Neighborhood Nestwatch year five

Song Sparrow with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

Black capped Chickadee with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

Gray Catbird with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

House Wren with leg bands, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

Pine Warbler, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

Hairy Woodpecker, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

Tufted Titmouse, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

Veery, Home, Belchertown, MA, Jun 3, 2019

Today marked the fifth year of banding birds in the yard as part of the Neighborhood Nestwatch program. The weather was sunny and breezy which is not the optimal conditions as the birds can see the nets when the sun is shining on them and the breeze moves the nets enough to make them visible. Nonetheless we managed to catch a wide variety of species including five individuals of the target species that are part of the program. The target species caught included a House Wren, a Gray Catbird, two Black capped Chickadees and a Song Sparrow. The target species were all banded with unique color codes so later resigntings can be done without having to recapture the birds. Five individuals of target species was a bit less than we typically get but we made up for it somewhat by capturing a larger than typical number of non target species including a couple of Tufted Titmouse, a Pine Warbler, a Hairy Woodpecker and a Veery. We had never caught a Pine Warbler or Hairy Woodpecker in the past so it was neat to see these two species. There were a number of near misses including an Eastern Phoebe that sat on top of a net, a few more catbirds that came in close as well as a close American Robin (as well as a number of other non target species that came in close). All things considered with the less than optimal weather conditions it turned out to be a fairly good morning of banding.  A thank you to Corey and Sebastian for coming by to conduct the banding operation.  Posts from the previous years of banding can be found here:2018, 2017, 2016, 2015.

Over the past five years we have had the following number of target species plus non target species:

Year            Target species              Non target species        Total
2015            8                                  1                                    9
2016            8                                  1                                    9
2017            8 *                               1                                    9
2018            7                                  1                                    8
2019            5                                  5                                    10   

*additional 3 target bird (American Robins) in 2017 during second visit to place geolocaters on birds

Additional photos in the following flickr album.