Date: 9/19/26 1:29 pm From: Barbara Volkle <barb620...> Subject: [MASSBIRD] West Hill Dam - 50 captures!!
Thanks to Strickland Wheelock for this report.
Barbara Volkle Northborough,MA <barb620...>
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Date: Sat, 19 Sep 2026 19:49:19 +0000 (UTC) From: Strickland Wheelock <skwheelock...> Subject: West Hill Dam - 50 captures!!
Had a gut feeling we would be busy this morning [Sat 9/19] but not to this extent, especially after a few relatively quiet morningsy net had at least 1 capture. Shockingly out of the 50, only 2 were Catbirds!The team of 5 were straight out busy nonstop from the start as the 1st 2 nets we checked had maybe 20 captures plus added to that were a few more captures from other nets.Once we analyzed/banded all those, we returned to those 2 nets & loaded again. At that point, we closed those nets after extraction and all the other nets which had more captures knowing how long it would take going through the same banding steps with the 2nd batch - still plenty of birds flying around but it was closing in on noon - time to end Out of the 50 captures, we had 14 species to determine if HY or AHY plus band - 1 Nashville Warbler, 8 Pine Warblers [one of which we had banded 9/11/25], 1 Red-eyed Vireo, 2 Carolina Wrens, 2 E Bluebirds, 15 Chipping Sp, 1 Songp, 2 E Phoebes, 4 E Towhee, 2 Gray Catbirds, 2 Chickadees, 2 T Titmouse, 3 Am Goldfinch, 1 Blue Jay.Note - sometime in the next few weeks, the main parking will be closed for expansion for maybe 2 months?? The Park will keep the gate on Pudding St open for entry into the Park.Also, there will be no Pheasant hunting this fall at the Park.
