Ruthven Banding Station

We went to visit another banding station yesterday-and it was great fun. (almost) worth getting up at 3:20-groan!

On the very first net run we caught a Black Billed Cuckoo! Richard extracted and got to band it.

She was quite the beauty-her red eyeliner was quite pretty-but I was quite enamoured with her beautiful long tail!



I actually didn't take that many photos while there-because I was banding. And despite the mistakes I made I think they may have me back ;) (and I'm sure it has nothing to do with the Fudge Brownies I brought-lol)

They have an actual station there-with heat, lights, etc....and a building close by with a washroom-luxury! Ontario Power Generation donated money to build the station and it really looks great. This photo is a little dark but it was early you know!



One of the interesting birds caught while we were there was a retrap Yellow Warbler that was aged as a 2nd Year Bird in 2006-but would have been aged as that now if they hadn't had the previous records. She was quite a revelation to all.



I was happy to see all the Pearl Crescent butterlies hanging around between nets 3-5. I needed a shot of one of them and I got quite a few they were very co-operative!
(for butterlies!)



You can read about Ruthven at their own blog at Ruthven Park's Nature Blog-they update much more regularly than I do!

Thank you very much Rick, Brian, Faye and Phil-it was great meeting you and working with you.

Next the neat bird Richard got to band at Rock Point! And I will try to catch up with some more banding photos this week

Busy Week

We have been busy this week out banding and when the weather doesn't co-operate birding -(under disguise of scoping out new banding sites ;D)

We had an interesting American Redstart male his tail was half orange half red



We had one very busy day with quite a few biters-female Rose Breasted Grosbeaks, Scarlet Tanager and a male Northern Cardinal. My finger still has the bruising from that crew. Here's the female Grosbeak after we released her-she looks harmless doesn't she?



A lot of Magnolia and Nashville Warblers this week-and a little bit of practically everything else too. Not much time for photos-a Ruby Crowned Kinglet surprised us by still being around the other day as well. One day the Tree and Bank Swallows were having a bug eating party right above one of our nets-we kept hoping one would swoop low enough but no such luck!

Quite a few Yellow Warblers too both new and recaps!



A fair amount of Wilson Warblers as well



Sorry been having some problems
with Blogger more later-hopefully looking better too!

A Late Afternoon Arrival

A Late Afternoon Arrival
Originally uploaded by makeupanid

Although Saturday was relatively slow we did get several different species-a Brown Thrasher, a House Wren, a Cowbird (ouch!) a Yellow Warbler and a Song Sparrow who really likes us-we've caught it four times this year!

But the highlight was this Blue Winged that arrived shortly before 5 pm. Now that was a treat!

Richard will be banding Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday in the Whitby area-please email if you are interested in joining him (us)

Happy International Migratory Bird Day!

Happy International Migratory Bird Day!
Originally uploaded by makeupanid

We will be banding today if anybody would like to join us

Good Birding Today everyone!
For more information on International Migratory Bird Day go HERE

Through the Rain

Well we did end up trying to band yesterday we left very late (9:30 a.m.) and got about an hour or two of banding in before the rain thwarted us completely. We kept waiting in case it would stop and it would pretend to stop but then start right back up again!



We caught our first Common Yellowthroat and first Catbird of the year-the weather was so rotten I didn't take any photos but Richard took these Common Yellowthroats with my camera!



Also we recaptured a Song Sparrow for the third time this year-he must really like our nets! And we had a Swamp Sparrow with a five Fat guess he's still got a long way to migrate.

We are planning on banding next Saturday as well-but hope to get there nice and early if the weather is good-will update here

Try, try again Update-we will be talking at 9!

Caught...........in the Spotlight
Originally uploaded by makeupanid

We'd like to try banding again tomorrow but the weather looks even worse than last time.

The Weather Network says rain in the morning, thundershowers in the afternoon-100%!-so far it looks like we are thwarted again-if this changes I will update at 9