[Bristol-Birds] finally a PURPLE FINCH flies to memory lane (living in the past)
- From: "Wallace Coffey" <jwcoffey@xxxxxxxxxx>
- To: "Bristol-birds" <bristol-birds@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Wed, 2 Mar 2011 14:44:59 -0500
FINALLY: PUFI
A male Purple Finch came to my feeder
this morning and fed with an American
Goldfinch. A short time later, a Pine
Siskin came. The siskin has been
here for a week or so.
In the early 1970's, my feeders had so
many Purple Finches it was easy to
trap and band more than 200 in a couple
of months. But those days are long gone.
Pine Siskins would come to the feeders
almost like clouds. Bert Hale and I banded
50 one morning at his backyard feeder
on Sharps Hollow Road.
In the "good ole days" a Purple Finch was trapped here 7 Feb 1966
with a band from Clark's Green PA by Cornelia Davis which she
placed on the bird 12 Jul 1965.
Another banded here 5 Feb 1966 was found dead 18 Feb 1969 at
Mandeville, LA by J. Lowden.
A Purple Finch banded on our porch 7 Feb 1970 was found dead
17 Feb 1973 at Charlotte, NC by Russell Peithman.
A Purple Finch banded near Wheaton Md. 28 Jan 1978 by J.S. Weske
was captured and released at our yard 1 Feb 1981.
One Purple Finch banded at our feeders 3 Feb 1979 came back two
years later to visit us again and was captured and released here
on 25 Jan 1981.
And the last banded bird in the good ole days was a Purple Finch
banded at Lansing, NY 15 Oct 1980 by Helen Lapham and taken in
a trap in our yard, 31 Jan 1981, and released.
The young people loved to come early on weekends and in the
evening after school or on snow days. They like crawling around
the traps to collect birds and cheer and high-five for a foreign
recaptured. They would catch dozens of birds we had banded
earlier. They could remember band number series like baseball
cards from the Yankees. It was amazing how they could pour over
the keys, check for fat, keep very special records and field notes
They would pause between taking close up photos to eat another
bite of pizza or drink Carolyn's hot chocolate.
I often wondered when they did their homework or could even
concentrate on school. It was more puzzling that some of them
got their Ph.D. Even from places like Cornell University and
ended up on faculties teaching others.
Talked to one on the phone Monday night. He was formerly with
the Laboratory of Ornithology at Cornell University and was an
acting director of the Lab. Says he will retire from Cornell in three
years, as soon as he finishes a project on butterfly altitudinal
distribution in the Great Smoky Mountain National Park.
There are reasons why those were good ole days -- "they" still are.
Let's go birding . . .
Wallace Coffey
Bristol, TN
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- » [Bristol-Birds] finally a PURPLE FINCH flies to memory lane (living in the past) - Wallace Coffey
