Sunday, September 22, 2013

Lots of Bobolinks Flying Over KIBS

While we were opening nets this morning, we were treated with a constant symphony of flight calls heard from the sky.  These "binks" and "inks" belonged to Bobolinks which are fairly common at KIBS in the fall however they are always flying over the station  Bobolinks have one of the longest migrations of all North American passerines.  They make an annual 12,500 mile round-trip journey from their breeding grounds in southern Canada and the northern United States to the pampas of South America.  

Unfortunately, it seemed that the Bobolinks were the only thing that were migrating this morning because we only captured 2 Common Yellowthroats and a Northern Mockingbird during our first net-round.  After the first net-round, it started to rain so we closed the nets.  The rain was not letting up and after a check of the radar there was more to come.  During a break in the rain, we packed up everything and headed out.  The rain that was heading our way dissipated and fell apart before reaching us and it did not rain the rest of the day. 

- Aaron                    


NEW BIRDS
1 Northern Mockingbird
1 Common Yellowthroat

RECAPTURES
1 Common Yellowthroat

BANDING STATS
# of Birds Banded:  2
# of Recaptures:  1
# of Species:  2
Effort:  18.0 net-hours
Capture Rate:  16.7 birds/100 net-hours
# of Nets:  20