Some of the Saturday crew: (from left) Sadie, Cassandra, Claire, Isabel, Joyce). If this had been the 70″s when I started banding, this grouping would have been made up of mostly, if not all, males. How times have changed! Now women make up a large proportion of the bird study community. -DOL
Friday and Saturday were preceded by light northerly winds that brought in a push of migrants that kept us hopping. Sarah and crew banded 79 birds on Friday (we believe in 3-day weekends) and then the Saturday group banded 102 birds – the highest total so far this Fall. But then Saturday night the winds picked up and switched to the south, effectively capping the push. Today our banding total dropped to just 33. On all three days sparrows made up a large proportion of the catch as they take full advantage of the seed load offered by the prairie grasses.
Dave Gosnell cutting a swath that makes the river accessible. -EG
View from the new trail as it approaches the Grand River. -EG
This site continues to evolve. Dave Gosnell brought in a tractor with heavy duty mower and cut a trail across the thick grass that impeded walking to the river. Right now, with the wetland pretty well dried up, you can access the river easily (and without boots). We will start to run a census route along it that takes in the river – a dynamic that has been lacking in our coverage. The Gosnells are also talking about developing a boardwalk so that the river flats can be accessed in the Spring when the wetlands are, in fact wet, under several inches of water. This is an exciting development indeed!
October 4th; Banded 79:
1 Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
1 House Wren
1 Gray Catbird
1 Savannah Sparrow
1 Field Sparrow
17 White-throated Sparrows
20 Song Sparrows
2 Lincoln’s Sparrows
24 Swamp Sparrows
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
1 Myrtle Warbler
1 Northern Cardinal
3 Indigo Buntings
ET’s: 34 spp.
October 5th; Banded 102:
1 Eastern Phoebe
3 Ruby-crowned Kinglets
Ruby-crowned Kinglet -JYL
2 Golden-crowned Kinglets
2 Winter Wrens
1 Gray Catbird
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
Juvenile Eastern White-crowned Sparrow. -JYL
10 White-throated Sparrows
40 Song Sparrows
6 Lincoln’s Sparrows
32 Swamp Sparrows
Swamp Sparrow. -JYL
2 Red-winged Blackbirds
2 Myrtle Warblers
ET’s: 46 spp.
October 6th; Banded 33:
1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
10 White-throated Sparrows
7 Song Sparrows
11 Swamp Sparrows
1 Myrtle Warbler
3 Indigo Buntings
ET’s: 30 spp.
Rick