We just moved the nets [hunting season] from West Hill Dam to this private property groomed for birds, butterflies as in previous years - the interesting problem is that this historic property has such a mixture of habitats/food sources in such a close area that you are daily dealing with 100's of birds swirling around you. Depending on the number of team members that are there to help to extract each day, you base the number of nets you dare open - last year we had a day with 80 in a morning! Today [Sat 10/4] we arrived at 7 am, turkeys and Rusty Blackbirds were calling, quickly we heard/saw 5 species of woodpeckers, like always loads of goldfinches, Chipping Sp, Bluebirds, House Finches swirling about mixed with a few warblers, Phoebes, Yellow-thr Vireo, Wht-thr Sp, Juncos, Kinglets, Catbirds - knew we were in for a big morning before the heat did us in & fortunately we had a big crew to help today.Today's 1st run we had a nice mixture of Hermit Thrush, Swamp & Chipping & Wht-thr & Song & Lincoln Sp, T Titmouse, Goldfinches, C Yellowthroat, Catbirds, Cardinals - once we processed those captures, we needed to quickly go out to extract more of the same, Downy Woodpeckers, Ovenbirds and our last capture of the morning - an immature Wht-eyed Vireo!!Definingly a 1st capture of this species for me - did the 80 degree weather help the bird move north - last year on the same property we also had a Red-h Woodpecker, Yellow-b Chats.Between Fri & Sat morning, we had 60 captures with limited nets up, had to close up early each day by mid-morning due to the heat - felt blessed that no swirling flock hit the nets as 9 captures in 1 net was the most - no resting in-between net runs once we processed all the captures. If we had a cool, overcast, no wind morning & a big team at this amazing property, we could easily capture 50 to 100 birds with a big mixture of species - at this point, very happy with dealing with the 30+ mornings. Strickland Wheelock Uxbridge Ma
