Well, I’m home for a couple days to help out with a VENT Bird Tour, which journeys out each spring in search of warblers. The tour starts in the east and goes west coast by train, stopping along the way to look for warblers and other birds.
I’ve helped out with this tour for six or seven years. People from all over the country are on this trip, as they seek to put some new birds on their life list.
We visit the boreal bogs in the area to see some of the boreal birds, which are just at the lower edge of their range. This is always a treat.
We got the two inches of rain over at Crown Point, as you did here. The swamp could be traversed in sneakers one day, but you needed high boots the next.
This event knocked down several new birds for us to catch.
When I left today (5/19), we had 50 species of birds and 407 new birds wearing a bracelet.
We had several returns from former years, the most outstanding being a Baltimore oriole that was banded in 2007. This nine-year-old male showed beautiful colors.
We caught several other orioles that were banded in previous years, but not as old as this one.
Several American robins, that must living in the area, were also caught. They had been previously banded, some about four and five years old.
The bird leading in number, as it almost always does, would be the yellow rumped warbler.
This bird probably outnumbers most birds in any area of the country, and I can see why we catch more of them.
They are at 135 now, but we have caught as many as 600 in a single year.
I told you about the saw whet owl last week. I still haven’t caught that one, even though I tried two morning and two evenings.
Another bird that has been doing courtship flights over our heads each evening is the American woodcock.
Last night there were two in competition not far from us, but we didn’t have the energy to catch them.
When you put up the nets at 5 a.m. and take them down at 8 p.m., it makes for a long a day and you are ready for bed.
You end up just lying there in bed, eventually falling asleep, as these birds continue courtship flights all night.
I’ll try for them, when I return at the end of the week.
Since we are camped right at the edge of a big field, there are a couple pairs of bobolinks searching out a place to nest in that field.
We put up a field net near where these birds had been flying. It’s out in the open, so about the only way we catch them is when they get into a territorial flight chase. That’s when they forget about the net.
First we caught an eastern kingbird; then a red-winged blackbird, and then a yellow shafted flicker.
Near the end of the day on Friday we caught one of the bobolinks. The other one was still chasing him after he was in the net.
I thought I was going to catch both males but only got one. This is the first time in about eight years that we caught one.
The very next morning, we caught both the banded bird and the other really brightly colored male in the same net.
Yesterday we caught a hummer in that net and today, just before a school group from Whitehall came, we caught four red-winged blackbirds in that net. Only three made it into the hat, though; one escaped while we were taking the others out of the net.
We did break one record for a species yesterday with 66 gray catbirds.
We hit 67, 68 and 69 with the first three birds of the day yesterday, and the numbers are still going up.
Some of the best birds caught have been the last ones of the day. The first day was a beautiful brick red orchard oriole. The second day was a western palm warbler, which we don’t catch every year.
The fourth day was Canada warbler, another bird which we don’t catch every year.
The fifth day was an indigo bunting, which was the second striking male of that day.
Then, just yesterday as we were taking down the nets, we caught a nice male blue-winged warbler.
That species hasn’t been banded there in quite a while. What was neat about this is that Mike Peterson, who started the banding station 39 years ago, just happened to be there last night.
In fact they were just driving away, and we were able to flag them down to see the bird.
The smiles it brought to his face were precious, as he admired this beautiful little warbler.
Just a few minutes earlier we caught a male orchard oriole, which Mike held, stroking its pretty feathers.
Fifteen warblers and counting, but that’s another story…
See ya.