The banding century club

The birds were active under windy conditions  again at the marsh. We have wind again forecast for tomorrow but conditions are improving  and Wednesday could be ideal conditions.

we were able to band 109 birds today representing  23 species   and welcomed some new arrivals and were able to band a few birds that have been back but had not wandered into the nets. New arrivals included  common yellow throats , northern parula, Savannah sparrow, and yellow bellied sapsucker . We were also very happy to host our first school group of the year form Englehart public school. If teachers or parents would like more information about booking a class to come to the marsh  for fall banding they can visit the marsh website  at www,thehilliardtonmarsh.com to find out more information.

first common yellowthroat of the year

The bring rush of warblers is just around the corner the next birds we are looking for are wilson's warblers  and swainsons thrush and the vireo's and alder flycatchers are just days away then we will be very busy indeed. As it was banding  109 birds and over 20 retraps kept us hopping . While the majority of birds were banded last year we did have three birds banded in 2014 and 3 from 2013. the 2013 birds were  an american goldfinch banded  may 17th  (missed its anniversary by 1 day!)  a female red-winged blackbird banded  may 11th  and a swamp sparrow banded on may 14th another 1 day miss!!  Retraps are such an outstanding way to view the impact that a home in the boreal has for these hardy migrants  it screams  the importance of habitat in a landscape the is becoming more fragmented all the time.  Thankfully there are so many that value places like the hilliardton marsh and continue to help support us in this important research and education we are doing . We appreciate your support   and we thank all of the volunteers that help us every day.

Sid with a yellow bellied sapsucker 

Today's totals

Nashville warbler                        5
northern parula                           1
common yellowthroat                2
black and white warbler             3
palm warbler                              5
yellow warbler                           2
orange crowned warbler             1
yellow rumped warbler             19
american redstart                         2
least flycatcher                            2
song sparrow                               1
Savannah sparrow                        1
Lincoln sparrow                             2
white crowned sparrow                  9
gambles white crowned sparrow    1
white throated sparrow                   3
yellow bellied sapsucker                 1
red-winged blackbird                      11
European starling                              1
common grackle                               2
american robin                                  2

Reed  with the first  common yellow throat of the year the next two had bands  one was banded may 26th 2015 and the other  September 25th 2015. They we all caught in the same net check which made the discovery even cooler 

109 birds

23 species

our bander in charge Chris Sukha banding his first hummingbird of the season

bird is the word