[cobirds] RMBO Barr Banding Station Report, 9/14/13

A perfectly beautiful banding morning at Barr – a respectable number of birds (55 new and 1 return from last year), lots of species (20), and, as mentioned in an earlier post, 2 Barr rarities (a Great-crested Flycatcher and a Golden-winged Warbler).  And lots of visitors with whom to share it all!

 

We arrived with some trepidation; I expected we’d spend the morning resetting nets and mucking around in mud.  But Barr was relatively untouched by the storm.  Michelle Seubert, the Park Manager, stopped by (with homemade chocolate chip cookies!) and told us that they had 6+ inches of rain but no serious problems.  The weather was pleasant - cool, partly sunny.  It was difficult to remember that there was devastation so close by.  A lot of moisture still in the air, and lots of insects for food.  The birds were frisky, and most showed good levels of fat.

 

Here’s the breakdown:

 

Downy Woodpecker    2

Dusky Flycatcher          1

Unidentified Empid       1

Great-crested Flycatcher          1 (John, I saw your photo, and I think this was a different bird….so 2 GCFLs around Barr today?!  This was the first ever banded at Barr)

Cassin’s Vireo  1

House Wren     1

Swainson’s Thrush        1

Hermit Thrush   2 (FOS)

Gray Catbird    1

Orange-crowned Warbler         5

Golden-winged Warbler           1 (John, I’ll e-mail you my photo to compare with what you saw.  This was the 5^th ever banded at Barr)

Nashville Warbler         2 (On any other day, this would have been a great bird.  We’ve never caught more than 2 in a season, so 2 in a day is pretty cool.)

Yellow Warbler            2

Common Yellowthroat 3 new, 1 return (banded 8/12)

Wilson’s Warbler         28

Green-tailed Towhee    1 (FOS)

Lincoln’s Sparrow        1

Black-headed Grosbeak           1 (FOS, and actually pretty rare for this station)

 

Recap Hammond’s Flycatcher, and Black-capped Chickadee rounded out the species for the day.

 

Banding tomorrow dependent entirely on the rain!  Hoping for a chance at another good day!

 

Meredith McBurney

Biologist/Bander

Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory

303/329-8091 (land line)

303/349-0245 (cell)