Thursday means banding at Chippewa Nature Center with public spectators. Today I got to give goose feathers I found to excited kids witnessing the wonders of birds.
A crowd of seasoned birders show up regularly as well and it's interesting to hear their bird tales and about their other interests: moths, butterflies and dragonflies alike.
Today was filled with grackles and red-winged blackbirds.
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| Comparing female (left) and male (right) red-winged blackbirds |
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| Common Grackle |
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| Our first juvenile of the year at Chippewa was this grackle. It doesn't have the iridescent head of an adult male. |
Red-winged blackbirds can be seen flying all over- especially in fields. The pond at Chippewa is ringed with a plethora of them, yet they are not the most common bird caught and Bishop caught very little when he began banding at Chippewa.
We caught around five today- more than Bishop caught in his entire first summer. Grackles are also tricky because they are large enough to get themselves out of the nets. We caught three today.
A local high school student came banding with us for the first time. He will be working with us and a teacher of his for about four weeks through a new science program Alma is hosting.
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Monroe and a hairy woodpecker
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Last week I found and odd green sphere with brown dots at the ecological station. After I found a slightly different, odd, green ball today, Bishop taught us about plant galls.
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| Gall broken open |
Plants form galls, like warts or tumors, to fight against mites, fungi, larvae and other invaders. They form a gall around the perceived threat. Different plants form different galls. Some take the forms of bumps on a leaf.
We found an iris bloomed along the trail.
Beside all the red-winged blackbirds and grackles we had several firsts of the summer.
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| Juvenile cardinal |
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| The translucent bits may have formed during a period where the bird was not getting enough nutrition. |
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| Krista and the first song sparrow |
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First cowbird- the joke is, if it looks really indistinguishable, it's a cowbird.
We found some mud tubes along a swampy patch of path, probably crayfish holes.
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