Hi all, Things continue slow at the Occoquan banding station, although
today, Sun., it finally
warmed up enough at the station so that it felt like Spring. I guess the
breeze off the
water keeps us cooler than in most of the refuge. Suzanne did a little
statistical
analysis and it turns out that the number of re-traps this year (birds that
we have banded
this season and then re-caught) is twice that of our previous best year for
re-traps and
three times that of our worst. Today was the first day we noted a
significant drop in
re-captures. Friday was fairly exciting, although we have designated it
Ugly Bird Day
since we caught several BH COWBIRDS, and a STARLING. The tide on the
Potomac was very high
and flooded the lower portion of the station forcing us to close one net
altogether and to
hitch up a couple of others to eliminate the chance of any birds caught low
in the net
getting soaked, or worse. We also had to do a fair amount of sloshing
through standing
water to get to some of the nets. Saturday was also quite eventful.
Highlights were the
banding of our first WHITE-EYED VIREO of the season and the appearance of a
small group of
BOBWHITES which have apparantly decided to hang out near the station. One
female was caught
and banded on Saturday and the males were bobwhiting all over the place
today. The station ran
until 10:00 on Saturday, at which point we packed it in and shifted over to
Mason Neck State
Park to do a banding demonstration for the Eagle Festival. We caught and
banded 3 BH COWBIRDS,
1 WB NUTHATCH, 1 male CARDINAL (who was a big hit) and 124 children. The
children are banded
with stretch bracelets on which we write the date, banding station code and
the banding code
for the kind of bird we have decided they are. This is usually based on the
color of T-shirt.
Today, Sun. was slow, only 18 birds handled. Dum-dums that keep flying back
into the net
after they are banded do not get counted each time. We did have one very
sad find. A female
Towhee was found dead at the base of one our nets, and a female Brown-headed
Cowbird was seen
nonchantantly walking away. The Towhee was essentially scalped, indicating
a very rough fight.
We assume the cowbird did it but are unable to understand why. It seems
very counterproductive
to kill a possible future brooder of your children. This death did not have
anything to do
with our banding operations and we found no evidence of the fight near the
net. The towhee
must have trying to escape when she died. It depressed us all. On a more
cheerful note, we
found our first BLUE-HEADED VIREO, and first COMMON YELLOWTHROAT at the
station although we
did not catch them. Maybe this coming week....
The station will be open this week on Wed, Sat. and Sun. Visitors are
always welcome. We
close around noon.
Joanna B. Taylor
Arlington, VA
jandrtaylor@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
You are subscribed to VA-BIRD. To post to this mailing list, simply send email
to va-bird@xxxxxxxxxxxxx. To unsubscribe, send email to
va-bird-request@xxxxxxxxxxxxx with 'unsubscribe' in the Subject field.
