Outdoor Adventures with Gary Lee

We've been banding birds at The Crown Point Banding Station for ten days now catching 64 different species and seeing and hearing over 110 different species. Three rarer birds that we've caught and banded are bay breasted warblers, of which we caught three just this morning, 5/21; A beautiful male and two females. Yesterday was catching all day bird day, starting around five a.m. when we put the birds up and most of the day. We heard a few Tennessee warblers singing in the morning and by dark, we had banded 21, plus several magnolia warblers and common yellow throated warblers. Yellow rumped warblers are one of the birds we catch the most of and this year we have caught and banded 220, but just yesterday the blue jays passed them. We now have over 250 jays wearing bands and more coming every hour. We've had several school groups coming to see what we do. Some kids get to hold and release a bird, which is then their bird, and if it comes back, they will get a certificate that if came back. Just today we had female Baltimore oriole come back that we banded in 2013 and it was a student bird. It had been back a couple other years, so they have several certificates. That bird is eight years old, as it was two years old when banded. Ted Hicks, who has a license to band hummers, was on site for four days and got to band seven hummers, several of which became student birds. Speaking of that, I will be with Ted at The Stillwater Restaurant, Sunday, 5/26, from 8 to 11, banding hummers. Anyone is welcome to visit and hold a hummer. Only four more days here at Crown Point if we last through the wind and the rain. Will report on the banding here and at Stillwater but that's another story. See ya.     

 Pictured: a flicker being banded