Today was our first day with lost net hours due to weather. A combination of on-an-off showers and increasing wind from mid-morning until closing meant we had to close a few of our more exposed nets early. Despite that we managed to catch 44 new birds, 15 of which came out of net 6 on the 1040 net round! This flock was a large reason why we banded a season high 11 Warbling Vireos.
Also caught in our nets was our first Mountain Chickadee of the season. It may have just been this particular individual but it seemed to lack the feistiness of it’s Black-capped cousin. Another first was a very young Pine Siskin, that was still growing in its wing and tail feathers.
Of note from census were 2 Olive-sided Flycatchers and the first Sora I have heard this season.
After banding project manager Peter Shaughnessy came down to the station, we spent a few hours trimming the vegetation around three of the nets. We cut back the shrubbery around nets 17, 12 and 16 to around net height. Part of our protocol is to manage the vegetation height around the nets and these 3 in particular have seen significant growth around them in last few years. Time will tell if this will effect our catch rate one way or the other. Net 18 will also get a “haircut” once the Cedar Waxwing nest fledges, in the next day or two.
—
Species | Band | Recap |
Warbling Vireo | 11 | |
Wilson’s Warbler | 6 | |
Swainson’s Thrush | 5 | 1 |
Yellow Warbler | 4 | |
Northern Waterthrush | 3 | 1 |
Song Sparrow | 3 | 1 |
Alder Flycatcher | 3 | |
American Redstart | 3 | |
Common Yellowthroat | 1 | 1 |
Sharp-shinned Hawk | 1 | |
Willow Flycatcher | 1 | |
Mountain Chickadee | 1 | |
MacGillivray’s Warbler | 1 | |
Pine Siskin | 1 | |
Black-capped Chickadee | 1 |
—
Birds banded | 44 |
Species banded | 14 |
Birds recaptured | 5 |
Species recaptured | 5 |
Species on census | 37 |
Species Total | 56 |
[…] Aug 16: Habitat Management (tatlayokobirds.wordpress.com) […]
Good thing Peter is so tall! 🙂
That’s for sure, couldn’t have done it without him!