September 4, 2018 - WA first!

Ah, what a relief it is to feel caught up for now.  If you've been reading all along, there have been some update posts and some newer posts.  But this is finally in real time as of today.  If you are new to this blog, welcome.  There's a lot to read but we hope it is of interest and value to you.

Today Bill and I went banding with Ed Rykiel on his project in Richland parks.  He has a huge emphasis on education which is really in keeping with what we do and will be doing.  It was great to be working with Rich again too as well as getting to know Lori better.

We set up 5 nets in WE Johnson Park.  This park is special as it has excellent habitat and is known for its great variety of birds.  Lisa Hill helped us scope out our location.  Having Lisa so near the park means she really understands what birds are in the park and where.  I always enjoyed finding migrants here.

We banded a total of 14 birds.  The long desired Black-capped Chickadee was caught and banded - my #116.  We banded a total of 6.  Another surprise was a Lincoln's Sparrow.  They are on the move from their higher elevation breeding grounds.  We had expected Song Sparrows so catching a  Lincoln's Sparrow first was a surprise.  We eventually did get 3 Songs as well as a Bewick's Wren.  During the later morning slump we did catch a White-crowned Sparrow.

Song Sparrow

The next to last net run yielded a Western Tanager.  She had a receding brood patch.  A beautiful bird.

Then the final bird of the morning was a shocker!  (Yes, Nancy Price, I did carry it back to the banding table a little hidden behind my back!)  Imagine catching a bird we had yet to see in Washington state.  Please realize we lived and birded here for 22 years before our move-and-7-year-stay in Florida.  It is really hard for us to add to our Washington list.  The surprise bird was a Magnolia Warbler.  Note its diagnostic under-tail pattern.  Also note that not all warblers with yellow rumps are Yellow-rumped Warblers.

Magnolia Warbler

I can't wait to see what's next.......

October 26, 2013 Utterly amazing

Bill was available to help with banding and since this doesn't happen very often, we ran another session.  For the most part it was busy early on and then it was so quiet.  We banded a total of nine birds - the expected Gray Catbirds (4), Blue Jay (1), Black-throated Blue Warbler (1) and then the amazing.  The first excitement was banding our first Palm Warbler.  They were both the "Western" type; not super yellow except on the undertail coverts and very little rust color on the head.

Palm Warbler

We were closing nets when Nancy Price let us know there were two birds in the net in the Butterfly Garden.  One was a second Palm Warbler. Yesterday, Crystal told me she saw a bird that looked like a tanager or a goldfinch.  I never dreamed the next day we would capture the bird and have it be a WESTERN TANAGER!!!

Western Tanager

Photo by Nancy Price

Western Tanager

Photo by Nancy Price

Western Tanager

Photo by Nancy Price

Western Tanagers are rare in Florida but do occur almost annually with 1 or 2 making an appearance somewhere in the state.  Note the small tooth like projection on the edge of the bill, best seen in the second picture.  This is characteristic of tanager bills.  Some have larger ones than the Westerns do.  Also in that picture you can see that one wingbar is yellow and the other is white.  Ironically, I have banded this species before.  My new one for the day was the Palm Warbler.

Next regularly scheduled banding:  October 29.  Nets going up at 7 am.