Connected Lakes State Park Banding Update

[Adam Cupito]

Hi everyone, I've just wrapped up the first week of banding at Connected Lakes State Park in Grand Junction. Mesa County has been in an extreme drought and has had a record-breaking summer in terms of heat, which explains the low numbers of birds moving through so far. Overall it's been very slow here, and we've had to close nets early every day due to heat. Nonetheless, I banded 42 birds of 17 species over the past 5 days, which included 2 returning Spotted Towhees from 2017. The following species account represents the effort of 190 net hours at this site. 

Wilson's Warbler: 12

White-crowned Sparrow (Gambel’s): 6

Spotted Towhee: 3
Brewer's Sparrow: 3
Black-capped Chickadee: 3

Orange-crowned Warbler: 3

MacGillivray's Warbler: 2

Townsend’s Warbler: 1

Song Sparrow: 1

Hammond’s Flycatcher: 1

Lincoln's Sparrow: 1

Warbling Vireo: 1
House Finch: 1
Yellow Warbler: 1
Blue-gray Gnatcatcher: 1

Red-naped Sapsucker: 1

Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 1

Spotted Towhee - 2 returns from 2017

I will be running the station every week day until October 12th, and there will also be a public banding day on the morning of Saturday, September 29th. Hope to see you there!

Adam Cupito

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies