Sunday May 11. 39 new of 17 species; 8 recaps. It’s a day of nice variety but few numbers. Yellow Warbler and White-crowned Sparrows are birds of the day with 5 banded of each, but a Savannah Sparrow is a treat (we don’t usually band many).

Monday May 12. 27 new of 14 species; 8 recaps. It’s another cool, slow day. Our Bander Training Course (BTC) begins with eight students enrolled. BTC graduate Ember Jandebeur joins us for a few days. Bird of the day is Blue Jay with 6 banded.

Tuesday May 13. 40 new of 20 species; 13 recaps. New species Traill’s Flycatcher and European Starling. Another, slow day so Doug Smith and Dominic Sherony do habitat management. We try to keep the shrubs and trees at the same height from year to year….part of our effort to make our site a “constant effort migration monitoring station”. Birds of the day are Yellow Warbler and Black-and-white Warbler with five banded.

Wednesday May 14. 236 new of 41 species; 14 recaps. New species Black-billed Cuckoo, Tree Swallow, Swainson’s Thrush, Golden-winged Warbler, Mourning Warbler, Hooded Warbler, and Wilson’s Warbler. We have winds from the south for most of the day so we have our best day of the season so far. We band 19 warbler species including 32 Yellow Warblers, 25 Magnolia Warblers and 20 Black-throated Blue Warblers. Ann Adams is spending the week with us banding our Ruby-throated Hummingbirds and we band two today. We have many visitors including Carol Southby with her annual spring lunch treat! We have huge numbers of Northern Orioles moving through the area after we close our nets for the day. Later Dave Tetlow stops by to share news of his best counting day of the season so far.

Thursday May 15. 149 new of 36 species; 23 recaps. New species Philadelphia Vireo, Cape May Warbler, Canada Warbler, Scarlet Tanager and Indigo Bunting. It’s another good day! Ryan spots a stunning ASY male Scarlet Tanager in the top of one of our aerial nets and sprints across the field to retrieve it! Bird of the day is Western Palm Warbler with 22 banded.

Friday May 16. 58 new of 27 species; 19 recaps. New species Red-eyed Vireo and Tennessee Warbler. It’s a cloudy, cool day but five Northern Orioles brighten up the day. Bird of the day honors are shared by Gray Catbird and Yellow Warbler with 7 banded of each.

Saturday May 17. 145 new of 35 species; 5 recaps. New species Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, Yellow-throated Vireo, Bay Breasted Warbler and Blackpoll Warbler. We band a beautiful Yellow-throated Vireo – just the sixth ever banded here in the spring. Yellow Warbler is bird of the day with 31 banded.