Date: 11/3/26 6:57 am From: Barbara Volkle <barb620...> Subject: [MASSBIRD] West Hill Dam banding
Thanks to Strickland Wheelock for this report.
Barbara Volkle Northborough,MA <barb620...>
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Date: Tue, 3 Nov 2026 12:21:38 +0000 (UTC) From: Strickland Wheelock <skwheelock...> Subject: West Hill Dam banding
Our 2026 banding came to an end Monday [Nov 2] at West Hill Dam in Uxbridge- nets & poles all packed away until next late April. Meanwhile, Leslie Bostrom is submitting all the hundreds of captures and data to the Banding Lab and will summarize for us the whole breakdown of the numbers of each species caught for 2026, will compare the results to 2024 & 2025 to see if any interesting changes in numbers and timing occurred.The team did band for 2 hours this mild morning before closing up around 9:45 am with a little success with 7 Juncos, 1 Robin,1 Blue Jay, 1 Cardinal recap from May 2023 and 1 Chipping Sparrow. There were still some flocks of Juncos in the fields mixed with some sparrows, a Cooper's Hawk chasing the flocks, many Bluebirds calling around the edges, a Golden-cr Kinglet & Brown Creeper, Wood Ducks in the marsh along with Red-winged & 1 Rusty Blackbird, Carolina Wrens plus our common birds like Nuthatches, Chickadees, etc.This team of experienced volunteers had lots of practice extracting the captures, esp. needed at times when we got slammed with multiple captures all at once, got loads of experience at ageing & sexing these species, had the pleasure of admiring many stunning birds' plumages like the male AHY Sapsucker, Flickers, Blue-headed Vireos etc down to the subtle hatching year plumages of Blackpoll versus Pine Warblers, ageing all the juncos & Yellow-rumped Warblers - challenges every day checking molt limits, etc made for much hands-on experience for all.Now will be the painful wait to next late April - will miss this great team of individuals who would arrive at early hours on weekdays and weekends and often not leave to past 11 am.Thanks also go to the West Hill Dam staff who have been totally supportive of our banding effort over the years.
