Purple Martin Banding, Day 2

Last Saturday was quick and efficiant. We began at 7th Street and caught one adult right before dawn.



Then the ladies brought down the apartments to get the two nests out for the chicks to band here.



Jenny and Andrew got in the groove and we got through 13 birds pretty fast.



Down to 5th street to get into the next set of nests and adults. Jenny got the first adult female before the chicks arrived.



Connie and Angela brought down Gourd D full of chicks and then delivered them to the banding table. The gourds are a new addition since last year and are being used well by all the birds.



We used a digital scale to weigh the chicks. They sit on the scale and we record the weight, band them, and place them back in the nest.



Jenny bands the next available chick.



Andrew holds the next chick waiting for a new band.



The crew put the apartment back up in hopes of trapping a couple more adults after we finished the chicks and it worked. We caught 3 more adults including this female.



Our last adult was a male.



A second angle of the male before releasing it.



We gathered for a group shot before heading out. It was a nice round of Martin banding with a great bunch of volunteers.



Martins were back to the nests fast and furious after we returned the apartments into place and were bringing in food and heading back out en masse to repeat the process.



Andrew is out next Saturday, but Jenny will lead the charge for the next round of chicks. Now that we have established a workflow, it should go just as smoothly and have even more chicks ready for jewerly. Sunday is still up in the air back at Lake Lotus so check back before thinking of heading out then. We will try to update Saturday night.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Purple Martin	28	0	28
Totals	28	0	28

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Next (planned) Banding Day for Purple Martin: Saturday, May 6th.
Banding begins before 6:00 A.M.