What a joy to be so happy with small things.
Jim and Kaitlyn got us through another day with at least something banded. They saw 35, which is more than we have been seeing the last few days, but most of the raptors today were showing little interest. They did have some fun watching another Golden Eagle coming in close and an adult Peregrine Falcon making many passes.
Raptors banded:
1 AHY female SSHA
1 SY female SSHA
Here is a graph showing the average # caught per day during 2001-2006. As you can see, we traditionally have a slow period mid September. Our busiest week historically is this coming week. Any bets on whether we will top our biggest day so far of 26?
Here we see the species breakdown for the years 2001-2006 compared to what we have banded so far in 2007. It appears to be the "Year of the Kestrel". Our Cooper's Hawk numbers are above average also, while some of the other species are below average. It is still too early to speculate, but on those slow days in the blind, what else is there to do? Suffice it to say, at this point, anything could still happen.
