shhhh don't tell teachers and students FALL BANDING has begun at Hilliardton marsh!!!!!

While birds feel the tug and pull of forces they may well know and humans clearly do not understand the migration has begun. Despite this  humans insist on  looking at a calendar and know that the migration of  younglings  ripped from the unfettered freedom of summer  to the rows of classroom desks is something to only be talked about in very hushed tones.  It is august first there is yet a month of holidays  autumn doesn't begin until September 21st it is after all the tilt of the earth that determines such things. Birds must migrate younglings must migrate to classrooms and college and university campuses and we get to rejoice  by walking net lanes and call August first the fall migration!!!

northern parula on our first day!! Life is good 

For the marsh we always start our fall season on the first of August and today we celebrated  August first by banding 101 birds  representing  26 species we also had  12 recaps of 7 species . once again  the Hilliardton marsh is so lucky to be able to attract volunteers and today we had   a lot of help making the  101 birds seem  very manageable .

half of the volunteers not the best photo but so great to have so many folks helping out 

 I was busy extracting  birds at what we call the "river" nets so I did not get the chance to get very many quality photo's  but I am sharing a few of today's adventures.  So nice to welcome bander in charge Chris Sukha back and our intern Sarah Bonnet  and I will be highlighting many people in the days and months ahead.   For banders in the south they should take note that we have had a bumper crop of  bugs and berries and it seems there are young birds everywhere . I think banders can expect an above average year but the migration could potentially be a week behind as it seems many mother birds have potentially had to re-clutch due to our very wet northern spring . We are catching a very high number of very young birds for this time of year so  it will be interesting to see if the migration starts a little behind schedule as these birds will need to fatten up before  starting that annual spectacle we summarize in the word migration.

Andrew with a cedar waxwing hopefully more to come 

today's banding totals were

2 ruby throated hummingbirds
1 yellow bellied fly catcher
4 alder fly catcher
1 common grackle
6 white throated sparrow
10 song sparrow
10 swamp sparrow
1 rose breasted grosbeak
2 cedar waxwing
4 red eyed vireo
3 Philadelphia vireo
8 nashville warbler
2 Tennessee warbler
2 northern parula
4 yellow warbler
1 black throated blue warbler
2 magnolia warbler
1 ovenbird
2 mourning warbler
7 common yellow throat
3 grey catbird
2 golden crowned kinglet
2 Swainson thrush

what a day bring on the FALL migration

everyone has a favourite bird  Dawson is desperately hoping for a male black throated blue  but even better to get an adult female who bred in our area . Dawson one of our marsh rangers  banded this bird  lucky guy!

Peter Denyer from Sussex England cannot resist volunteer bait. I really think we have found a sponsor for the marsh.

Ron Judd and marsh ranger  Andrew Aitchison at the river nets we call this net the GRRR net 

Sarah learning how to age hatching year hummingbirds  our second of the day

Love this photo Peter just released  the hummingbird  tracked by Joanne  and marsh ranger Patrick Sadler