Howdy all,
Sorry for the lack of posts, but it has been a bit slow. That is until today.
We had a very surprising day today and birds were everywhere! The day ended up
being the highest day of the season, almost a full month late. We had a few
surprises as well. YELLOW-RUMPS made up the bulk as normal, but we had huge
numbers of CHIPPING SPARROWS and had the highest AMERICAN GOLDFINCH numbers of
the season. The biggest highlight was the capture of, not one, but two
LINCOLN'S SPARROWS!!! We had a big flight of AMERICAN ROBINS over the park this
morning and Jeff reported the first PURPLE FINCHES to the bird feeders near the
hawk platform.
We ended the day with 489 birds of 20 species! NOT a normal day for the banding
station in November!!
Here is the quick run down since the 9th.
11/9:
Downy Woodpecker??? 1
TOTAL birds banded?? 182
11/10:
2 whole Yellow-rumped Warbler???? (rained most the morning)
11/11:
Sharp-shinned Hawk??? 2
TOTAL -------------? 51
11/12:
TOTAL--------------- 25
11/13:
American Woodcock? 1
TOTAL------------- 50
11/14:
Brown Creeper???????????? ? 1
Ruby-crowned Kinglet???? ?1
Yellow-rumped Warbler??? 324??? October number, not November---seems they
showed up late
Palm Warbler??????????????????9?????? 8 western, 1 yellow
Pine Warbler?????????????????? 1?????? pretty cool!
American Goldfinch????????? 37
Field Sparrow???????????????? 6
Chipping Sparrow??????????? 71?????? ten year?season high is?80, Done beat that!
Slate-colored Junco???????? 1
Song Sparrow?????????????????16
White-throated Sparrow??? 4??????? that's it
Lincoln's Sparrow????????????? 2????????set a new ten year high this year (7
total so far)
Swamp Sparrow???????????????2
Savannah Sparrow??????????? 1???????? I LOVE SPARROWS!
Eastern Towhee??????????????? 1
Eastern Phoebe???????????????? 1
Hermit Thrush??????????????????? 3
American Robin??????????????????6
Northern Cardinal??????????????? 1
Yellow-shafted Flicker???????? 1
TOTAL -------------------? 489
We also caught a banded SHARP-SHINNED HAWK that was not from any of the banding
here at Kiptopeke. Should find out where that bird came from sometime over the
next month. That's pretty cool!
Looks like tomorrow is going to be a no go at the banding station. The weather
looks pretty bad for banding. So hopefully it clears up for trying again
Friday.
Cheers,
Jethro Runco
Kiptopeke, VA? on the Eastern Shore
Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory
________________________________________________________________________
Email and AIM finally together. You've gotta check out free AOL Mail! -
http://mail.aol.com
