It was as if the birds were sending us a message, telling us that our spring season should end. Absolutely slowest day of the season - caught only 4 new birds;
Cordilleran Flycatcher 1 Swainson's Thrush 1 Yellow Warbler 1 Common Yellowthroat 1 It will be a couple of weeks before I get data recorded and can give a full and accurate report of the season. But, generally and estimating... We banded ~675 birds and caught ~60 that we had banded in prior years for a total of ~735 individual birds. This gets us into the range of our "recent normal" years, that is, 700+ total birds. Last year, when spring came so early and there never seemed to be a migration, we caught only 433 birds. (In 2008 and before, we were catching 300-500 birds annually, but that was before we made the net location changes that currently are in place.) We had no huge days, but also relatively few very slow days. The per day average for the season was 22, and we were close to that much of the time. Yellow Warblers, our most commonly caught species, came in at 122 (89 new and 33 from prior years); just slightly on the low side for "normal" years. Yellow-rumped Warblers, however, came in at 80+, way more than any year except for 2009 (the year we had an actual fall-out and caught more YRWAs than YEWAs). Our later season numbers were lower than usual and our early season numbers were higher. The late snowstorm (May 1) had an impact, bringing birds down and giving us probably our busiest 2nd week ever. Some of these early birds seem to stay around longer also, waiting for sufficient food to be available to get the energy to move on. I believe we had more human visitors than ever! We had school groups every weekday but one; weekends filled with parents and/or grandparents with young kids, beginning to expert birders, and people experiencing birds in the wild for the first time; and many of you who arrived almost as early as I did on weekday mornings to beat the crowds and see the best birds. I'm pretty sure I put more Warblers into the palms of children of all ages for release than in any previous 5 week period! It was a real pleasure to see so many of you! I'll post again when I have final totals. But, looking ahead: The Barr Lake station will open no later than the last Saturday in August (the 31st) and run through Sunday, October 13. Meredith McBurney Biologist/Bander Rocky Mountain Bird Observatory 303-329-8091 Celebrating 25 Years of Bird and Habitat Conservation -- 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/BLU177-DS2DAEE718862BD6D5C8F1BD29D0%40phx.gbl?hl=en-US. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/groups/opt_out.
