July 27th, 2006

Ruthven - MAPS banding

The penultimate session of MAPS banding started with the surrounding vegetation dripping with moisture (from evening rain mixed with bander sweat) and air humid enough to swim through. A patchy day for birds with quiet periods followed by fairly intense bursts of activity.

There did not appear to be any pattern to the numbers caught. One net would be full of birds, the others would be empty. Sometimes the full net was in deep forest, other times it would be on the edge. The bulk of the birds were caught well after dawn and the numbers continued until close (and bander heat prostration). May have caught more than 100 if the "normal" station nets were up, but it is hard to judge.

For fun the power was out for an hour or so (or perhaps less than a minute - it went out at 4:50am and came back at 4:50am... mind you, it was 4:50am when I opened and 4:50am when I closed too - our clock needs a date with a sledge hammer) which took our scales out of the equation briefly.

Banded 42: BWWA, BGGN 2, YWAR 24, BCCH, EAWP, REVI, INBU, YTVI, SOSP 2, RBGR 3, GRCA, BAOR 2, BHCO, NOCA

Retrapped 3: YWAR, BCCH, SOSP


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