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.

^___^