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McGILL BIRD OBSERVATORY |
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Welcome to the McGill Bird Observatory weekly report. Click here for a complete listing of our archives. Comments or questions are welcome at mbo@migrationresearch.org.
Banders-in-charge: Gay Gruner, Marie-Anne Hudson Notes: Only being able to band for the first time in the last month of the winter season certainly has its downsides, but easy data entry isn’t one of them! Though you may think that there are typos in the table above due to the repetition, it’s correct: the totals are all the same for Month, Winter and 2009, since March 10th was the first time we were able to get out this winter. Cold winds and snow were to blame for the most part, but that didn’t stop our censusers from going out a bunch and collecting some wonderful observations. New species for the season include some species heavily hinting that spring is on its way: Wood Duck, Northern Harrier, Cooper’s Hawk, Red-shouldered Hawk, Peregrine Falcon, Killdeer, Red-breasted Nuthatch, Eastern Bluebird, Cedar Waxwing, Song Sparrow, and Common Grackle. More surprisingly, we had to wait until the last few days of the winter season to finally spot our first House Sparrow - formerly a regular sight at MBO, they have largely disappeared over the past year. Species banded for the first time in 2009 (and this winter) included a handful of Black-capped Chickadees, a Northern Cardinal, a couple of American Tree Sparrows, several Common Redpolls, a few Pine Siskins and some American Goldfinches. We also managed to recapture a few feathered friends, also firsts for 2009 (Black-capped Chickadee, Northern Cardinal, Downy and Hairy Woodpeckers).
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