June 7th, 2006

Ruthven

There was a buzz in the air as the first MAPS session was conducted at Ruthven this morning. The MAPS (monitoring avian productivity and survival) project has been conducted at Ruthven since 2004 and gives an indication of what species are breeding around the area, particularly in the slough forest. On occasion there can be surprising results such as the MOWAs encountered in both previous years, and the juvenile BRCR that was found in 2005.

The buzz today? Only the mosquitoes descending en masse on the poor hapless banding flunkies.....

Banded 8: AMGO, YWAR, EAWP, COYE, INBU, REVI, GRCA, BAOR

Retrapped 7: COYE, AMGO, YWAR 2, YBCU, AMRO, SOSP

The YBCU was banded during last year's MAPS banding and hadn't been encountered since.

B

Selkirk

An almost typical mid summer day at Selkirk, a few local birds and the odd almost unexpected migrant to keep things interesting.

Banded: MODO 1, GCFL 1, SWTH 1, COYE 1, AMGO 3 = 6

Provided the running total in the log book is correct Selkirk's spring total now stands at 2632 birds banded which exceeds Selkirk's previous best spring of 2630. This total does not include the dozen to a score of nestlings banded in the bird boxes in the park. All nestings banded up to June 15th will form part of Selkirk's spring totals while those banded after June 15th will be included with the fall totals.

Speaking of fall coverage, that should commence within about 30 days and we have not finished the spring coverage!!!!

John