Week of Sarah Trying to Wear Knee-Boots

Nice male Myrtle Warbler. Photo by Barbara Logan.

Thursday was slow and not very exciting. I kid you not, the thing that went in the 'cool birds' column on the whiteboard was "Moose".

There was a moose at the banding station. And at nets 24 and 25.

There were also Robins carrying nesting material near net 25 and a Horned Grebe nest near net 11.

I wore my knee boots out of a sense of misplaced optimism. This led to me being wet.

(Thursday 26 May) Banding Summary: 13 birds, 7 species (OCWA, AMRO, SWTH, BCCH, CORE, SCJU, MYWA).

I had an awesome idea to fix the wet from Thursday. The water wasn't much over my boots, so I figured that if I wore rain pants, that would fix the problem. Wrong. My littany while sloshing to net 23 was "Please, PLEASE make it worth getting wet!" It didn't.

OMG Mosquitos. DEEEEEET.

Pile of dead mosquitos.

It's started to get a bit too warm in the afternoons. 81 in the shade is not acceptable.

Cool birds: tiniest Redpoll baby EVER.

(Friday 27 May) Banding Summary: 14 birds, 7 species (CORE, YWAR, SCJU, AMRO, MYWA, OCWA, LISP).

Saturday was business as usual. Our Savannah Sparrow and Lincoln's Sparrow were cool and our Black-Capped Chickadee was nice to see after awhile not seeing them.

We think we might have had a squirrel predation, so we'll keep a very close eye on nets 18 and 19 where he hangs out.

Common Redpoll baby!!

(Saturday 28 May) Banding Summary: 17 birds, 9 species (SCJU, OCWA, LISP, AMRO, CORE, YWAR, BCCH, MYWA, SAVS).

Sunday was the beginning of the baby Redpoll hoard (we had 9 with 2 adult chaperones). It was breezy by mid-morning, which kept the mosquitos down, but caused the closing of nets 4, 6, and 7. Sandy and Dayna were able to do the front gully in knee-boots. I'd learned my lesson by this point, sucked it up and wore the chest waders.

(Sunday 29 May) Banding Summary: 19 birds, 4 species (CORE, MYWA, YWAR, AMRO).

Taking measurements on a Hammond's Flycatcher.
Photo by Barbara Logan.

By Monday, the hoard had become an army. 20 Redpoll babies. Apparently it was Mom's day at the spa or something because all 3 of the adult Redpolls we caught with the babies were male.

(Monday 30 May) Banding Summary: 32 birds, 8 species (CORE, AMRO, SWTH, MYWA, YWAR, NOWA, HAFL, SAVS).

More from the Week of Fire

Looking for molt limits on the Yellow Warbler.
Photo by Barbara Logan.

Sorry about the long wait... life got crazy but I'll try to do a few big updates over the next few days. Not having internet at my cabin doesn't help. ;)

Tomboy Blackpoll Warbeler female.

Sunday the 22nd is up next, I believe. We had a tree fall on net 18 overnight... luckily it wasn't very big, so Gabriel and I got it moved out of the way without much trouble. We also had a very tomboy-feminist Blackpoll Warbler (see photo). She had lots of black on her head and lots of white in her tail... She had to be pretty darned old to be looking quite that good. Two redpoll babies, a Yellow Warbler and a Savannah Sparrow were the extent of the cool birds for  the day.

(Sunday 22 May) Banding Summary: 36 birds, 10 species (MYWA, OCWA, CORE, SWTH, BLPW, NOWA, AMRO, SAVS, SCJU, YWAR).

Trying to age the Solitary Sandpiper. Photo by Barbara Logan.

Solitary Sandpiper. Photo by Barbara Logan.

Monday was a bit rainy, and then it was a bit windy. I didn't open 11 or 13 for the rain early (they're pretty exposed) and then was able to open 13 around 8:00. Net 11 got left closed because of the wind later in the day.

Also, there's something completely awesome about having something in your hand that can tear out your eyeballs. And wants to. Badly. ^____^

Cool Birds: Sharp-Shinned Hawk (immature male), Solitary Sandpipers (x2), Grey-Cheeked Thrush.

I will eat your SOUL.

(Monday 23 May) Banding Summary: 31 birds, 12 species (SWTH, BLPW, YWAR, CORE, SCJU, AMRO, OCWA, SOSA, HAFL, MYWA, GCTH, SSHA).

