Bird Conservancy Banding Station at Barr, 10/11/15

[meredith]

Slow last day - Maybe Mother Nature telling us it really was time to pack it in for the year!  Only 7 new birds banded:

Ruby-crowned Kinglet 1

Orange-crowned Warbler 1

Yellow-rumped Warbler, Myrtle 1

Song Sparrow 1

Lincoln's Sparrow 1

Dark-eyed Junco, Oregon 2

Our total for the season was about 1,430 of 61 species, above average for the past 10 years, and 35% more birds than the last 2 years. I think an analysis will show that the numbers of House Wrens and Yellow Warblers were low, at least in part because the lake water was too high to get the nets up for mid-to-late August banding. Our Wilson Warbler numbers were the best since 2006.  Orange-crowned Warbler numbers also seemed to be high, although I haven't done a count yet.  Of our regular sparrow species, most seemed to be about normal except for Chipping which were pretty scarce.  One final interesting point - not a single rain day.  We banded 6 days a week for 6 weeks.  Time to rest up and dream of spring!

Meredith McBurney

Biologist/Bander

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies