We just finished up 4 weeks of netting along Crab Creek yesterday. I don't have data in front of me, but some interesting observations during the period:

The first two weeks more than 60% of all captures were White-crowned Sparrows. This week we caught more Golden-crowned Sparrows than White-crowns, including 5 on Tuesday. One of the five was a recapture from September last year, the only GCSP we caught in fall migration. We banded 8 or 9 this spring but saw the first one last week. Today I saw 4 GCSP at Corfu and only one WCSP.

Yesterday we had a flock of blackbirds race through the canyon and at least one (maybe/probably all 25) was a Tricolored Blackbird. We have not seen them at the Para Ponds for several weeks, but the wetlands to the north that have never been checked are quite numerous. I also got a really quick look at a bird the size and shape of a Gray Catbird, but it was silent and not found again.

The most numerous Empidonax banded was Gray Flycatcher. It was also the most numerous encountered. We had a few Empids in the hand that got away before the measurements were all taken, and the second rule of banding is don't stick a band on something that you can't ID (the first relates to bird safety.)

We finished up (I lost all of my help) before the warbler migration really started (though 5 species in 10 minutes at Corfu Woods this morning), but we do have at least three Yellow-breasted Chats on territory at the banding site, including one that we banded on July 8 last year during a summer netting period. Also several Lazuli Buntings staking out territories, but no females seen yet.

The last bird we banded yesterday was a hatch year Bewick's Wren, a species that was just establishing in the central Columbia Basin 10 years ago. It had full fresh full wing and tail feathers but was pretty sparse on the breast and legs.

Wednesday there were 80+ Long-billed Dowitchers in Marsh Unit , lots of Black-necked Stilts, and one Solitary Sandpiper (a species I seldom see here in the spring.)

Before I got home this afternoon my daughter photographed an Evening Grosbeak and a Cassin's Finch in town. I average one sighting a year for grosbeaks and always late in the spring. Right now there are two female Cassin's Finches under the feeders, trying to salvage crumbs after the Red-winged Blackbirds came in and "cleaned up" what was in the feeders. Also a few Pine Siskins.

Randy Hill
Othello