My weekend: Belted Kingfisher. 'Nuff said. Well, and the Spruce Grouse that Cheyanna almost caught. I told her that she should practice her linebacker tackle for next time. ;)

(Tuesday 24 May) Banding Summary: 38 birds, 14 species (CORE, SCJU, NOWA, YWAR, MYWA, OCWA AMRO, SWTH, GCTH, BCCH, HAFL, DOWO, RUBL, BEKI).


(Wednesday 25 May) Banding Summary: 24 birds, 11 species (SWTH, AMRO, OCWA, MYWA, YWAR, NOWA, SAVS, LISP, GWCS, SCJU, SPGR)

Sharp-Shinned Hawk, juv. male.

Handsome Yellow Warbler. Photo by Barbara Logan.

Week of FIRE, Part 2

Ok, so Friday. Not as many birds, and certainly nothing as exciting as a Yellowlegs... there was another Solitary Sandpiper though, and those are always cool. Friday was also our first rainy day. We delayed opening until 7:00, and by then it had mostly stopped. Unfortunately, it got windy later and we had to close nets 7 and 11 at 10:00.

Blackpoll Warbler female.

Also my hip-waders flooded. Not leaked, like the chest-waders. Flooded. Luckily, there was an extra pair of XtraTuffs in the tent that I appropriated. They were huge. I had Gabriel of the non-leaky-waders check the deep nets (23, 13, and 11), and it worked out alright.

 Also, this lovely Northern Waterthrush (see photo below) has the trashy-est feathers ever. No self-respecting After Second Year bird would be caught dead in feathers like that! For SHAME. Those central tail feathers aren't even feathers anymore!

Northern Waterthrush with Trash Feathers.

Cool birds of the day: Yellow Warbler male who was exceptionally pretty, and a Blackpoll Warbler female. When I pulled her out of the net, I didn't know what she was. I had 2 scenarios in my head: a) she was something very cool and very lost, or b) she was something silly that I wasn't thinking of and I'd feel stupid later. Turned out that she was cool and not-lost, because Blackpoll females look nothing like the males.

(Friday 20 May) Banding Summary: 24 birds, 10 species (OCWA, MYWA, SCJU, HAFL, NOWA, SOSA, CORE, AMRO, BLPW, YWAR).

NOWA Trash Tail.

I called in sick on Saturday. I woke up at 4:30 as usual, and started to sit up... physically started to sit up, not just thought about it... and woke up at 5:25 with a lot of confusion and absolutely no voice.This was the start of what Dayna and I are now lovingly calling the Gully Water Plague.

I might also mention that Friday afternoon was the start of Alaska-Is-Burning season. It was windy on Friday (as I mentioned), and the wind only got worse as the afternoon progressed. Partway through my shift at Barnes & Noble (I was zoning, so I was tucked away in between 2 shelves where nobody could see me), I started smelling smoke coming through the doors. I assumed that it was left-overs from the proscribed burn on the Creamer's front field. Finally, when I'd clocked out and was leaving, I overheard someone saying that there was actually a wildfire up on Goldstream hill near Ivory Jack's. This got me worried because not only is my cabin on that side of town, The Boy's cabin is actually about a mile from Ivory Jack's and that was a bit too close for comfort. I spent the night with one ear and eye open in case he knocked on my door needing a place to stay for the night. He didn't (they got the fire contained and under control sometime around midnight), but I slept rather badly anyway. And woke up very sick.

(Saturday 21 May) Banding Summary: 20 birds, 10 species (MYWA, SWTH, SCJU, HAFL, GCTH, OCWA, NOWA, SAVS, WCSP, LISP)

Week of FIRE, Part 1

Lovely Savannah Sparrow!

On Thursday, they did proscribed burns in the front fields. The birds all went away because fo the smoke. :(

It started out a lot warmer than previous mornings, which was nice (52). Our newest volunteer, Gabriel, helped Dayna with the 122 birds in the gully with his non-leaky hip-waders. He was extremely helpful, since the gully is now down low enough for hip waders. My chest waders, however, just to spite me, rubbed my calf raw and then there was nasty gully-water and yuck. Just yuck. And ouch.

The ACTUAL Lesser Yellowlegs!

