Full House...of People

Had new and old visitors today. In fact, a lot of humans. Glad to have them all. Just wish we had more birds around. Seems like a bunch of birds have already moved North with the warm season and our locals are breeding. So, we headed out and got what we could.

First up was a rare-ish House Wren. Sometimes they stay late, but not often. Nice to have it starting off.



Next bird up was a migrating Gray Catbird.



One of our new visitors was Hanna who got to release the new Gray Catbird.



Lets go back a bit. As we were setting nets, Lynn said, "Hey, this wasn't here before!" Turns out there are 3 new Duck boxes set along the river between 18 to 21. Andrew noticed that the lock combo was different than how it was left last week. Someone had been in over the week. Maybe an Eagle Scout project? Will have to wait until we speak to a ranger next Sunday. Don't like how one is directly next to Net 24.

We shall see.



A bit later, Hanna's Dad, Jack, got to release another Gray Catbird.



We had several Northern Cardinals today. Two new and two recaptures.



Time for a recaptured Carolina Wren. Very vocal and very ready to head back to morning feedings.



Northern Waterthrushes are still moving through.



Avery brough his brother Andy back and he got to do some recording and got to release that Northern Waterthrush.



It was quiet for quite a while before we got another Gray Catbird just before we began to close nets.



There was a Northern Parula that stuck itself through the nets and we released her after extraction since she was a bit stressed and we did not want to cause her anymore of that by taking her back to the table for processing. Birds are the priority over the actual data.

Case in point, we had a very tangled Carolina Wren when closing nets. It was banded last year as a juvenile and sporting a brood patch. Continuing the species here. It was very strong and heathly so we brought it back to verify data.

Next Saturday, we start banding Purple Martin chicks. And then we return to Sunday bandings.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Carolina Wren	0	2	2
House Wren	1	0	1
Northern Parula	1	0	1
Gray Catbird	2	1	3
Northern Waterthrush	1	0	1
Northern Cardinal	2	2	4
Totals	7	5	12

______________________________________
Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, April 23.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.