In the meantime, I will start with what I do have. Starting to get exciting. Later we will go backwards and get to the Cardinals and Thrashers and such.
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Now able to take some gear home in between our Wekiva banding days, I am able to stretch one net form one side of our backyard to the other and try and get my local birds banded for further study. Too bad the new families of Cardinals and Blue Jays started dispersing before I was able to get this set-up ready.
However, one of the jays did return this weekend and was quietly waiting in the net near the end of the day.
The families are still around but I hear them farther down the street these days. When it is time to nest and raise the young ones they tend to hang out in our yard. Must be all the seed I put out.
They probably don't need me right now as every oak in the area is producing more acorns than I can remember ever seeing. The acorns carpet the ground everywhere I go.
One species I will not be banding is the Mourning Dove. They are one of the most numerous birds in the yard but I figure I won't waste bands on birds that are easy pickings for the raptors that travel through or live in the neighborhood. If we get them at Wekiva they have a better chance of escape but my birds are fat and happy.
And easy targets.
Fortunately, most of the doves that do end up hitting the net manage to free themselves once they put their minds to it. This is the first dove in a long while that actually couldn't figure it out.
Another interesting thing I find about the doves is that they tend to drop down and fly out in pretty much a vertical motion as opposed to flying away horizontally. Most days they drop down onto one of the many feeders on one side of the net or the other and never cross the yard.
Fine by me.
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