Finally an overcast morning with no wind & cool temperatures which boded for a busy morning - given a small team [4] this morning, we kept a few long nets closed and worked with just 5 short nets and 2 Long nets. Like every morning at this private property, the Goldfinches, Bluebirds, Yellow-rumps, sparrows, etc were swirling around & over us.Not a surprise, the birds were quickly getting caught with a nice mixture that included 2 Red-b Nuthatches, 3 Ruby-cr Kinglets, Wht-thr & Chipping & Swamp Sparrows, several Juncos, Cardinal, Bluebirds, 2 Robins [shockingly not a Goldfinch on this 1st net check] Once we processed those 18 captures, the 1st long net we checked on our 2nd net check had approx. 14 birds caught that included 3 Cedar Waxwings, 4 Cowbirds, 1 Ruby-cr Kinglet, 1 Cardinal, 2 Bluebirds plus several Juncos, Yellow-rumps, Wht-thr Sparrows. In the end, we had processed 67 birds which was a team project on the 3 net checks when we closed for the morning despite birds flying all around us of various species. In the last 6 mornings of banding this site, we have processed over 300 captures comprising 31 species. Around the nets waiting to be caught are the Rusty & Red-w Blackbirds, Winter Wrens, Pine Siskins [fly over], plus 3 species of woodpeckers & others.
