Morning banding

Decided to stop by a bird banding demonstration at East Fork before having to go to work this morning. Wasn't much bird activity, but they did catch a few common birds.

I liked this idea, to keep it from biting, a bracelet was used. (cardinals hurt when they bite!)

Female Northern Cardinal




Tufted Titmouse




Carolina Chickadee in mist net



Cute little Carolina Chickadee

1st Annual Queen City Bird Festival

Saturday, May 3rd, Jaime and I attended the 1st Annual Queen City Bird Festival held at the College of Mt. St. Joseph in Delhi, OH. The event was put together by Dr. Jill Russell (prof. at MTSTJ), executive director of The Avian Research and Education Institute (AREI).

The day started out with heavy rain and 25mph winds. It was decided to move the vendors/exhibitors into the small Earth House on the campus. Many local environmental organizations and businesses participated, including Dr. Jon Seymour from Oxbow, Inc, and Susan with raptors from Raptor, Inc. It was too crowded for me to spend much time in the Earth House. It seemed as if the weather would not break, but by noon, the sun came out and the day was nice. This allowed for mist nets to be set up behind the Earth House. Some of the birds below were caught at the new Clifford Bird Observatory which is located in the cemetery behind the Sisters of Charity Motherhouse. Here are a few pictures of birds from that day.

1st Bird of the day, Tufted Titmouse.

Female Eastern Towhee

Probably the best bird of the day, a breeding plumage male Orchard Oriole.

A very fat (ready to go) White-throated Sparrow (tan stripe) (fat: 5!)

Visitors watching a male Northern Cardinal get banded.




And the cardinal protesting.

Even with all the rain, they had 86 participants! Nice number considering the weather. Again, the Russells are to be commended for taking the lead in educating our youth.