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 6, 2011

Banding at ACES and CNC from 6/25 - 7/5

The last two weeks have been remarkably slow at both stations.  I don't have any explanations for this it's just not been very busy at the nets.


CNC  Sat. 6/25
After getting rained out on both Thursday and Friday at Chippewa, we got to open the nets on Saturday.  Unfortunately, though sunny, it was a very windy day, which is never ideal for banding.  We had a total of five individuals of four species, of which three were new and two were recaptures.

Gray Catbird  1 R
Common Yellowthroat  1 R
Rose-breasted Grosbeak  1 N
American Goldfinch 2 N

ACES  Tues, 6/28
The following Tuesday at the bog was a little better but still slow for late June.  We had a total of eight individuals of six species, of which four were new birds and four were recaptures.  We did, finally, get a Veery and successfully deploy a transmitter on her.  It's late in the season but we'll take what we can get!

Hairy Woodpecker  1 N
Wood Thrush  1 N,  1 R
Veery  1 R
Ovenbird  1 N
Northern Cardinal  1 R
Indigo Bunting  1 N,  1 R


CNC  Thurs. 6/30
Thursday at Chippewa continued to be slow with a total of seven individuals of five species, of which three were new and four were recaptures.

Wood Thrush  1 N
American Robin  1 N
Gray Catbird  1 N,  2 R
Common Yellowthroat  1 R
Song Sparrow  1 R

ACES  Tues, 7/5
Back at the bog on Tuesday was the best day so far with 12 individuals of eight species, of which eight were new, three were recaptures and one was unbanded (a bluejay that got out of the net before I could grab it).  We also got the remainder of the transmitters placed on the three Veery we captured.  Since we captured a juvenile Black-capped Chickadee and Wood Thrush I suspect most of the Veery have already fledged their young or will in the next few days. So, we may not get a lot of useful data from these individuals but we may be surprised.

Acadian Flycatcher  1 N
Bluejay  1 U
Red-eyed Vireo  1 N
Black-capped Chickadee  1 N
Veery  2 N,  1 R
Wood Thrush  1 N,  2 R
American Robin  1 N
Gray Catbird  1 N

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