rain out and a sparrow update

So while we were rained out today I had the chance to go hunting for a new site to band boreal owls  and I had the chance to look at our sparrow numbers once again. In an earlier blog I was surprised to see that white throat numbers were leading  white crowns on Friday we banded  25 more white crowns  which has left us  with 135 white crowns and 110 white throated sparrows as well I did not get a chance to provide a species list for the class from Englehart that visited  so here are our numbers

White crowned sparrows 25
dark eyed junco 10
american goldfinch 2
black capped chickadee 1
white throated sparrow 1
downy woodpecker 1
blue jay 1
yellow rump 1
purple finch 1



44 birds  9 species

Not bad for just 4 nets and we had to roll them after the firs net check as we only catch as many birds as we can safely handle. After the birds we had were banded we put the nets up again to catch more birds. The upshot of this is that when we run the feeder nets we only get a snap shot of the birds we have in the are in the fall. if we had more than 1 bander and more folks who can extract birds then our numbers would be more representative of what are coming to the feeders. The safety of the birds always comes first. It is interesting to see that southern banding stations are just starting to catch white crowned sparrows so it is just a matter of time before the white crowns move on to be replaced  flocks of tree sparrows which always is a harbinger of cooler temperatures to come so be on the look out and I will keep you posted on what we see at the marsh.-  MURPH