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Banding Summary:
Week of September 26, 2004 |
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Sunday September 26. 217 new, 3 recaps. We have a so many birds in the area at dawn that we have to close nets. Bird of the day is White-throated Sparrow with 50 banded, but 19 banded Winter Wrens are also very nice! Erin Karnatz and Kelly Dockery are BICs with much appreciated help from Kevin Dockery and Marilyn Guenther.
Monday September 27. 212 new, 10 recaps; new species Sharp-shinned Hawk and Cape May Warbler. We hear huge numbers of birds coming over the lake at dawn so open nets very cautiously. But the action isn't as intense as yesterday when the capture ratio was 173 birds per 100 net hours compared to today when it is just 62 birds per 100 net hours. We band 27 species today including 44 Gray-cheeked Thrush, more than we have banded during the entire fall season in many years!
Tuesday September 28. 157 new; 10 recaps; new species Purple Finch. We still are getting a nice variety of warblers including Northern Parula, Magnolia, Black-throated Blue, Black-throated Green, Blackpoll, American Redstart, and Common Yellowthroat.
Wednesday September 29. 126 new, 17 recaps. We welcome students from Dr. Kristi Hannam's SUNY Geneseo Animal Behavior class. Eagle Scout candidate Ian Fields stops by to show us the beautiful Observatory sign he has built for the entrance along with two new picnic tables and tables underneath our release windows. We band 22 Golden-crowned Kinglets.
Thursday September 30. 123 new, 38 recaps. Three Cape May Warblers are the best birds of the day. We clean the banding lab, mend nets and get the station ready for the North American Banding Council's (NABC) Certification Session scheduled for the weekend.
Friday October 1. 161 new, 34 recaps; new species Common Grackle. NABC Trainer/Evaluators Tom Bartlett (OH), Betsy Brooks, Mary Doscher (NJ), David Holmes (MD), Sara Morris (NY), and Bob Yunick (NY) arrive as well as 4 candidates for Bander-level certification and 2 candidates for Trainer-level certification. Worried that rain is forecast to move in on Saturday, we open nets at 5 PM to be able to observe candidates correctly extracting birds from mist nets. Quite a few White-throated Sparrows are cooperative but we pay the price in mosquito bites!
Saturday October 2. 6 new, 13 recaps. Wind and showers spoil our day and make testing difficult. Congratulations to Christian Friis and Stu Mackenzie of Long Point Bird Observatory for passing the Bander-level certification and David Cimprich of Texas and our own Erin Karnatz for passing the Trainer-level certification!!
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