It has been a long year and a half. It all started with Hurricane Milton that flooded the whole banding site for a while. My Mom sought shelter in Jacksonville, her home town, and died a few weeks later fom natural causes. Things have not the same for me of the banding site since.
This week was also the 10th anniversary of my Dad's death. I had never registered that is was Earth Day then, too.
This year has been full of adversity, especially from the bear that is roaming around bending of our poles and messing with things around the table and digging a large hole at the front gate to get in and out. I have been pretty depressed about banding for a while. Lower numbers of birds doesn't help, either.
Then, the Knighthawks arrived. Unannounced. They are a bird watching group from UCF. Ended up with dozens of students waiting to see the banding processes that we do here. Birds were sporatic and a few students were able to release the birds as we finished collecting data. The day was a pretty good success overall.
It made me change my brain a bit. I have been down for quite a while. Seeing these students come in and enjoy the banding process swung my mood around. When things were slow, they ventured off to study plants and insects, and whatever else was around. Much like what we core volunteers have done for 20 years. It gave me a sense of hope after all this time of dispare seeing them just soaking in the environment, learning everything they could, and enjoying the world. Maybe this year can brighten a bit before we close for the Summer...
I need to embrace the moments like this. As Connie Says, "It is what it is".
We hope for some birds this Sunday, as always.
Today's Totals
| Birds Processed | New | Recaptured | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Ovenbird | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Gray Catbird | 6 | 0 | 6 |
| Northern Cardinal | 1 | 1 | 0 |
| Totals | 7 | 1 | 8 |
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, April 26th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.
