The remnants of Hurricane Patricia swept through the area yesterday dropping a lot of rain – enough to swell the Grand River and flood the gravel bar off Slink Island. Today, except for a few brief light showers, it was just windy….and the temperature dropped throughout. The wind precluded the opening of a number of nets and delayed the opening of others – it diminished somewhat mid-morning. Many birds stayed put during the bad weather – we retrapped twice as many birds as we banded.

In the afternoon we went over to Taquanyah CA to rejig the net setup there, getting ready for the weekend. We will be trying to catch owls at Ruthven on Friday and Saturday nights and at Taquanyah on Saturday night.

Banded 14:
3 Black-capped Chickadees
1 Golden-crowned Kinglets
4 American Tree Sparrows
1 Fox Sparrow
1 Song Sparrow
3 Dark-eyed Juncos
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 37 spp.

Fern Hill School
Despite the forceful winds we managed to catch a handful of birds today in our ground traps. Four birds were captured, three of which were recaptured and one was a new banded bird. One of the recaptured Slate-colored Juncos was originally banded one year ago to the day at Fern Hill!

Banded 1
1 Slate-colored Junco

ET’s: 20 spp.
Janice

Photos:

Rick