I left Ruthven’s banding program in the capable hands of Nancy Furber this morning while I travelled to Joanne Fleet’s banding setup at Fern Hill School in Burlington. There are a couple of interesting things about Fern Hills location that quite intrigue me: a) being just off North Service Road close to King Road, it is almost directly north of Ruthven – I’m always hoping that I will recapture one of “their” birds; and b) it sits at the edge of the Escarpment green space, next to the rushing development of the 403 and Burlington. So birds heading south will have to “jump” from that area right across urban Burlington, the west end of Lake Ontario/Hamilton Harbour, and urban Stoney Creek/Hamilton before finding habitats that will provide good food and shelter.

Joanne’s program is fairly unique in that it teaches students not only about birds but about how to study them – including banding them….the reason for my being there. There were about 20 keen students there to help out as well as several dedicated parents. With just 6 nets we captured 37 birds: 30 new birds banded and 7 retraps. Most of those caught were locally breeding birds that would spend the Winter (the exception being a lone Gray Catbird).

Nancy, on the other hand, played hostess to 51 students but without as many birds: she ended up banding 23. But, most of these were migrants. One was a late surprise: a Northern Parula!

But I must say that this absolutely beautiful weather is getting me down. We need some nastier, unsettled weather to bring the migrants down so we can band them – or just see them. Despite a lengthy census by Peter Thoem, a normal number of net hours, and lots of observation time, we still managed to turn up only 32 species!

Banded 23:
1 Tufted Titmouse
1 Hermit Thrush
8 Gray Catbirds
1 Northern Parula
1 Common Yellowthroat
1 Indigo Bunting
1 Song Sparrow
1 Lincoln’s Sparrow
6 White-throated Sparrows
1 House Finch
1 American Goldfinch

ET’s: 32 spp.
Rick