Today's guest blogger is Chris Sukha thanks for this Chris
THE
RED-EYED VIREOS KEEP MARCHING ON!!!
We at the
Hilliardton Marsh and Research and Education Centre have been treated to an
amazing number of Red-eyed Vireos this Fall Season. Even today, which actually
was a “slow” day by recent standards, had 22 banded, most of them coming from
our nets on the River-side of the Marsh, where they enjoy the tall deciduous
trees. In fact every day, for the past 5 days, Red-eyed Vireos have been our
number-one bird banded! As of today, we have banded exactly 300 Red-eyed Vireos
this year, blowing our old year-record of 215, set in 2016, completely out of
the water!!!
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| red eyed vireo young birds have a brown eye and all the birds banded today were young birds |
Many other
“good” birds have been keeping us excited, and the highlight of the day were a
flock of 5 Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, all in one net! A whole lot of squeaking
and biting going on!!!
One of the
best things about the Marsh is that the presence of visitors seeing birds in
the hand for the first time keeps the experience fresh for us too. Even a
common bird, or a recent retrap that was just banded and released, becomes very
special for someone seeing it for the first time. It reminds me of the
privilege I have; I get to do this every day!
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| happy day all of these rose breasted grosbeaks were found in one net some years we catch this many in a year but recent years have seen a lot more being banded a harbinger of climate change ?? |
Here are
our totals for August 29th;
4 Least
Flycatchers
6 Alder
Flycatchers
1
White-throated Sparrow
4 Song Sparrows
3 Swamp
Sparrows
5
Rose-breasted Grosbeaks
22 Red-eyed
Vireos
5
Philadelphia Vireos
1
Black-and-white Warbler
6 Nashville
Warblers
3
Chestnut-sided Warblers
5 Ovenbirds
3 Mourning
Warblers
10 Common
Yellowthroats
3 Wilson’s
Warblers
1 American
Redstart
8 Veery
4
Swainson’s Thrushes. Total of 94 birds, of 18 species. Chris Sukha.
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| Off to check the river nets thanks to Brian Brownlee for the use of his side by side |
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| banded yesterday our second ever field sparrow the last one was banded in 2002 this was a hatching year bird suggesting she hatched in the north and was not just blown in from somewhere. While i am not sure if they are common in the south they are very scarce in the north |
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| banded and today's blogger Chris doing what he does best teaching about banding yet another red eyed vireo |
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| parents sharing a love for nature |
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| while kids under ten cannot hold a bird sometimes they will rest in the hand before continuing their migration |
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