September 14 - Fall Migration Monitoring

Its over! Today was the last day of our first fall season of migration monitoring at the Iona Island Bird Observatory. While all the data is far from being entered, preliminary numbers are around 1600 birds banded, 500-600 birds recaptured, and another 100 birds caught and released unbanded. But before all that, a recap of today...


With a number of volunteers out today the 100+ birds caught seemed slow compared to some of the busier days of late. A mix of birds were caught today with marked increase in the number of sparrows caught with eleven Song Sparrows, nine Fox Sparrows, four Lincoln's Sparrows, four White-crowned Sparrows, two Spotted Towhees, one each of Savannah Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow and Oregon Junco. More kinglets of both species and Yellow-rumped and Orange-crowned Warblers were captured today. But not to be counted out another dozen Yellow Warblers were also banded. Other birds infrequently seen included Red-breasted Nuthatch, MacGillivray's Warbler, Pacific Wren, Western Wood-Pewee, and two Purple Martins.



While this is the last date for fall migration monitoring, we will be conducting other programs later this year. Updates will be provided once we begin those programs. I'll also try and provide informative posts periodically that might be of interest to our readers. Until then, thank you to the volunteers for all of the help this summer and fall! Without you this couldn't have happened.