It has been a real up-and-down week banding at Clear Spring Ranch, considering we should be at migration peak right now. Some days over 50 birds banded, some days teens, one day just 9. Ugghh. Today was pretty good after a dead day Friday. 38 birds banded today.
Of interest (at least to me) has been the influx of Northern Waterthrush this week! 24 this week, 5 today, 9 on Thursday - and the most ever for a spring here. I always get some - but more like 10-15 in a season, not that many on one week!
And flycatchers are finally starting to show up. I banded two W Wood-pewees today, and also saw Eastern and Western Kingbirds, Hammond's Flycatcher, and Say's Phoebe, in addition to catching Least and Dusky flycatchers in the last couple days.
As I said, I only netted 9 birds yesterday - but one of them was my First-of-Station, and FOS Veery, a nice surprise.
Banded today included:
FOS WW Pewee 2
FOS Black-headed Grosbeak AdM, AdF
Least Flycatcher
Gray Catbird 5
Brown Thrasher
Swainson's Thrush (my third for the season - I don't have many stop along my Fountain Creek corridor - as opposed to CBR only 15 miles away!)
Yellow-breasted Chat - AdF (with several singing males in the willows)
Spotted Towhee - banded one - but there were 5-6 in the willows
N Waterthrush 5
MacGillivray's Warbler AdM
Yellow Warbler 6
FOS Black-headed Grosbeak AdM, AdF
Happy Migration and have a birdy weekend,
Steve Brown
Colo Spgs
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