Every year we ask Mother Nature to please not drop any more leaves, branches, and/or the entire tree(!) into our net lanes over the winter and every year it seems like we have just as much trimming and raking to do as we did the previous year. This year, however, we will gladly accept yet another fallen tree and overgrown prickly plants because wow, what a first week of banding we had! In between all of the aforementioned maintenance, we were able to get most of our nets up by the end of the week and even with cooler weather over the weekend, we still increased our banding totals from last year by, well, A LOT.
Last year our first week of banding we had 20 birds total. This year we had...drumroll please....
231 newly banded birds!! And, no, I didn't accidentally add an extra digit. We also had 5 recaptures (including an eighth year bird) and handled a total of 26 species.
Below are some of the highlights.
231 newly banded birds!! And, no, I didn't accidentally add an extra digit. We also had 5 recaptures (including an eighth year bird) and handled a total of 26 species.
Below are some of the highlights.
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| Eastern Towhee originally banded in 2010 as a 'Second Year' bird meaning that he is in his eighth year! |
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| We banded 87 Yellow-rumped Warblers the first week- nearly double the amount that we banded for the entire 2015 banding season. |
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| Pine Warbler-the FIRST ever banded since Audubon began banding here in 2007. |
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| Male Coopers Hawk |
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| Field Sparrow |
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| Chipping Sparrow |