It has been an exciting and challenging last two weeks! Rain and wind have been our companions recently, forcing us to totally forego banding on the 20th and 22nd, and to close early frequently. Despite that, the woods are filling up, and we have seen many exciting arrivals in the last few days. Yellow warblers, Western palm warblers, black and whites, blue-winged warblers, common yellowthroats....a new species seems to show up each banding day! We have also had a beautiful male rose-breasted grosbeak and a grasshopper sparrow!! Fry's landing has consistently been our most prolific site, with a daily total usually in the thirties. Our best day at Niagara Boat Launch has been 14 birds, but this site has consistently gotten rained out early, so we hope it will improve. Erie Bluffs has been somewhat unproductive and we actually switched sites on May 4th. So the test there will be on Thursday!!

New to the site for spring 2009-

Fry's landing:

April 21st - Brown Creeper, Ruby-crowned Kinglet, Field Sparrow, Black-capped Chickadee, Blue headed Vireo, White-throated Sparrow, Northern Cardinal

April 24th - Hermit Thrush, Swamp Sparrow, Red-winged Blackbird

April 28th - House Wren, Yellow Warbler, Lincoln's Sparrow, Swainson's Thrush, White-crowned Sparrow, Gray Catbird

May 1st - Black and White Warbler, Western Palm Warbler, Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Blue-winged Warbler

Niagara Boat Launch:

April 25th - Ruby-crowned Kinglet, White-eyed Vireo, Hermit Thrush, Northern Cardinal

April 29th - Yellow Warbler, House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Gray Catbird

May 2nd - Grasshopper Sparrow

Erie Bluffs:

April 23rd - Louisiana Waterthrush

April 27th - Black-capped Chickadee, Black and White Warbler, Western Palm Warbler, Northern Cardinal