The first thing we found (besides the gate being pulled inward) was our table. This thing was donated by Andrew's wife since the beginning of this journey and has withstood hurricanes and a fallen tree earlier in the year. This week, it succummed to a bear apparently standing on it. We still used it as much as we could throughout the day.
Things got worse as we began to set poles. Net 1 was done from last week and had to be reset, but we also found 7 other poles bent down along the lanes. It was a morning of maintenance.
We began cleaning up the table area when Jenny noticed something rather odd. The bear had actually bitten one of the bug spray cans we had in our bucket. Why bite that?
And to verify our thoughts, scat was all along the lanes. Stay out, bear!
Kind of a good thing we had things to fix up. Birds were very scarce today. And 2 weeks without a Cardinal? Odd. But we did finally capture our 2nd Louisiana Waterthrush of the Session. Usually, they are gone by August. We'll take it.
Later on, we found a small turtle near Net 5. Turtles often lay eggs along the lanes but the raccoons usually dig them up. This one survived. Lynn refound it and got a great photo of this baby Soft Shelled Turtle.
Earlier, as we were cleaning up after the bear nonsence, we heard a couple of Acadian Flycatchers near the table. Just before we ended the morning, we caught one! The last one we had was just about a year ago. This is their time.
Only two birds is really strange this time of year. Hopefully, we will get a nice bunch next week.
Today's Totals
| Birds Processed | New | Recaptured | Total |
|---|---|---|---|
| Louisiana Waterthrush | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Acadian Flycatcher | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| Totals | 2 | 0 | 2 |
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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, September 17th.
All nets will be opened by 6:45 A.M.
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