We've also started getting thrushes, and Dayna got a Grey-Cheeked Thrush, which I'd never seen before. I panicked and made myself a cheat-sheet for thrushes. This turned out to not be necessary up here, as our three thrushes are actually pretty distinct. OUR Swainson's Thrushes DON'T have red butts and our Hermit Thrushes DO. Eat your hearts out, you poor Pacific Northwest suckers! ;)

Northern Waterthrush.

Anyway, the cool birds continued. First Lincoln's Sparrow and an actual Lesser Yellowlegs. He was huge. And had a white butt. And his legs were the color of an obnoxious yellow Ferrari. We also got a few Northern Waterthrushes, a lovely Rusty Blackbird male, a Grey-Cheeked Thrush, and a Savannah Sparrow.

Also, FIRST BABY COOKIES to the Common Redpoll (and to ME)!!! He was all fluffy and was still growing in his wings and tail and it was all stubby and adorable. Aaaand I'm done now.

(Thursday 19 May) Banding Summary: 56 birds, 15 species (MYWA, CORE, AMRO, OCWA, SWTH, SCJU, HAFL, BCCH, WCSP, LISP, LEYE, NOWA, RUBL, GCTH, SAVS)

FIRST BABY! Common Redpoll.

Friday was rather miserable. I got all excited about hip-waders and found a pair that weren't too big in the feet but would fit around my tree-trunk thighs. I was feeling very accomplished.

And now, in the style of my hero, George R. R. Martin, whose epic HBO series I am now being dragged off to watch, I am going to leave you all with a cliff-hanger and finish this tomorrow.

^___^

LOTS of birds over my weekend!

So, over my weekend, the Northern Waterthrushes descended.

(Tuesday 17 May) Banding Summary: 47 birds, 13 species (MYWA, SCJU, AMRO, OCWA, BCCH, SWTH, RUBL, LISP, HAFL, CORE, NOWA, SOSP, FOSP)

And, on Wednesday, all our warblers suddenly appeared. En masse.

(Wednesday 18 May) Banding Summary: 122 birds, 14 species (SOSA, HAFL, GCTH*, SWTH, AMRO, OCWA, MYWA x32, BLPW, YWAR*, WIWA*, NOWA x40, GWCS, SCJU, CORE)

The rest of the week to follow in a day or so!

Week of Awesome Birds, Part 2

So, last time, we talked about the Rusty Blackbird and the Downy Woodpecker and the supposed Lesser Yellowlegs. Here is the exciting conclusion to last week's cliff-hanger!

Solitary Sandpiper, not!LesserYellowlegs.

We went home and I posted pictures on Facebook. I didn't have time to caption any of them. On Sunday, Dayna proposed a radical theory: perhaps it was actually a Solitary Sandpiper and that's why its biometrics were so tiny. We checked the SOSA biometrics (wing cord, tail, bill length, tarsus length, etc.) and our bird fit them perfectly. Also, brown butt. We were both feeling rather stupid at this point. I checked Facebook when I got home Sunday afternoon and good ol' Uncle Tim (my family contains many bird nerds) commented on one of my photos: "Nice Solitary Sandpiper!" -_-;;; This is me feeling very VERY dumb.

Other characteristic examples of Sarah Being Dumb:

Solitary Sandpiper with only kinda-yellow legs.

Exhibit A: 2008 (the year of The Great and Epic Fail) Institute for Bird Populations (IBP) Northwest training camp in Grant's Pass, OR, day 2. Ted Snyder is checking on the extraction skills of his newest intern on a tiny little bird with a yellow patch on its head. "So, Sarah, what's this bird?" I look at it for a minute. "A baby... Golden-Crowned... Sparrow?" This should have resulted in a wrathful glare and a smack to the head, but Ted is nicer than that. "How about a Golden-Crowned Kinglet?" *FACEPALM*

Exhibit B: 2009 IBP Wenatchee National Forest, Rattlesnake Springs (I think) banding station, near Naches, WA. Our biologist and boss is visiting for a few days and Erika (fellow intern & field partner) and I are going about business as usual, banding and processing, etc. We get a rather large flycatcher and are going about trying to figure out what species it is. We're taking lots of measurements and trying to match them to anything on Pyle's Empidonax flycatcher chart... without success. All the measurements are just way too big. Erica (biologist) watches us for a few minutes and then cuts in: "Uh, girls... that's not an Empid." Twin blank stares. Re-examine the bird: grayish brownish greenish, rictal bristles, large-ish bill, buffy wing bars. Definitely a flycatcher. Wrack brain some more... light bulb of guilt. Sheepish and appropriately contrite: "It's a Western Wood-Peewee, isn't it." *FACEPALM*

I feel that an allowance of one egregiously stupid moment per year is not too much to ask.

