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!