April 14th, 2006

Ruthven

It was pouring rain when my alarm went off at 530 am this morning, so I grabbed another hour's sleep. The rain had tapered off to I fine drizzle when I opened a few nets at 730. Sometimes when you have storms at dawn, there is a fallout of birds, but that was not the case at Ruthven this morning. The migrants we have see over the past week or so have left for the
north, and not much has moved in to replace them. GCKI's for instance, were not to be found. The numbers of SCJU's, were also noticeably reduced.

A pair of EAPH's was visiting the nest that they used last year high up on top of one of the Mansion's front porch pillars.

I had some interesting sightings on census, as well; a pair of HOME was on the river, quite close to shore as I descended the embankment in front of the mansion. A pair of WODU'S escaped from the WODU box on the river path just down river from the mansion.

CHSP have returned to the park, and it was nice to hear their familiar trill this morning.

Female RWBL's have returned, so the chase is on!

Spotted one solo COLO headed N.

I closed the few nets that I had opened after 3 hours, as the rain had started again.

Banded 5 : 1 AMRO, 1 CHSP, 2 SOSP, 1 SCJU.

Retrapped 7: 2 DOWO, 1 BCCH, 2 SOSP, 2 SCJU

Loretta


Selkirk

I waited until the bulk of the storm was over before venturing out this morning. A late start but a few new birds were in although the pines seemed quiet. Ended up with a decent day and several species banded that are not caught that frequently at Selkirk which made it worth while. Even had a robin with 2 ticks.

Banded: DOWO 1, YSFL 2, BCCH 1, BRCR 2, GCKI 7, RCKI 2, AMRO 1, CHSP 1, FISP 1, SCJU 1, BHCO 3, AMGO 2 = 24

John