BARR Banding Station Opens

[meredith]

After a few days of training and orientation for staff and volunteers, the Bird Conservancy of the Rockies (note NEW name!) officially opened its fall banding season at Barr today.  It was hot weatherwise and relatively quiet birdwise. Only the front 12 nets (those closest to the road) are up and open; the areas where our other ~15 nets are located are still too wet. Not sure when the balance of the area will be dry enough to use.

We banded 17 birds today, all before 10:30, when it just got too hot to be banding:

House Wren 7

Yellow Warbler 2

MacGillivray's Warbler 1

Common Yellowthroat 1

Wilson's Warbler 5

Green-tailed Towhee 1 (FOS)

The 4 days last week that we were open some hours were similar to today in terms of the mix of species.  Heavy on Wilson's, Yellows and House Wrens.  We've also caught at least one of each of these: Black-capped Chickadee, Chipping, Lincoln's, Song and Lark Sparrow, American Goldfinch, Northern Waterthrush, Orange-crowned Warbler, Western Wood-Pewee, Hammond's Flycatcher, and one extremely frustrating Empidonax Flycatcher that we could not ID (for anyone interested, there actually is a 4-letter code - UNEM).

We will be open 6 days a week, weather permitting, through at least October 11.  The closed day will be a weekday and will vary depending on when we do not have a school group - this coming week we are closed Monday (tomorrow) and the same will be true next week (Labor Day). We are opening nets at 6:30, and will run until noon or when it gets too hot. (Given the weather report, it is unlikely we will make it to noon any day this coming week!)

Look forward to see you sometime this fall!

Meredith McBurney

Biologist/Bander

Barr Lake Banding Station (Adams County)

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies