April 2nd, 2006 - Our first photos!

Please note: On the right side of this page, in the 'Resources and Other Links' section, there is a link that has been named, 'Interpret Four Letter Alpha Codes.' If you click on the link, you will be taken to a page which contains a 'cheat sheet' for interpreting the Alpha (or AOU) codes that are used by Rick, John, and others when reporting daily banding totals (or just in casual conversation at times, as if everyone knows that BARS doesn't always refer to places that sell alcohol).

If you would like to open this link, or any others on this page, in a new browser window (rather than being taken away from this page when you click the link), right-click on the link you wish to open and select the option 'Open link in new window' in the menu that appears.

Another note: If anyone takes photos at Ruthven or Selkirk and would like to see them posted on the blog, send the photos to jeffreymacleod'at'gmail.com (replace 'at' with @). Banding reports will be posted on this site on most days, so send your photos and they can be posted with the reports. Pictures will certainly help make this site interesting.

Ruthven - Banding Report and Photos

What a beautiful early Spring day! Cold at first light (-3) with frost on the nets and poles making the latter quite slick. Not much activity early but picked up with the temperature.
Banded 30: 2 MODO, 2 BCCH, 2 GCKI, 2 AMRO, 8 ATSP, 1 SOSP, 5 SCJU, 8 AMGO.
We also retrapped 25 - some several years old.

Rick

Note: Photo captions will appear above the photo they are associated with.

These two Tree Swallows spent a fair bit of time around this nest box today. This box is near nets 5,6, & 7 at Ruthven. Perhaps one of these is the Tree Swallow mentioned by Rick in a report a few days ago.



This Song Sparrow was spotted fairly close the the Tree Swallows, and occasionally seemed to be giving the Swallows a hard time about their nest box choice.
(If you manage to zoom in very closely, you can see a band on the sparrow's leg.)



Jim banded a female Red-bellied Woodpecker today. There were several of these birds present around the property throughout the day.






Selkirk - Banding Report and a photo

After two really good days at Selkirk, Sunday was still good but getting back to the more expected daily banding levels.

Banded: GCKI 16, AMRO 1, FOSP 1, SOSP 5, SCJU 1 = 24.

Over 80 GCKI have been banded over the past 3 days at Selkirk.

If you are going up and down alone the Grand keep an eye open; John Dickie reports the pair of Ospreys at the end of the Irish Line were back Thursday the 30th and checking out the nest site.

A male Long Tailed Duck put in a rare appearance today at the mouth of the Sandust Creek.
This is a hard species to find in Haldimand while a common duck along Lake Ontario.

John


A female Golden-Crowned Kinglet, trapped in a mist net. This picture was actually taken at Ruthven today, but we can pretend this bird is one of John's 80+.