Sunday April 26.  115 new of 21 species; 16 recaps.  New species Blue-headed Vireo, Nashville Warbler, Black-throated Green Warbler, Western Palm Warbler, Black-and-white Warbler, Northern Waterthrush, Eastern Towhee and Northern Cardinal.  Bird of the day was Ruby-crowned Kinglet with 59 banded.  Cindy Marino is BIC for the start of an exceptionally good week of banding. 

Monday April 27.  217 new of 24 species; 8 recaps.  New species Least Flycatcher, House Wren, Black-throated Blue Warbler, Ovenbird, Red-winged Blackbird, and Purple Finch.  We have SW winds all night and Ryan Kayhart and Betsy Brooks, back for their five weeks of banding, start off with a spectacular 217-bird day!  Not only do we band 86 Ruby-crowned Kinglets but the nets are full of 58 Yellow-rumped Warblers and 16 Western Palm Warblers along with Nashville, Yellow, Black-throated Blue, and Black-throated Green Warblers, Ovenbird, and Northern Waterthrush. 

Tuesday April 28.  106 new of 16 species; 11 recaps.  New species Gray Catbird, Blue-winged Warbler, Orange-crowned Warbler, and Eastern White-crowned Sparrow.  Bird of the day was again Ruby-crowned Warbler with 48 banded.  Rain begins moving in around mid-morning, but we get four hours of banding in.  Dick O’Hara checks the birds as we release them.  Lisa Podulka learns the ‘ice-cream cone grip’ and holds her first Sharp-shinned Hawk.

Wednesday April 29.  73 new of 10 species; 21 recaps.   The field has a light covering of frost as we open the nets at dawn.  We still manage to band 50 Ruby-crowned Kinglets! 

Thursday April 30.  49 new of 13 species; 13 recaps.  Bird of the day is once again Ruby-crowned Kinglet with 28 banded.  Marilyn Guenther, between net checks, installs an information board on the outside of the ‘boathouse’.  Dominic Sherony does some appreciated trimming of the vegetation where the nets were catching in yesterday’s wind.

Friday May 1.  29 new of 14 species; 3 recaps.  Bird of the day is quality rather than quantity as we band a beautiful Clay-colored Sparrow!  It is really windy at dawn so we don’t open the elevated nets.  John Lehr brings us much appreciated new frozen juice cans so the birds can be weighed in clean cans.  Between net checks, Virginia Duffy shows us slides of her trip to the Galapagos Islands and Ecuador.  Don Cowley brings his grandson Tobey to help check nets.   

Saturday May 2.  14 new of 8 species; 8 recaps.  David Bonter is BIC.  Unfortunately, it is a very slow day for the many visitors from the Laboratory of Ornithology’s Spring Field Ornithology class.