Hey COBirders,
I saw the posts by Meredith and SeEtta, and thought I'd comment, too.
1. I have seen some big Wilson's days at Clear Spring Ranch, usually in September, sometimes in the 20's and 30's. One such day was the day after the nasty September blizzard a couple years ago.
2. The best ever was at Barr Lake 9/14/07, when Starr Nicely was banding (I was just recording data that season). We had so many Wilson's at opening that only 10 nets even got opened. 103 WIWA in 4 hours, at one point 27 in one net! 2 banders, 2 extractors, one recorder, and two "bag runners" carrying out emptied bags and bringing back full ones. It was intense and fun.
3. I start banding at CSR on 8/1 each "fall" to work on the Yellow Warblers that are already moving. My experience in helping at Chico Basin Ranch was that most YEWA had already moved past by the time we opened around Labor Day. I have been banding A LOT of them in August at CSR since 2014. Most years about 100+. This year is the best ever. So far I've banded over 175, although numbers have diminished this week.
4. The other early migrant I see a lot of is Chipping Sparrow. Numbers are all over the place, with some falls seeing "few", maybe 150-200, one year 2500. This August started slowly for CHSP, but it has been bonkers this week. They usually arrive in flocks, hitting the nets like machine gun bullets, and sometimes filling the nets. Consequently, when that happens, there is no way to safely and in a timely manner band them all. For the record, then I band a sample of 10-12, and quickly release (and count) the rest.
This week I've netted 85, 95, 105, 145, and Wednesday 202. Almost all have been hatch-year birds this week, while earlier it was an even mix of hatch-year and adults (mostly adult females with residual brood patches visible).
5. Another note - this has also been a banner year for Lazuli Buntings. This is their month, too, but again, numbers the last decade have been all over the place. Some years a handful show up, other years 50-60. This month I've banded 150, already the most ever for me. Two weeks ago it was predominantly adult males being caught, this week almost all kids.
6. CSR is a good place to band Northern Waterthrush, too. Most falls I catch 15-20. The first three weeks this month I noticed I hadn't seen any yet, which was interesting, but that changed this week also, with 15 in just four days. Back on track!
So… I band for about 90 days in the fall, usually 8/1-10/31 (but most years I don't make it to Halloween because of cold and snow). A good fall for me is netting around 1600 birds. This year I'm already at 1400. Whew. (My busiest season was the fall I caught 2500 CHSP. That year I totaled about 4500 birds!)
Oh, and I've only banded about 15 Wilson's Warblers so far this fall. That will change.
More soon,
Steve Brown
Colo Spgs
Sent from my iPad
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