Purple Martin Banding, Day 4

We decided to get one more weekend with the Purple Martin banding before the remaining chicks fledge.

We arrived just before sunrise to beat the expected rush of participants of a planned marathon. Didn't have too much trouble getting set. It was a beautiful start to the day.



As always, the houses are brought down and the nests get removed and brought to the tables for banding. One by one, we bring them out and prepare for collecting data.



The chicks are weighed on a digital scale (unless we capture adults, then they are weighed in bags with another scale) and then they are given a specific band.



The next chick is given a new gift of jewerly and replaced back into the nest box.



A new adult Martin is captured and brought in for a band. Andrew makes sure it is secured properly before release.



Time for your close up!



Another older bird is brought in and you can see how the throat of these amazing birds are with gills that grasp and push insects into their stomachs.



Lynn gets to release the last adult of the day.



This ends our Purple Martin banding for this year. Next year should be even bigger with color bands in deploy. Back to banding at Lake Lotus tomorrow.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Purple Martin	35	2	37
Totals	35	2	37

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Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 14.
All nets will be opened by 6:05 A.M.

Purple Martin Banding, Day 3

Andrew had an appointment for his Mom so today was all in the hands of Jenny. The day went without a hitch.

First point of business was to bring down the houses at 7th Street.



Then the nests are delivered to the table, one by one.



Chicks are getting older by the day and they are brought the table to be banded after weighing. They huddle together in thier groups and are banded and replaced back into the same nest houses.



The group gathers around and observes the banding process. Jenny is banding and husband Tom records the data.



Everyone records data and release adult birds as well as the new chicks.



Jenny soldiers on through the hour-long process.



Things wrapped quickly and all volunteers gathered for a group shot with a morning well done.



Once the houses were back up, the adults quickly began bringing food to the hungry chicks right away.



Back to banding at Lake Lotus tomorrow.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Purple Martin	31	0	31
Totals	28	0	28

______________________________________
Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 7th
All nets will be opened by 6:10 A.M.

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

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

Purple Martin Banding, Day 1

Time for our return to Clermont to band Purple Martins. Several of us met Angela at the 7th Street apartments near dawn.

Jenny managed to trap an adult and Angela brought down the nest for us to begin banding.



The trapped adult was a recapture banded two years ago. We also got two new adults here.



Next, Andrew began to band all the 7 ckicks that were old enough.



Susan recorded the band numbers and weight of the chicks.



Once we finished 7th Street, we headed to 5th.



Here, we checked the gourds, as well, and found an adult female in one.



Here, Jenny got to band this round of 9 chicks, some that were close to fledging.



We finished up rather quickly and got out by 8:30. We will return next Saturday to get the next round banded.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Purple Martin	18	1	19
Totals	18	1	19

______________________________________
Next (planned) Banding Day for Purple Martin: Saturday, April 29th.
All nets will be opened by 6:30 A.M.

Clermont Purple Martin Banding

We took last week off because we promised to band some Purple Martins with our friends in Clermont. It was planned for the Saturday but weather squashed those plans so we took a hit and gave up our Sunday to help get nearly 100 Martins banded before they fledged. It was a good time. Andrew and Jenny teamed up at two tables and got through the task with no problem.

There are a lot of photos from this trip, so sit back and enjoy.

All volunteers arrived just before sunrise on Lake Minniola.



The main group brought down the first house on 7th Street and prepared to bring the Martin chicks to the tables.



The first nest was on its way to the banding site.



Connie brings in the second nest of chicks to Jenny's side.



A nest full of resting Martin chicks.



Andrew and Jenny get to work while Susan and Phyllis record the data.



Each chick was weighed in the bag and the empty bag was later weighed to get the exact weight of the bird.



Then each chick (and a couple of captured adults) were given their own unique band with specific numbers for data later in case they are later recaptured.



We finished the 7th Street house fairly quickly and then moved down to 5th Street for the remaining house. The crew began to extract the next nest box.



As we were banding, there was a race going on along the trail. The most enthusiastic member was cheering on fellow runners along the way. Of course, we dubbed him "Martin".



Let the banding continue, accompanied by music from the starting line down the road.



Lynn and Kate were along to document the event and provided some excellent shots for us, like this one of one the nest being returned to the house.



The crew was still hard at work gathering chicks to be banded.



On and on they came.



Another weight check.



And another....



Then banding...



...and banding...



...and more banding.



Most of the chicks were young enough and very docile. Some showed a little more personallity.



Once the last of the Martins were banded, we stayed a bit to watch and photograph the adults as they arrived back at the now raised house to start bringing in food for their hungry broods. One of the females seemed to have brought in a shell of some sort.



The main catch of the day seemed to be dragonflies.



This bird returned and we could see it had been previously banded, most likely from the week before.



She was quickly joined by a male before they flew off again in search of more food for the hungry chicks.



This male came in with a Gulf Fritilary butterfly.



A great day of banding was celebrated as we concluded the morning. Thanks to all of the Lake Lotus volunteers and to the Clermont Martin Watch crew for asking us out! Next year may be even bigger.



Our final banding day of the season at Lake Lotus will be this Sunday before the Summer heat chases us indoors until the first Sunday in September.

Today's Totals

Birds Processed	New	Recaptured	Total
Purple Martin	81	0	81
Totals	81	0	81

______________________________________
NOTE: Due to the new CDC recommendations, if you are fully vaccinated you are not required to wear masks, esp. at outdoor events such as ours. Get your shots and come on out. Otherwise, bring a mask. All current members at Lake Lotus are fully Vac'ed.
______________________________________
Next (planned) Banding Day: Sunday, May 15th.
All nets will be opened by 6:00 A.M.