Subject: MAPS Banding
Date: Jun 29 14:15:38 1996
From: "Jon. Anderson and Marty Chaney" - festuca at olywa.net


Hi folks,

Got up at 0-dark-thirty and drove up through beautiful downtown =
Spanaway, in Pierce County. First light on the ground fog as I passed =
Nisqually flats was neat, almost ethereal.

Spent the morning assisting Don Norman et al. with a MAPS station at the =
Morse Preserve - a 53 acre Nature Conservancy preserve about 8 miles SE =
of Spanaway. The banding sites are in a mixed-shrub Doug Fir forest =
fairly similar to the habitat at the MAPS station at Fort Lewis. The 10 =
mist-nets are set at daybreak, and run for 5 hours (six net-checks). =20

Didn't catch or see anything too terribly unusual, but it was a good =
morning to be out.

We caught:

Chestnut-backed Chickadee 1 Hatching-year Unknown
Golden-crowned Kinglet 1 Hatching-year Unknown
Bewick's Wren 2 Hatching-year Unknown
Spotted Towhee 1 HY - Unk
1 Adult Male
Oregon Junco 1 Adult Male
1 Adult Female
2 HY - Unk
Pacific-slope (Western) Flycatcher - Recaptured one adult (sex?)
Willow Flycatcher 1 Adult Male (?)
1 Adult Female (?)
Swainson's Thrush 1 Adult Female
2 Recaptures
Song Sparrow 1 Adult Male (unbanded, as yours truly has =
butterfingers....)
Rufous Hummingbird 1 Adult Female - released unbanded=20
(we don't have hummer authorization from USFWS)

Although most of the birds (juncos, chipping Sparrows, robins, etc were =
carrying food or leading fledglings around, the flycatchers are just =
getting into breeding condition.

18 birds total (not bad for 20 person-hours and 50 net-hours). =
Highlights were listening to the Hutton's Vireos call during coffee =
'breaks', watching a fledged Downy Woodpecker following Mamma through =
the timber, and watching a previously-banded female Junco lead a brood =
of her fledglings in their foraging - one youngster hopped right between =
my feet! Ah, the fearlessness of youth.....

Only other bird that burned itself into my memory was a Green Heron =
flying low across I-5/Hwy 101 from the Olympia Brewery area to Capitol =
Lake, as I drove back into Olympia. Now, all the "cherry birds" (Crows, =
Robins, Starlings, and C. Waxwings) are mobbing the feral cherry trees =
in my westside Oly backyard... I doubt they'll leave me enough for a =
pie....

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net