Weekend Banding Totals

Saturday was so much fun that I dragged myself out of bed again on Sunday and went up to school to see if I could add to my totals for the weekend. The weather was considerably better with lots of sun and a light wind. This is how banding should be.

The birds were around but I didn't catch as many as the day before. I did have a couple of "good" birds for the year. The first bird of the day was a Swamp Sparrow on his way through but the really exciting bird was the little girl pictured above. This is my first Blue-gray Gnatcatcher ever. They are incredibly small and their legs are like toothpicks. We've been hearing a lot of these birds around but they're usually up in the tops of trees, not anywhere near my nets.

May banding is off to a nice start. For the weekend I had 38 individuals of 15 species. The list is as follows:

Blue-gray Gnatcatcher (1)
Chipping Sparrow (4)
Black-capped Chickadee (3 new, 2 retraps)
American Goldfinch (2 new, 1 retrap)
House Wren (1)
Pine Warbler (1)
Swamp Sparrow (1)
Downy Woodpecker (1 new, 1 retrap)
White-breasted Nuthatch (3 new, 2 retrap)
White-throated Sparrow (4)
Northern Cardinal (1 retrap)
Hairy Woodpecker (2 new, 1 retrap)
Rose-breasted Grosbeak (2)
Red-bellied Woodpecker (2 new, 1 retrap)
American Robin (2)

Next weekend we will be doing 2 programs. Saturday we will be at Carver Park Reserve near Victoria, Minnesota doing our monthly banding program for the public and on Sunday we will be at Ritter Farm Park in Lakeville, Minnesota doing a banding program during the cities spring nature festival.

Drop by and say hello if you can!