In my mind the 6th (yesterday) was a busy day. Sixty-two birds handled (49 banded; 13 retraps); lots of diversity involving some ‘interesting’ identification, aging and sexing problems; a census to cram in; and lots of leaves to take out of the nets before closing them. So if you asked me at the end of today, before crunching the numbers, whether I had handled as many birds as yesterday I would have said no. And I would have been wrong. In fact, I handled a lot more birds: 76 (61 banded; 15 retraps). I guess the reason is that I had a lot of help today and could take things, personally, at a more leisurely pace. Faye Socholotiuk was out to give a big help with the extracting and banding/scribing; Peter Thoem came out to take on the census; and my wife Marg showed up to help close the nets. As well, the Campanellis made a visit and Peter brought some friends (I’m sorry but in a senior’s moment I have forgotten your names) – so I had lots of people to talk to while the others were working (as well as munch on the goodies Ann Campanelli brought). So it seemed more leisurely even though, bird-wise, it wasn’t. 

The Campanelli boys did not do much birding this Summer and, if you can believe it, had a hard time with some of the identifications. Living proof that practice makes perfect. They did discover though that if you guess the same warbler over and over again, after a while you’ll be right….at least once.

Although not as good as yesterday, we still had good variety, banding 23 species with 53 species encountered altogether.

Banded 61:

2 Downy Woodpeckers

1 Traill’s Flycatcher

2 Black-capped Chickadees

3 White-breasted Nuthatches

2 Eastern Bluebirds

1 Veery

4 Swainson’s Thrushes

1 Gray Catbird

8 Red-eyed Vireos

1 Tenness Warbler

2 Nashville Warbler

1 Chestnut-sided Warbler

3 Magnolia Warblers

2 Black-throated Green Warblers

1 Blackburnian Warbler

1 Blackpoll Warbler

2 Black & White Warblers

2 Common Yellowthroats

1 Scarlet Tanager

2 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks

3 Chipping Sparrows

2 House Finches

14 American Goldfinches

Retrapped: 15

1 Red-bellied Woodpecker

1 Eastern Tufted Titmouse

6 Black-capped Chickadees

2 White-breasted Nuthatches

1 Magnolia Warbler

1 Common Yellowthroat

1 Chipping Sparrow

2 American Goldfinches

ET’s:  53 spp.

Rick