Saturday, July 22, 2006

July 20th, 2006

Ruthven

Renowned Blogmeister Jeff MacLeod was on the site today!
Moving on....There was a heavy fog at first light that took a couple of hours to dissipate. There was also a lot of birds that dissipated along with the fog. The birds tended to be mid- to upper storey and, except for the first round, weren't around the nets, or at least at net level. There was a 'pulse' of Yellow Warblers moving through - estimated that there were at least 35 around the site. Not much activity on the river - not even a Great Blue Heron. Just Cedar Waxwings hawking insects, flying out from perches to grab them above the river. Seem to be taking the place of swallows which are now in shorter supply.

Banded 29: 1 MODO, 1 (very young) YBCU, 1 DOWO, 1 WBNU, 2 HOWR, 1 AMRO, 4 GRCA, 1 REVI, 7 YWAR, 2 RBGR, 2 INBU, 1 SOSP, 3 BAOR, 1 OROR, 1 AMGO.

Retrapped 7: 2 DOWO, 1 GRCA, 1 YWAR, 1 RBGR, 1 SOSP, 1 BAOR.

Rick

Some pictures:

Black-eyed Susans are spreading throughout the Butterfly Meadow at Ruthven.




Black-eyed Susans seem to be popular with insects,as many have petals that look like these.


Rick asked for a picture of these pink flowers, and even told me their name. If only I could remember that name...




Rick told me the name of this flower too, and he will have to tell you as well (in the comments section). These are fairly common at Ruthven now.




An interesting little guy I encountered on a mist net. Do you know what it is, Brian?



Selkirk

For a HHH day birds were moving around in the banding area today.

Selkirk will be closed this coming Saturday and I am not sure about Sunday. It all depends upon when I get back home Saturday night/Sunday morning from my nephew's wedding near Wingham.

Banded today: DOWO 2, HOWR 2, AMRO 5, GRCA 6, YWAR 10, COYE 3, RBGR 2, RWBL 1, BAOR 3 = 38

John

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I thought memory loss only occurred with old age.....The small pink flowers are Deptford Pinks and can be found in good numbers on parts of the Butterfly Meadow Trail. The larger pink/purple flowers are Wild Bergamot. The Black-eyed Susan without the black eye is a type of wild sunflower.
It is interesting to see the spread of some of the wildflowers in the meadow. Several years ago Mary Gartshore donated a lot of wildflower seed - especially Black-eyed Susan and Bergamot. I cast it in a number of spots and was greatly disappointed when it didn't come up in the ensuing Summers. And then last year the Bergamot made an appearance in good quantity followed by the Black-eyed Susan this year.

Anonymous said...

The beetle in question is a carrion beetle. Silpha americana I ~think~