Bird Conservancy of the Rockies - Barr Banding Report, Aug 25 & 26

[meredith]

Rained out on 8/25 (Fri) after 1 run, catching 1 Warbling Vireo.  I was hoping for a cooler and busier day on Saturday - got the cooler but not the more birds.  Only banded 13 new birds, plus recaught 3 others banded earlier in the week.  Here are the new ones: 

Red-breasted Nuthatch 1

Orange-crowned Warbler 1

Yellow Warbler 8

Wilson's Warbler 2

Chipping Sparrow 1

A quick comparison with last year after four days (last year we had banded 203 birds, this year 83), and the big difference is in our summer residents - last year we had captured 115 Yellow Warblers, compared with 57 this year.  And, for House Wrens, last year we had 48, and this year only 3.  We attribute much of these reductions to the habitat - too much lake water up to high for too long.  (I should note, as mentioned in previous posts, that we have only had part of the station open because of the high water, but the nets where we catch the majority of the Wrens and Yellows are the ones that we had up from the beginning this season.)

The balance of the banding station is finally dry and we were able to get most of the rest of the nets up today.  Should be operating at full capacity next week!

Opportunities to visit include one-hour slots (up to 15 visitors at a time) from 7:30-8:30 most weekday mornings (Tues-Fri, we are closed on Mon) and 8, 9 , and 10 a.m. one-hour time slots on the weekends.  Click here to make a reservation.  We look forward to seeing many of you this season!

Meredith McBurney
Bander, Barr Lake Station
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies