Thursday, July 1, 2010

This morning began rather chilly, with an air temperature of 58 degrees. We were setting up nets in fairly dense fog early this morning at Big Piney. Surprisingly, by midmorning we had only caught TWO birds (this is usually one of our busiest sites!). Fortunately, things picked up quickly about 0910 when the sun began to peek out from behind the clouds, allowing us to end the morning with 18 bids captured of 10 species. At 0830, Karen and I were startled by a group of 20-or 30 fully geared and armed soldiers performing some sort of training maneuver. They passed by us at the banding station (my truck at this site) without saying a word, and proceeded to lay down in an outward facing circle, the closest soldier within spitting distance, with rifles generally aimed along their line of sight. Two men, apparently in charge, were taking notes and measurements of the river while all this was happening. Less than an hour later, all suddenly got up and left without saying a word.

We were also visited by Joe Proffitt and Kenton this morning (both from the Ft. LW Natural Resources Department), along with two biologists from the Smithsonian Institute that are collecting blood samples from After Second Year American Redstarts, Ovenbirds, Northern Parulas, Black-and-white Warblers, and Prairie Warblers. They may join us on Saturday for the morning at Proffitt's Prairie, where we have been catching good numbers of Prairie Warblers. Here is today's list:

Bunting, Indigo 2
Cardinal, Northern 1
Cuckoo, Yellow-billed 1
Ovenbird 2
Redstart, American 2
Vireo, Red-eyed 1
Vireo, White-eyed 1
Warbler, Blue-winged 1
Warbler, Kentucky 4
Warbler, Worm-eating 3


Wednesday, July 30, 2010

After a relaxing and uneventful four days off, Karen and I started off period 7 banding at Tilley Bottoms. It was a relatively cool morning, not getting above 80 degrees. It was also a slow morning, we ended up capturing only 16 birds of 10 species (compared to the 34 individuals we caught here during period 6, approx. 10 days ago).

Bunting, Indigo 1
Cardinal, Northern 1
Chat, Yellow-breasted 5
Ovenbird 1
Towhee, Eastern 1
Vireo, White-eyed 1
Warbler, Black-and-white 1
Warbler, Kentucky 3
Wren, Carolina 1
Yellowthroat, Common 1