Monday November 3, 2014: 46 new birds of 13 species, 9 recaps. No new species. Bird of the day was American Goldfinch with 26 new bands.
Banding continues for a few more days at BBBO, as the weather continues to be mild and cooperative. It’s sort of “hit-or-miss” at this time of year, as 23 of our new bands were captured in a single net on a single net run (21 goldfinches, 1 siskin, and 1 junco – all in net 15 at hour 1). Even without that flock, however, our day would still have been interesting. We recaptured a Downy Woodpecker now in its third year, and we captured both a new Nashville and a new Myrtle Warbler. Most interestingly, we captured two Ruby-crowned Kinglets . . . both of which had orange crowns. We see this from time to time, but it was quite a coincidence that we captured two on the same day. Whether this abnormality is diet related or the result of a genetic condition preventing the composition or deposition of certain carotenoids, I can’t say!