(Saturday 14 May) Banding Summary: 15 birds, 8 species (CORE, SCJU, MYWA, AMRO, SOSA, RUBL)

Nice little Hammond's Flycatcher.

Sunday went fine, with the exception of on very badly tongued Rusty Blackbird... the worst one I've seen among the several thousand birds I've extracted. "Tonguing" (bird's tongue caught on the net) happens on occasion, most commonly with birds who tend to yell in the net. Usually this is restricted to robins and woodpeckers. Birds tongues are forked in the back, and this is where the net gets caught. Generally, a dexterously applied toothpick will fix this problem. Woodpeckers are another matter because their entire tongue is barbed. Blackbirds usually aren't a problem, but this one was a borderline avian microsurgery problem. I eventually got her freed and apart from some bleeding in her mouth, seemed fine.

Cool birds: Gambel's White-Crowned Sparrow, Rusty Blackbird (1 male, 1 female), Hammond's Flycatcher (x3)

(Sunday 15 May) Banding Summary: 25 birds, 9 species (SCJU, CORE, BCCH, MYWA, AMRO, FOSP, GWCS, HAFL, RUBL)

Male Blackpoll Warbler!

Monday was cloudy and quite warm (41 at opening and 65 at closing). Net 25 (triple high and a general pain in the butt) came down while Cheyanna was setting it up, so we took it down and re-did the support lines... opened fine at 8:00.

Cool birds: Solitary Sandpiper (x2), Orange-Crowned Warbler, nice male Blackpoll Warbler (a new one for me!)

(Monday 16 May) Banding Summary: 25 birds, 9 species (MYWA, SCJU, AMRO, CORE, HAFL, FOSP, SOSA, OCWA, BLPW)

Week of Awesome Birds, Part 1

Studliest male Redpoll EVER.

So. Thursday was rather boring, except for the NewsMiner reporter that visited with Sue. We had to close at 11:00 for wind. Not many birds, and nothing remotely cool or interesting.

(Thursday 12 May) Banding Summary: 9 birds, 4 species (SCJU, BCCH, AMRO, MYWA)




Friday was windy. Let me tell you something about Fairbanks. It's in a bowl. There are hills on 3 sides and a mountain range on the other side. There is no wind. Ever. Except this year. There is wind quite frequently. DO NOT WANT. One of the many reasons we open right after sunrise is because it's one of the stillest times of the day. Heat makes air move, and pre-dawn is about as cold as it gets.



Male Orange-Crowned Warbler!

I didn't even bother opening net 23, and I shouldn't have bothered opening net 11, since those two are the most wind-prone nets we have. We ended up closing most of the gully (11, 13, 17, 20, and 21), net 7 in the front and nets 26 and 27 in the back around 10:00.

On the plus side, it's not really freezing at night any more AND we caught the first Orange-Crowned Warbler of the year.

(Friday 13 May) Banding Summary: 14 birds, 6 species (MYWA, SCJU, AMRO, CORE, BCCH, OCWA)


SY Female Rusty Blackbird

Saturday was the day that the awesome started. Susan Sharbaugh brought her Intro to Ornithology class by mid-morning. I got a female Rusty Blackbird (not endangered yet, but in decline) and what I thought was a Lesser Yellowlegs. All his biometrics were WAY too small, so we called him the Least Yellowlegs. Also his butt was brown. But he was cool nonetheless! We also got a Downy Woodpecker male later. He was the cranky pill his mummy taught him to be.



Very cranky male Downy Woodpecker.

More next episode! Stay tuned for the Lesser Yellowlegs conclusion and photos!









Massive update (now that Sarah's caught up on sleep)

It's getting harder to sleep now. For perspective, the sun came up at 4:46am this morning and won't go back down again until 10:51pm. It doesn't actually get dark until close to midnight and starts getting light again around 4. I made up for 5 days of less than optimal sleep last night.

Friday was relatively busy. Too busy for interesting things to happen. Two important things from Friday: the beaver chewed a tree down in our main path to the gully (which was chewed in a funny spiral pattern and of which I will post a photo later), and the Robins are back. Yippee.

(Friday 6 May) Banding Summary: 17 birds, 5 species (SCJU, MYWA, CORE, BCCH, AMRO)

Captain of Team Adorable: Ruby-Crowned Kinglet.

Saturday turned out to be chilly (23F) and windy. Which was bad. There are a few conditions under which banders are advised to close nets. Rain and wind are the most common, followed by direct sun, heat, and predators, as well as to reduce the capture rate on very busy days or if something happens to severely damage the net (such as a deer running through). We started getting pretty gusty winds (up to 5 on the Beaufort scale) around 9am, and at 9:30 I closed nets 23 and 11 because they were blowing into the alders and getting tangled. Immediately after that, two of our volunteers brought me a foot and a random (unidentifiable) entrail from net 2, and said that there was also a nice, neat pile of feathers under the net as well. Hooray for raptor kills. There is a Northern Harrier hanging out in the front field, so she gets the blame. We closed both nets 1 and 2 (which are end-to-end) for the rest of the day as a precaution.

On the up-side, we caught a nice male Ruby-Crowned Kinglet and the Hermit Thrush that had been singing for a day or so in the back. Two new species in one day! Since it was windy, the kinglet was puffing up his feathers, which was excellent for the photo! Usually the crown patch is mostly concealed.

(Saturday 7 May) Banding Summary: 7 birds, 6 species (CORE, BCCH, AMRO, SCJU, RCKI, HETH)

Sunday morning was the coldest morning we've had yet this season (20F) but it was completely clear, so it warmed up nicely mid-way through the morning. This meant that we had to break ice on the gully again, and early in the morning the residual water on our waders froze by the time we got back to the banding station. The water is continuing to go down, if very slowly. We're hopeful that we'll be in hip-waders by the end of spring banding (4 June).

My waders have sprung another slow leak... not horrible, but definitely irritating. Regardless, it turned into a lovely Mothers' Day, and we had several couples and families out for a stroll come to visit. Unfortunately, we didn't have many birds and none of them were very exciting. One of our volunteers did see the Harrier try (unsuccessfully) to take a Mallard in the gully.

Also discovered today: a moderately sized herd of Lesser Yellowlegs flying over at low altitude sounds like a small propeller airplane. Yes, I did say 'herd'. It seems more appropriate than 'flock'. Herd implies large and noisy.

(Sunday 8 May) Banding Summary: 5 birds, 3 species (BCCH, SCJU, CORE)

Lovely Fox Sparrow.

Monday was exciting, never mind that the hole in my waders had gotten bigger. Sue's Denali Highway interns came out with us, and Mark (the refuge manager) brought us cinnamon rolls. Sue told us to put that down in our phenology notes. Apparently he lost a bet with his assistant... something about the return date for Savannah Sparrows or something. Whatever. We got cinnamon rolls. ^__^

There was an entire chorus of Wood Frogs singing in the gully. Wood Frogs (Rana sylvatica) are Alaska's only amphibian (we have no non-avian reptiles either), largely because they are able to allow their body temperature to drop below freezing without suffering the necrosis that occurs when ice crystals puncture cell membranes. They super-saturate their blood with urea and sugar to cushion their cells and lower the freezing point of their body liquids. Yay for having anti-freeze in your blood.

Tried to get a picture of the FOSP's red butt, but the light foiled us.

We spotted a few American Pipits in the front fields, as well as a Tree Swallow looking very possessive and at-home on one of the nest-boxes. We also had a Hermit Thrush singing his little heart out in the back and one of Sue's interns spotted an American Tree Sparrow. Several species of butterflies are out and about and several buds on our study birch tree have burst. Not the buds we're supposed to be looking at, but still. Green-up is still at least a week away.

I'll fix my waders (again) tomorrow and hopefully I'll be dry for a couple of days.

Cool birds for the day: 2 Boreal Chickadees, one caught twice, and a Fox Sparrow at the end of the day!

(Monday 9 May) Banding Summary: 16 birds, 6 species (MYWA, CORE, SCJU, BCCH, BOCH, FOSP)

In other non-bird news, I've signed a lease for a cabin! I get to move in in a week or so.

First migrant!

Groundhog!

Monday went... interestingly. Several people were cranky (myself included), but it was a nice day and we did have several birds.

So, I took my waders home over the weekend and attempted to fix them. I fixed several holes, but apparently not all of them. Still leaky, but better than the huge green Cabella's waders with the hugest holes ever.

