Born free

I'm on my own. Jake, the other main catbird intern, is out in MN visiting relatives and going fishing. It feels so good to be taking this journey of the next week (albeit a little scary) with all the responsibilities on my shoulders. If I miss nests (which will happen because there are so many more birds and buckthorn nests than I could ever begin to find) then that's a missing link in the story we'll be compiling at the conclusion of the research. So, I suppose that's a bit of my apprehension of what the week will bring, with the unknown of how many birds I might see, what the weather will be and all. But, I'll be going out in the morning to see who I can see and which of our nests have little blue eggs, which have nestlings and keep on enjoying it all as I go. What is a healthy dose of the work ahead without a full belly? I just got back from the little locally owned health food store, "Better Thymes", just in Front Royal, VA. Quite the trip. On my to-get list were rechargeable batteries (for my newly acquired Marantz digital recorder and soon to arrive--shotgun microphone for picking up Catbird vocalizations), various food items, a belt (to hold up my hip boots, cheap socks and a number 10 crochet hook. Why the crochet hook? Thought you'd ask. Well, this morning, I removed (extracted) my first bird from a net (mind you, the MAPS banding happens once a week, or every-other, if I don't decide to go for a 35 min drive at 5 in the morning)~! It was a darling little American goldfinch, a male, who was a recapture. He was so tiny compared to the catbirds and red-winged blackbirds I had worked with before, though only slightly smaller than the vireo I'd banded down at Corkscrew Swamp Sanctuary (where my sister, Anala had interned). He didn't put up any bit of a fuss, which makes it a lot easier for the both of us. I slid him into the bird bucket and took out my wax pencil to jot the first bit of data: AMGO, 0730, net 12, bander's initials: DCM. The crochet hook comes in handy to free the wings, head and feet of a bird that has been pretty well tangled in the net, which thankfully this one had not.

The day wasn't without it's tension, though. Down by net 7 we had to radio back to the banding station that we needed some assistance. A male redwing was in the net (with presumably his partner) and while she was ok, as soon as I cradled him in my hand, I saw that some of the red wasn't from his epaulette (the red patch on the wing) but from blood. And, then I saw some dried around his beak as well. Tough time. Rather than take him back up to the pavillion for banding, we released him right there. It looked as though he and a field sparrow caught in net 12 had been injured before flying in the net. The field sparrow had made a narrow escape from a larger bird or predator, perhaps a few hours before. These moments of worry and deep breaths were soon followed by a good aging and sexing of a few birds back up the hill as we plopped in the gators, booted legs draped over the back.

I am learning how you can microage certain avian species but not others, dependent in part on the time of season you find them and how distinct the plumage characteristics are. With the AMGO (AMerican GOldfinch), you can age the bird to a certain extent but that may or may not be 'accepted' with the MAPS protocol, because it may not be something that can be standardized across the country with volunteers of varied experience doing the same analysis of feather colorings, contrast and wear and tear. But, in short, we looked at the tail retrices (the tail feathers) to see whether the outer ones have a notch where the dark grey meets the white tips (usually symmetrical but this guy had ones that were quite different). We looked at this and how truncated (rather than tapered) the tips of the tail feathers were as well as the black crown patch and bright yellow plumage on the back to know that this individual was past HY (Hatching Year), likely SY (Second Year) but we could only say for sure AHY (After Hatching Year), which is less definitive as we'd like to nail down a year to provide as detailed data as possible. Very interesting process and what's more is that the people there are all people I get to meet from the community. One older man (going on 80!) has a mind as sharp as a pin, is a certified drug and alcohol counselor (like my dad), carves birds out of wood, is so very sweet and one of the most dedicated people on the team.

Well, enough for tonite. I must away to check out who I'll be listening to in the morning and what territories I'll be searching for possible re-nests (these catbirds usually have two broods, especially if the first was predated). I think I'll take a walk down to reward myself at the end of the morning over to Mulberry Mecca, as I like to call it, where we saw an amazing influx of catbirds, along with orioles (orchard and baltimore), woodpeckers, thrashers, cedar waxwings and pretty much anyone else looking for a good berry meal as the sun sank over the hill casting a peachy-yellow light on the kettle pond and sycamore just below.

Good day. I found Westsoy -unsweetened- 32 ounces of soymilk for (get this) - a dollar. And, I picked up 5 of them. What a deal. I'm a sucker for bulk organics.