May 28th, 2006

Ruthven

It was nice to have lots of birding visitors spending the day in the park. The Niagara Falls Naturalist Club, (led by Rick Young) were treated to a Yellow-billed Cuckoo up close and personal, that Jim Biggar pulled out of the net for them to goo and gaw over. There were several Cuckoo's in the park this morning, both Yellow-billed, and Black-billed, calling from
several locations.

We banded a variety of flycatchers (4), and it was nice to do the comparisons between them.

Banded 24, as follows: 1 BRWA, 1 YBCU, 1 EAWP, 2 YBFL, 1 TRFL, 1 LEFL, 1 SWTH, 3 GRCA, 4 CEDW, 1 REVI, 4 YWAR, 2 COYE, 1 RWBL, 1 COGR, and, a season first for me, ZERO AMGO's.

Fewer retraps today (maybe because the station was closed yesterday), only 8: 1 BRWA, 1 GRCA, 1 REVI, 3 YWAR, 1 BHCO, 1 AMGO.

The 2 Brewster's Warblers, one male retrap, and one unbanded female were found in the same net (#4, where he has been singing (snoring) daily for a month. I was happy to see that he finally found a mate, or at least a female to chase!!)

Loretta

Selkirk

A few warblers and the odd flycatcher could be heard when opening the nets this morning but not much movement could be detected in the hedge rows.

A handful of birds were caught on each net run but no influx to indicate there was much around. However the birds continued to filter through the banding area until close down.
When all the banding totals were tabulated it had been a good day.

Banded: TRFL 7 (4 ALDER, 1 WILLOW), TRES 1, BCCH 1, SWTH 7, GRCA 5, YWAR 1, MAWA 4, BLPW 2, BAWW 1, AMRE 4, OVEN 1, MOWA 3, COYE 9, WIWA 3, CAWA 2, RWBL 1, COGR 1, AMGO 1 = 54

STD 2540 (So far Selkirk's 2nd best spring)

John