There was also obvious beaver activity in the gully... several trees chewed on, etc. I also saw one of them just hanging out by the farmhouse... 1/4 mile from any kind of water. Most random thing EVER. EDIT: actually a groundhog. >__<

Golden-Crowned Sparrow.

Also, our first migrant of the year: Golden-Crowned Sparrow! Sue and I saw him sitting on a branch near net 18, pretty as you please. When we got back to the banding station and Aunt Judy went to go see if she could find him too. Two minutes later, we hear on the radio, "He's in the net, can I bring him in?" ^__^ Creamer's Field only catches a few of these guys a year, and they're usually one of the later migrants to come into the station. He was gorgeous and mysterious... funny the same qualities that make birds sexy make boys sexy too. Hmm. I must ponder the ramifications of THAT.

(Monday 2 May) Banding Summary: 6 birds, 3 species (BCCH, CORE, GCSP)


Stuff from the two days I was off-duty:


(Tuesday 3 May) Banding Summary: 5 birds, 3 species (CORE, BCCH, SCJU, DOWO)
Downy Woodpecker, awesome! Also, the Juncos are here!


(Wednesday 4 May) Banding Summary: 15 birds, 3 species (CORE, SCJU, MYWA)
May the fourth be with you day! Yay for Star Wars nerd-ism. The Myrtle Warblers are back as well... 9 of the 15 birds were MYWA's. They travel in packs.

Boreal Chickadee.

Now, on to Thursday.

I took the waders home again for my actual weekend (Tuesday & Wednesday). I turned them inside-out and filled them full of water to see if I could find any more leaks. Found the big one, which wasn't along a seam at all, much to my astonishment. I left them out in the lovely sunshine for an afternoon, and the field test on Thursday seemed to support my they're-finally-fixed-for-real-this-time theory.

Hooray for dry feet. Seriously. It did wonders for my mood and general outlook on life.

The water in the gully is starting to go down, finally. I no longer have to hold up my waders and walk on tip-toes and hold my breath when going to check net 13. We may actually get down to hip-waders before spring banding is over!

Cool bird of the day: Boreal Chickadee. They hang out at the station and overwinter in Fairbanks, but they don't generally fly low enough to get caught in nets. He was quite a lot better-tempered than the Black-Capped Chickadees tend to be, which was very nice.

(Thursday 5 May) Banding Summary: 8 birds, 3 species (BCCH, ORJU, BOCH)


PS: I'll insert pictures later this evening. Chaia is demanding the grocery store and I need the post office.

PPS: Bun-on-the-Run is now open! The Rule at CRMS is that if you let go of a bird after you've touched it (from the net, from a bag, etc.), you get a tick on the white-board. Five ticks mean you have to bring Bun-on-the-Run cinnamon rolls for everyone. We like this rule. Especially now that Sue has one.

Murphy is a vindictive bastard

First barbecue of the year yesterday: success! There was yummy brautworst and extra-yummy moose burgers and many games of Dominion and a few rounds of Apples-to-Apples and an interesting game of Balderdash.Chaia got a little tipsy and couldn't spell anything, but it's her birthday today, so it's allowed. Chena Hotsprings now!

Actual banding report to follow either tonight or tomorrow.

EDIT: So. Banding on Friday. It didn't rain... that's about the only positive thing I can say.

Since my waders were leaking, I selected another pair at random. They were huge and baggy. And had the hugest leak ever. As soon as I put a foot in the water, it started gushing in. Dayna also decided to go ahead and open net 13. I had to hoist my waders up and walk on my tip-toes, and even then I only had about an inch to spare. And water was pouring in and it was oh-my-gosh-short-out-my-brain cold.

Also, as I was setting up net 18 (one of our double-high nets), I attached the padlock to one of the upper trammels because the upper ones don't tend to sag quite as much and can take the bit of extra weight. I apparently didn't shut it all the way, because when I was tugging on the rope to get it all the way up, the lock fell off and beaned me on the forehead. I've still got a bump. I said bad words. Lots of them.

That's pretty much how the rest of the day went. We had one Redpoll (full brood patch) on opening net run, and nothing else until closing, when we got our other 2 Redpolls. Needless to say, I got quite a lot of reading done.

(Friday 29 April) Banding summary: 3 birds, 1 species (CORE)