[cobirds] Bird Conservancy Banding Report - Barr Lake Station, 9/5/18

There is a certain expectation at a banding station after a sudden thunderstorm like we had last night - will we get a fall-out, a big influx of new birds that were forced to end their migration for the night because of the sudden storm?  When we arrived about 7:30 this morning, the sense of the possibility was heightened because Tony Leukering, Doug Faulkner and a few others were already birding the area and teasing us for doing a late start (we did want to wait until the rain stopped......) on what was likely to be a great day.  But the first hour or so was disappointingly slow, and the early morning birders wandered away.

Then, about 9:30, the sun came out a bit, and suddenly the birds came to life.  From then on, my team of three never stopped moving, removing birds from the nets and then getting nets closed before another 10 flew in.  A couple of banding station visitors got put to work, and did a great job recording data and ferrying empty bags out and bringing birds back from the far reaches of the station.  The students in today's school groups seemed almost transfixed by the organized chaos of banders getting so many birds processed in a very short time period.  

When the morning was over we had banded 126 birds of 17 species, caught in nets open less than half the normal amount of time.  Had we had unlimited help and been able to keep the nets open the whole morning we certainly would have caught many, many more.  It is exhilarating and exhausting to experience so many birds going about their fall migration!

Below is the breakdown of the 126 birds banded.  The birds that were clearly part of the fall-out were the 37 Spizella Sparrows - the 27 Clay-colored is the most ever caught in any season at Barr.  Other numbers are more typical, but usually not all on the same day:

Western Wood-pewee 2

Willow Flycatcher 1

Dusky Flycatcher 1 (FOS)

Warbling Vireo 1

House Wren 2

Orange-crowned Warbler 19

Nashville Warbler 1

Yellow Warbler 5

Townsend's Warbler 1

American Redstart 1

MacGillivray's Warbler 1

Common Yellowthroat 3

Wilson's Warbler 49

Chipping Sparrow 8

Clay-colored Sparrow 27 (FOS)

Brewer's Sparrow 3 (FOS)

Black-headed Grosbeak 1 (FOS)

We are open 6 days per week (closed Mondays), weather permitting, through October 14. We are opening nets at 6:30 and should have birds back at the station by 7:15. We will close most days by about 11:30 (closing earlier now because of heat). School groups arrive most weekdays at about 9:30. The best time to visit (fewest people, most birds) is before 9:30 weekdays and Sundays.

 

Come visit!

 

Meredith McBurney

Bander

Barr Lake Station

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

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