Volunteer Sam Stull releasing a Red-eyed Vireo on the last day of spring banding The bird sat there for a few minutes before flying off and singing a beautiful farewell tune. It seemed like a very apropos end to the season.

Whoa, is everyone sitting down?!

The tallies are in for the 2015 spring banding season here on beautiful Presque Isle State Park.

Over the course of six weeks (34 banding days), we banded 1,269 new birds from 70 different species! We netted an additional 35 birds that were not banded for one reason or another (ie, we don't have a special permit for hummingbirds). We also recaptured an additional 90 birds that were either banded in previous years or previously in the same season. This means our grand total for birds processed was 1,387 birds this year. Pretty impressive, if I do say so myself (and I do!) :)

Our number one bird band was, as you can probably guess, the Gray Catbird coming in with a whopping 218 newly banded birds. Second Place was, you also probably guessed it, the Yellow Warbler with 150 newly banded birds. Third place goes to the White-throated Sparrow with 100 new birds. A nice surprise was the 86 new Magnolia Warblers we caught this spring as well as the 62 new Blackpoll Warblers. All in all though, it was a great season and each bird is always special in its own way.

The following are the totals for the birds that we banded. They are ordered by band size/how they're recorded in the book- so generally, from smallest to largest.

American Redstart: 37
Wilson's Warbler: 15
Magnolia Warbler: 86
Tennessee Warbler: 5
Black-throated Green Warbler: 9
Chestnut-sided Warbler: 30
Nashville Warbler: 15
Northern Parula: 3
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: 3
Black-and-White Warbler: 21
Brown Creeper: 3
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 2
Blue-winged Warbler: 2
Cerulean Warbler: 1
Least Flycatcher: 5
Yellow-bellied Flycatcher: 8
Trail's Flycatcher (Alder/Willow): 20
Black-throated Blue Warbler: 19
Yellow Warbler: 149
Yellow-rumped Warbler (Myrtle's): 41
Common Yellowthroat: 65
Blackpoll Warbler: 62
Bay-breasted Warbler: 21
Canada Warbler: 10
Hooded Warbler: 5
Blackburnian Warbler: 8
Warbling Vireo: 3
Palm Warbler (Western): 19
House Wren: 11
Cape May Warbler: 6
American Goldfinch: 1
Chipping Sparrow: 1
Field Sparrow: 1
Eastern Phoebe: 1
Lincoln's Sparrow: 22
Mourning Warbler: 7
Red-eyed Vireo: 17
Northern Waterthrush: 17
Swamp Sparrow: 11
Ovenbird: 9
Indigo Bunting: 1
Dark-eyed Junco: 1
White-throated Sparrow: 100
White-crowned Sparrow: 4
Swainson's Thrush: 27
Gray-cheeked Thrush: 5
Veery: 7
Hermit Thrush: 7
White-breasted Nuthatch: 4
Song Sparrow: 14
Downy Woodpecker: 2
Wood Thrush: 4
Gray Catbird: 217
Brown-headed Cowbird: 3
Eastern Kingbird: 1
Tufted Titmouse: 1
Red-winged Blackbird: 14
Baltimore Oriole: 21
Great-crested Flycatcher: 3
Eastern Towhee: 4
Rose-breasted Grosbeak: 3
Northern Cardinal: 8
Spotted Sandpiper: 1
Hairy Woodpecker: 2
American Robin: 16
Red-bellied Woodpecker: 1
Brown Thrasher: 4
Blue Jay: 4
Northern Flicker: 4
American Woodcock: 1

And, of course, a big THANK YOU to ALL of our volunteers! We couldn't have done it without you. We were especially fortunate this year because we now have three generations of volunteers from the same family helping us and the youngest, Miss Addison, was always eager to help whether it be carry a bird in its bag safely back to the banding table or show her other young friends how interesting birds can be. I wanted to highlight this because children like her are a great example of why we do what we do- her future and the birds future is one in the same and so I felt it appropriate to close the season with photos of both her and the birds. To quote the song that will now be stuck in everyone's head (sorry!): "I believe the children are our future. Teach them well and let them lead the way."

Addison Miller eagerly carrying a bird back to the banding table to be processed. This was a bird that her grandfather, Frank Frisina, just extracted from the net and she is helped by her aunt, Catherine Frisina. Volunteering runs deep in this family and we couldn't be more grateful!

Jessica Miller showing her daughter, Addison, a beautiful Yellow Warbler up close.


Miss Addy showing her friend, Abby, how wonderful birds are (in particular, a male Blackpoll Warbler).

Hope everyone has a great summer and remember, fall will be here before you know it and it will be time to play the warbler guessing game all over again!