Hi folks -

Took today off as the start of a Christmas break, and had the kids at home.
A day for lots of cribbage and, of course, I set up a mist net in my west
Olympia yard.

Here are the captures for the day. The Numbers of new bands are followed by
numbers of recaptures in parentheses.

Red Shafted Flicker 1 (0)
Black-capped Chickadee 0 (1)
Spotted Towhee 2 (0)
Oregon Junco 11 (11)
Fox Sparrow 0 (1)
Golden-crowned Sparrow 2 (3)

I had a number of Older recoveries (HY = hatch year, SY = second year, AHY =
after hatch year):
Chickadee: AHY-U on 01-29-2000

Junco: HY-F on 09-19-1998
HY-M on 10-30-1998
HY-U on 09-23-2000
AHY-U on 11-18-2000
AHY-F on 12-03-2000

Golden-crowned Sparrow:
HY-U on 10-08-1998

Fox Sparrow: SY-U on 02-09-1999

The fox sparrow was sort of a surprise. I had initially banded the bird in
February of 1999. On 25 March 2000, I re-captured this bird in good shape;
it had heavy body fat and weighed 36 grams. One year later, 25 March 2001,
I again re-captured the bird and noted that it had fowl pox on both feet.
Today, I saw that it still had fowl pox on both feet, and its left hind claw
was grown to about 2 inches in length and 'spiralled'. The bird could
obviously not walk easily on its (probably) sore feet, and the hind claw had
deformed. It appeared to still be otherwise 'healthy', with good body fat
and weighing 39 grams. Taking pity on the thing, I took a pair of clips to
the overgrown claws and applied a bit of 'Neosporin' antibiotic to the
infected areas of the feet. It was at the feeder later this afternoon,
apparently doing OK.

The recaptures really interest me, and show that this 'burb of a back-yard
provides habitat for the same bird flocks year after year. Just goes to
show that, even a neighbor's patch of weeds or Himalaya berries are
important to some of our feathered friends.

Here's hoping that everyone enjoys the holiday season, and has a great New
Year!

Jon. Anderson
Olympia, Washington
festuca at olywa.net