Overall, we had a very successful spring and banded more than 3000 birds and had 12 consecutive days of banding more than 100 birds, which showed we had a robust spring migration. Highlights of the migration included large numbers of the following species 378 Yellow rumped warblers 277 red winged blackbirds 266 Wilson’s warblers, 266 American redstarts, and 133 common yellow throats. We banded all of the expected warbler species, save for black throated green and northern parula. Our banding season ended on June 6 and we are preparing for the fall season which begins Aug. 1. We are now hovering close to 4000 birds to go until we hit the magic 100,000 birds banded at the marsh. I wanted to thank all of the volunteers this year we had quite an international crew attracting volunteers from as far as Egypt and Michigan and Virginia. All of them were delighted with a chance to see and band boreal species that they had only dreamed of seeing before making the trek to the marsh.
Our next big event is our humming bird garden party which is an excellent chance not only to see how we band birds, but also to take in the banding of ruby throated hummingbirds which we have been researching for years now. The event is a great deal of fun for people of all ages and takes place at the Hilliardton marsh on Aug. 18. People also get a chance to be part of our monarch butterfly release. For more information about the event check out our website www.thehilliartdtonmarsh.com.
In other marsh news I have recently started a podcast which is available on iTunes for free. The podcast is called - Bird banter with boreal Bruce - and relates to our efforts at the marsh and I get the chance to interview the folks that make it all happen. One listener told me I helped to put their kids to sleep! Hope to see some wild northerners at our hummingbird garden party where you or your kids or grand kids will never doze off.
Until then remember bird is the word!