Hi COBirders, Wow.
When I arrived after sunrise, Brian Gibbons had just finished opening nets, and the wind was starting to pick up. He said he was seeing a lot of birds in the grove. We heard Tennessee Warbler overhead, Least Flycatcher, and Red-eyed vireo. Then it got interesting. Wow! We caught 88 birds in the first 90 minutes. Total of 167 new birds banded for the day. Nothing was that unusual, just several species had waves that dropped into Chico Basin last night. What WAS unusual was the numbers of the species we did capture. On the "Banner Day" last year, 5/13/08 we banded 210 birds, but 153 of them were Swainson's Thrush. That is what we expected today, but we only banded 8 Swainson's and 8 Hermit Thrush! At 6:40, in one net, we had about 20 birds, mixed W Tanager, Yellow Warbler, and Lincoln's Sparrows. Just two nets, on the outskirts of the meadow, along a fence line with Russian Olive saplings, probably caught 60 birds today. We closed the nets at noon, when it was getting hot and still, but it was a hopping morning. American Redstart and Northern Parula, and White-rumped Sandpiper were reported on other parts of the ranch Approximate Banding Numbers today: FOS W Wood Pewee banded Willow Flycatcher Dusky Flycatcher Plumbeous Vireo (5) Cassin's Vireo Warbling Vireo Ruby-crowned Kinglet (f) House Wren (another wave - 27 new ones!) American Robin Swainson's Thrush (8) Hermit Thrush (8) Brown Thrasher Gray Catbird (4) Virginia's Warbler (m) Yellow Warbler (another wave, 34, mostly males) MacGillivray's Warbler (another wave, 11) Common Yellowthroat (3) Wilson's Warbler (8) Yellow-breasted Chat (2) Western Tanager (another wave 14) Spotted Towhee Lincoln's Sparrow (two different waves, 16) Mountain White-crowned Sparrow (3) Black-headed Grosbeak (m,f) Lazuli Bunting (m) Brown-headed Cowbird (3f) House Finch American Goldfinch (m) plus at least another dozen birds that escaped from the nets before we could catch them, in all of the chaos. Steve Brown Colorado Springs posted for Brian Gibbons, Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ Join us at the 2009 Convention in Alamosa: http://cfo-link.org/convention/index.php You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.as/group/cobirds?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
