Bird Conservancy Banding Report - Barr Lake Station, 9/28/16

[meredith...@birdconservancy.org]

Today's weather was almost identical to yesterday, but yesterday there was lots of bird activity and today almost none.  Only banded 10 birds today:

Hammond's Flycatcher 1 (first flycatcher in 12 days)

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1

Orange-crowned Warbler 3

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Audubon's 1

Wilson's Warbler 1

Song Sparrow 2

Lincoln's Sparrow 1

We also caught a Black-capped Chickadee that we banded in 2010.

I also might report on a recovery of a Song Sparrow from last week.  (A "recovery" is a bird that we catch that was banded elsewhere.)  When we caught it, I figured it had been banded at Barr; I've always assumed that most if not all of the Song Sparrows at Barr are year-round residents.  After searching my Barr records and finding nothing, I asked our banding coordinator, who discovered that the bird had been banded earlier this fall at the Allegra Colister Reserve in Boulder County, outside of Lyons. So, a short story about a short-distance migrant! 

We are open 6 days each week, weather permitting, through October 16. We have 2 more closed days - Tues, Oct 4 and Wed, Oct 12. We are opening nets at about 6:50 a.m. and most days we start closing between 11 a.m. and 12 noon. We will open later and/or close earlier if it is very hot, very cold, wet, windy, etc. There are school groups most weekday mornings, usually arriving around 9:30. Best times to visit, if you like lots of birds and fewer humans, are early mornings during the week and Sundays.

Meredith McBurney
Bander/Biologist
Barr Lake Banding Station
Bird Conservancy of the Rockies