What a Day!

Banding this morning couldn't have gone better. In fact, if I had wished for a great day in my wildest dreams, I couldn't have come up with what we caught today. Every once in a while, things all come together and today was that day. We banded 42 individuals (along with 2 retraps) of 20 different species and didn't catch lots of what we saw nearby.


This Blackpoll Warbler was one of the last birds we netted.


In a net behind a row of flowering American Plum trees we caught this Black-billed Cuckoo. A first for both Mark and me. The bird had a brood patch so we know it is nesting nearby. We couldn't determine male or female because both sexes develop brood patches.



The second big highlight was this Orchard Oriole who we caught along with it's mate. That's right, not one but two Orchard Orioles in the net at the same time. Another species neither Mark or I had ever handled.

2 species of bird banded that we had never touched before! How cool is that? The other odd thing about today was the number of Black and White Warblers we caught - 11! Where did they all come from?

Below is a list of all the birds banded today with the number of individuals in parentheses:

American Redstart (2)
Wilson's Warbler (1)
Ruby-crowned Kinglet (1)
Black-capped Chickadee (1 retrap)
Common Yellowthroat (5)
Black and White Warbler (11)
Least Flycatcher (2)
House Wren (1)
Yellow Warbler (2)
Blackpoll Warbler (1)
Palm Warbler (1)
White-breasted Nuthatch (2)
Song Sparrow (3)
Swainson's Thrush (1)
Orchard Oriole (2)
Gray Catbird (3)
Red-winged Blackbird (2)
Brown-headed Cowbird (1)
Hairy Woodpecker (1)
Black-billed Cuckoo (1)

And just think, we get to do it all over again tomorrow in Lakeville, MN.