This is a very late post on our last day of the season - We finished banding last Thursday, took down the station, and then I joined many of you at the CFO Convention for 4 days of....surprise, surprise.....birding!
Our last day - really our last half hour - may have been the most interesting of the season. We ended with a male Lazuli Bunting, a female Northern Parula, and a male Belted Kingfisher. For me, the Kingfisher has now replaced grosbeaks as the bird with the most painful bite - the pointy little barbs on the inside of the beak are probably great for helping him catch fish! Here's a breakdown of the last day: Belted Kingfisher 1 Gray Catbird 3 Northern Parula 1 Yellow Warbler 6 Yellow-breasted Chat 1 Lazuli Bunting 1 Lesser Goldfinch 4 It will be a couple of weeks before I have all the data compiled, but I'll make a few less formal observations: With a total of 744 individual birds, 65 of which were returns from prior years, we had the best season since 2011. It was a great year for Catbirds, Waxwings, Robins, and any other bird that eats berries. Our rarest birds were in the Vireo family, with 1 Red-eyed and 2 White-eyed. Lots of Goldfinches, both Lesser and American I think Warbler and Flycatcher numbers will come in lower than average, but haven't counted yet. Did not recatch any of the really old Yellow Warblers that we've been watching in recent years. There were several that were banded in 2013, but nothing from earlier. That's it until data is done! Thanks to all of you who visited this spring and who shared ideas in response to my posts. Looking forward to fall at Barr Lake! Meredith McBurney Bander, Chatfield Station Bird Conservancy of the Rockies -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Colorado Birds" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to cobirds+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. To post to this group, send email to cobirds@googlegroups.com. To view this discussion on the web visit https://groups.google.com/d/msgid/cobirds/d087fa5e-9f67-4ce0-92d8-43bf65258c59%40googlegroups.com. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
