The Alma College Bird Observatory is operated by Mike Bishop of the Alma College Biology Department. The ACBO operates from April through October banding breeding birds and transient migrants as well as conducting directed studies of various breeding and overwintering species. The Vestaburg Station is located in Vestaburg, MI about 16 miles west of Alma. It is situated at the Alma College Ecological Station. The station is 186 acres of mixed hardwood forest, old fields, willow marshes and a relic boreal bog and lake. The Chippewa Nature Center Station is located at Dragonfly Marsh on the property of the Chippewa Nature Center near Midland, MI. It is approximately 96 acres and is a mixture of old fields, young forest and a large mitigated wetland.


Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Banding at Chippewa Nature Center Station, Saturday, 3, July

Today we had a pre-4th of July celebration by opening the nets at our Chippewa Nature Center station.  We had 17 total individuals of nine species of which 14 were new and three were unbanded.

We were excited to get not one but three great crested flycatchers.  A very common bird here but not one we catch very often as they forage in the treetops and don’t come to the ground much.


This hatching year (HY) downy woodpecker shows the red “cap” that both sexes have before they go through their juvenal molt.  This is a female as the red is not in the location it would be found on a male, in the spot behind the white line over the eye.


Common Yellowthroats may be common but they sure are pretty.


Here’s the catch:

Downy Woodpecker  1 N
Great Crested Flycatcher  3 N
House Wren  1 U
Wood Thrush  1 N
American Robin  1 U
Gray Catbird  3 N,  1 U
Common Yellowthroat  1 U
Song Sparrow  3 N
Northern Cardinal  1 N
Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)