Thanks, Vicky!

I never thought Queen Victoria would be responsible for saving the weekend banding effort, but, in this case, that's exactly what she did! Without a holiday in her honour, I would have been sitting in my office, diligently working, and feeling right fed up with the weekend weather.....which was quite dreadful from a bander's perspective. Saturday was a rainswept, stormy day, and Sunday was windy as well as cold (max temp 7 degrees), although the sun shone all day long.

Which brings me to Monday, the Victoria Day holiday (cheers Vicky, wish you were here to have pint with the team!). A lovely sunny day, with just a gentle south westerly breeze, and best of all, quite a number of birds around the property. The local Yellow Warblers were engaged in frantic courtship display, a pair of Orchard Orioles were prospecting for suitable nest sites, and the first Least Flycatchers, Eastern Kingbirds and Ruby-throated Hummingbirds made their welcome appearances. Also, finally, warblers were moving through the area, with lots of song greeting the rising sun. A total of 48 birds were banded during the session, of 16 species, as follows:

Magnolia Warbler 10

American Redstart 5

Wilson's Warbler 1

Yellow Warbler 4

Common Yellowthroat 2

Black & White Warbler 1

Western Palm Warbler 1

Blackpoll Warbler 2

Myrtle Warbler 1

American Goldfinch 4

Baltimore Oriole 5

Rose-breasted Grosbeak 3

Gray Catbird 5

American Robin 1

Red-winged Blackbird 1

Northern Cardinal 2

Thanks once more to Georg Hentsch for the photographs, above, of a Blackpoll Warbler, and by way of contrast, a Black and White Warbler......and as I know you are all waiting to learn who received this week's "Doofus" award.....well, it was me, but I'm not telling you why!

The coming weekend looks like being a real corker from the weather standpoint, so we'll see if this translates into an increased catch, or if the birds, wisely, keep heading north while the going is good!