Myrtle Warblers
2 Blackpoll Warblers
1 Field Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows
4 White-throated Sparrows
1 Dark-eyed Junco
2 Purple Finches
41 American Goldfinches