Spring on Cape Cod

Friday, 23 April - Sunday 25 April 2010

It's always great to get back to banding again after the winter's hiatus. We had a fairly good show of birds for our first week of banding this spring season with a total of 63 birds in all. It was a foggy start on Friday with a few quick sprinkles and quite windy the following two days. Wind is always an issue in spring on Cape Cod. We recaptured a few old friends, a 9 year old Blue Jay, a cardinal and chickadee both 8 years old, a Song Sparrow and American Goldfinch 7 years old and a Northern Cardinal who is at least 6 years old. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet was happily singing all around the banding table each day, but we didn't capture him. A Prairie Warbler showed up on the 24th, but he also eluded us! It is always nice to get thrushes and we recaptured a Hermit Thrush on Sunday, banded last year as a hatch-year bird.

Total captured birds: 63 Total captured species: 11

Many thanks to those who helped this week: Judith Bruce, Kate Iaquinto, Carolyn Kennedy, and Gretchen Putonen. Below is a list of birds seen, heard or banded. Numbers indicated captured birds:

Common Loon

Double-crested Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Canada Goose

American Black Duck

Mallard

Osprey

Northern Harrier

Black-bellied Plover

Greater Yellowlegs

American Woodcock

Laughing Gull

Ring-billed Gull

Herring Gull

Great Black-backed Gull

Mourning Dove

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Downy Woodpecker

Yellow-shafted Flicker- 1

Eastern Phoebe

Tree Swallow

Blue Jay- 1

American Crow

Fish Crow

Black-capped Chickadee- 21

Tufted Titmouse- 2

Carolina Wren- 3

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Hermit Thrush- 1

European Starling

Pine Warbler- 3

Prairie Warbler

Northern Cardinal- 5

Eastern Towhee- 1

Song Sparrow- 10

White-throated Sparrow

Red-winged Blackbird

Common Grackle

Brown-headed Cowbird

American Goldfinch- 15

House Sparrow