November 5th, 2006 - Ruthven's final day of fall banding

Ruthven

A good finish to an interesting season.

Light southerly winds and overcast skies during the night is always good for banding at Ruthven. And so it was today - the last day of the Fall banding season here. We had a couple of good rounds before the wind picked up and bird movement tailed off noticeably. One interesting sighting was a small flock of Tundra Swans going by from west to east. I heard their beautiful call long before I was able to spot them.

Banded 55:
2 Brown Creeper
5 Golden-crowned Kinglet
2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
4 Hermit Thrush
1 Blue-headed Vireo
1 American Tree Sparrow
5 Fox Sparrow
2 Song Sparrow
4 White-throated Sparrow
1 Eastern White-crowned Sparrow
10 Slate-coloured Junco
18 American Goldfinch.

Retrapped 29:
3 Downy Woodpecker
1 Blue Jay
10 Black-capped Chickadee (interestingly, most were caught at the same time in Net #10)
4 Ruby-crowned Kinglet
1 White-throated Sparrow
7 Slate-coloured Junco
3 American Goldfinch

Our Fall total is approximately 2,063 and our year total is approximately 4,886. I say 'approximately' because I have yet to enter the Fall data into the database. Usually there is a discrepancy between the count total and the electronic total due to......human error. (I then have to painstakingly go over the banding sheets to find the discrepancy.)

Thanks to everyone that helped make this season so productive and enjoyable!

Rick


Selkirk

As we progress into November the number of birds present and the variety falls off but the odd surprise does pop up. Today this trend was evident. However, a Monarch Butterfly was seen moving west today.

Banded:
1 BCCH (Black-capped Chickadee)
1 RBNU (Red-breasted Nuthatch)
2 BRCR (Brown Creeper)
3 GCKI (Golden-crowned Kinglet)
3 RCKI (Ruby-crowned Kinglet)
1 HETH (Hermit Thrush)
1 MYWA (Myrtle Warbler)
1 FOSP (Fox Sparrow)
4 SCJU (Slate-colored Junco)

Total = 17

John