The marsh welcomes hired bander Chris Sukha. he started the migration season April 28th and will be the bander in charge at the marsh this migration season. The Banding season officially begins May 6th but Chris is out getting his feet wet literally! He has had a chance to get some of the nets up and is off to a great start.
His totals for the first two days are as follows
Tuesday April 28th
62 juno's
48 american tree sparrows
Wednesday April 29th
24 American tree sparrows
7 junco's
4 red winged blackbirds
3 ruby crowned kinglets
1 white throated sparrow
1 song sparrow
1 sharp shinned hawk
These birds have a special significance for me because they were all banded while i was teaching in the hallowed halls of Timiskaming District Secondary School. These birds were banded because Chris has his banding license and hiring him allows us to operate as a migration monitoring site independent of me being there. The true significance of this is that as an organization HMREC with the support of its members and donations and fund raising and funding applications we have been able to make this important step. So thanks everyone for the support in our important song bird research. Chris comes to us with experience from several migration monitoring sites he has volunteered and worked at places such as Mackenzie Nature Observatory, Thunder Cape in Thunder Bay and Long Point Bird Observatory on the shore of Lake Erie near Port Rowan Ontario. We are lucky to have Chris with us and we are looking forward to a great banding season. The marsh will soon be filled with birds and the happy voices of school kids coming to learn about the marsh and the research we are doing and to see a bird or a frog up close. I can hardly wait. If you are not a school aged child and want to come out and meet Chris and the birds we are open to the public every weekend starting May 9th. Hope to see you there and thanks Chris!!
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