Hello PI Banding fans,

Before I talk about the fun stuff, I need to let all of you know that I will not be banding on Friday, May 30th, as originally scheduled.  I am going to be over in Ann Arbor at a meeting, so have to cancel the banding for that day.  Sorry!  I will definitely be banding on Saturday, at Niagara.

We had a great weekend with me (Sarah) banding on Friday and Saturday and Bob Mulvihill banding on Sunday. We got a total of 123 birds, with most of those (74) on Sunday when Bob was banding.  He and Pam left Pittsburgh at about 3 AM in order to open nets early at Fry's Landing.  Now I feel lazy for not making more of an effort to get to Presque Isle earlier from Meadville!  The weather was quite bad on Friday-  cold and windy- so I closed by 2:00.  Saturday and Sunday were beautiful! I was thrilled with my first Mourning Warbler on Friday, but then got several more on Saturday, as did Bob.  Here are some shots from Friday and Saturday.

A visitor kindly took a picture of me with a Yellow Warbler on Saturday at the Niagara Boat Launch site.

The Canada Warbler caught on Friday (May 23rd) at Fry's.

A sharp-looking Magnolia Warbler from Friday at Fry's. I love the white eyeliner effect.

A male Yellow Warbler fro Fry's on Friday.

This shows the tiny outermost (10th) primary on a vireo's wing. It was either a Warbling or Red-eyed; I caught both in the same net run and banded them sequentially and took pictures of both., so now I'm not sure whose wing this is.

I was trying to get a good shot of the red eye of the Red-eyed Vireo, but the wind was blowing hard and this guy was starting to look cold, so this is the best I got. Notice the typical vireo hook at the tip of the bill, too.

This is a Second Year (SY) male American Redstart.  He looks a lot like a female, but has a few tell-tale black feathers coming in. Next year he will be all black instead of gray, and orange where he is yellow now.

A Chestnut-sided Warbler from Niagara on Saturday. This is the one whose species name is pensylvanica (yes, just one n) so is named for our state. Or commonwealth.  I'm still not sure what the difference is.

I felt that Gray Catbirds needed to be recognized here.  They accounted for 23 of the new bands and one of the recaptures over the weekend.  That's 24% of the new bands!

How do you weigh a bird?  Like this!

A nice ASY (After Second Year) male American Redstart, in his normal orientation.

The female Mourning Warbler that I was really trying to make into a Connecticut Warbler.  Her wing length was just too short...

Be sure to come by on Saturday, May 31st, for your last fix of banding for this spring!