Chico Basin Ranch- Bird Conservancy of the Rockies

[Chicobander]

Today was the ribbon cutting ceremony for the new educational building at Chico. The Architectural students from University of Colorado Denver developed and built the building for use by the banding team and serving educational groups. The students came back from graduating for the ceremony. They did a terrific job from the ground up! The birds were there to thank them. Fifty-nine new birds were banded including 18 species.  

First of the season were Yellow Warbler, American Redstart, Western Flycatcher, Willow Flycatcher, Orchard Oriole, White-breasted Nuthatch, Gray Catbird, and Blue Grosbeak. These past two days equaled the first 2.5 weeks of the bird numbers for spring. It is nice to see the birds are around. Hoping Barr Lake gets the right winds to bring birds to their station.

59 New Banded Birds

Wilson's Warbler- 10

American Redstart- 1

Yellow Warbler- 1

Western Wood-pewee- 7

Western Flycatcher- 4

Willow Flycatcher- 1

Olive-sided Flycatcher- 1

Northern House Wren- 3

Lesser Goldfinch- 2

American Goldfinch- (which has a different Alpha code AGOL- because of American Goshawk)- 6

Orchard Oriole- 2

Western Tanager- 8

White-breasted Nuthatch- 1

Blue Grosbeak- 2

Gray Catbird- 2

Common Grackle- woohoo- 4

Brown Thrasher- 1

American Robin- 3

1 Recapture- Wilson's Warbler

The banding station will be closed tomorrow and reopen at sunrise on Monday. Birding is  available on the ranch tomorrow morning by signing up on the Aiken Audubon website www.aikenaudubon.com. Stop by the banding station and share you sightings next week.

Have a good weekend,

Julie Shieldcastle

Chico Basin Ranch Bird Bander

Bird Conservancy of the Rockies