Sunday October 11.  115 new bandings of 15 species; 27 recaps.  New species Fox Sparrow.  Bird of the day is White-throated Sparrow with 33 banded.  Dave Genesky and Dave Mathiason set up to try to catch some Saw-whet Owls in the evening.  The winds are right and we check every 30 minutes until 11 PM, but unfortunately we don’t catch any owls.

Monday October 12.  188 new of 12 species; 41 recaps.  Bird of the day is Ruby-crowned Kinglet with 77 banded.  We have lots of visitors on this Columbus Day holiday.  Emily Patterson helps take birds out of our nets all morning and Glen Lawrence helps band the many kinglets we capture.  Having been taught well by Sue Evans, Amanda Burns spends most of the day mending nets for us.  Sue Smith is back for a few days taking blood samples from several species for her research on lipids in migrant birds who stop to rest and feed at BBBO.  In the evening we play ‘Birdopoly’ and when the power goes off for an hour, we play with headlamps on!

Tuesday October 13.  47 new of 9 species; 37 recaps.  Bird of the day is White-throated Sparrow with 10 banded.   We do better than we expect with wrong winds and rain just south of us.  Dominic spends the day checking data from previous years.  Gary brings us Dunkin Donuts, Kelly brings Danish from Malik’s and Aggie brings home-made cookies.  We are always well-fed at the banding station!  Martyna finishes her research and heads back to Hobart & William Smith College. 

Wednesday October 14.   283 new of 17 species; 16 recaps.  New species is Eastern Towhee.  Bird of the day is Ruby-crowned Kinglet with 131 banded; runners up are White-throated Sparrow with 34 banded and Golden-crowned Kinglet and Hermit Thrush with 27 banded of each.  We actually see a few snow flurries in our headlamp beams as we walk over to the banding station a half-hour before dawn.  Soon we see kinglets everywhere.  This exciting day makes up for the many slow, doldrums days of the past weeks.  We call in extra help and the great crew of Jon Dombrowski, Amanda Burns, Laura Evans, Kathleen Holt, Marilyn Guenther, Cindy Marino, Kathy Habgood, Ryan and Betsy keep everything moving smoothly.  The towhee is a special treat. 

Thursday October 15.  59 new of 8 species.  Bird of the day is Ruby-crowned Kinglet with 21 banded.  We keep an eye on radar all day but manage to stay rain-free.  Carol Southby and Joanna Klima join us for part of the day, and Joanna talks to the RIT class about her research. 

Friday October 16.  86 new of 15 species.  Bird of the day is White-throated Sparrow with 24 banded.  It’s another cold start to the day, but Marilyn’s muffins warm us up.  Our fourth Marsh Wren of the season is a treat.  Before they take their final exam, the RIT Bander Training Class hears a presentation by John Waud on banding in Chiapas, Mexico. 

Saturday October 17.  58 new of 12 species; 31 recaps.  Bird of the day is Ruby-crowned Kinglet with 18 banded.  David Bonter is BIC with help from Cathy Belair, Marilyn Guenther, Sara Morris and Jessie Barry.  We enjoy a visit from 19 students in Sara Morris’ Canisius College Vertebrate Zoology class, and also members of Boy Scout Troop 99 from Hilton. 

Note: BIC = "bander-in-charge"