Today was an EPIC banding day at Fry's Landing. Within 30 minutes of opening the nets, we were swamped with birds (though only one was a swamp sparrow). For us interns learning the ropes (or nets) this was perhaps not the best way to be introduced to the banding process. This was day 3 of banding, and we banded a total of about 82 birds. We had to let 30-40 go because we ran out of bags to put them in, even after Amy drove back to the TREC to find some paper bags. We started setting up the nets around 7 a.m., and by 8:30 a.m. we had them all closed. It got a bit dicey when we ran out of bags with at least 20 birds left in the nets and the thunderstorms started rolling in... Luckily, after a few rumbles of thunder the storms passed us by, keeping quite a few birds from a rather unpleasant and wet fate.
A few of the birds we were excited to handle today: brown creepers, golden and ruby-crowned kinglets, a fox sparrow, a house wren, black-capped chickadees (they were just as excited, let me tell you), and a few species of warblers-- yellow, black-throated green, myrtle (about every other bird was a myrtle), palm, black-and-white, and a common yellowthroat. We caught quite a few other species too, which were also quite thrilling.
And a big thank you to all the volunteers who made it out today, you were very appreciated!!
The other event that made this an EPIC day (and this certainly does deserve all caps) was that a piping plover was spotted on Gull Point during the monitoring walk! Sarah and Amy did manage to read its color bands, in an epic feat of skill and daring. Well maybe not daring, but certainly skill :) Hopefully it will stick around a few days so more of us can see it!
If you were not aware, there is a piping plover monitoring Facebook page (entitled Presque Isle Piping Plover monitoring). Check it out!
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