Mon@rch's Nature Blog

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Another SWAT morning!

Chestnut-sided Warbler

Chestnut-sided Warbler being released on the MAPS Cap

Today a family from Michigan (who are camping in Allegany for the week) visited our SWAT MAPS banding station here in Allegany State Park. They have been attending my nature walks since 1999 and joined me with my bird banding for as long as we have been friends. They have always supported our studies and volunteered to make all of our bird bags that we are using. They saved the banding station with their wonderful sowing skills and we are grateful for all they have done for us!!! Read the rest of this page »

Posted by mon@rch | 25 June 2007 | Categories: Allegany State Park, Bird Banding, Birds, Flickr, Frog, Kids, Nature, Ornithology, Science, SWAT Station | Tags: discovery, family, Fun | 21 Comments

Brown Thrasher

The Brown Thrasher is one of the birds that we banded yesterday. Actually we captured a male and female (I think these photos were of the female). I had planned on doing this long description on the Brown Thrasher for the blog but I am feeling lazy today. Sorry! Read the rest of this page »

Posted by mon@rch | 24 June 2007 | Categories: Bird Banding, Birds, CAHI Station, Flickr, Nature | 16 Comments

Bird “Parts”

I am soo going to regret posting this because I am just going to get all kinds of sp@m from the verbiage that I am using! Today I visited Sharon’s “California Hill” MAPS banding station which is located about 45 minutes north of my house. Sharon has been helping me band birds at my stations for just about as long as I have been banding birds. It is nice that on my off days that I am able to assist her with her banding station. Today I was able to capture a few great bird photos but I will be posting them at a different time (maybe a birdQUIZ??)! I want to focus on today’s post with something unusual that we found on one of the birds. Before I get into that find, lets first talk about a few of the bird parts that us banders need to look at while banding!

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Posted by mon@rch | 23 June 2007 | Categories: Bird Banding, Birds, CAHI Station, Flickr, Nature, Ornithology, Science | Tags: discovery | 12 Comments

Summer Begins . . . . . .

Summer Begins . . . .

….. at 2:06pm today!! It is officially the longest day of the year!! YEAH!!! This is when most of the birds are focused on their nestlings, days will start to get shorter, young will be fledging their nest, and second broods will be starting up again soon. We find us humans pulling out the flip flops and go straight to the pools (or beaches)!

ENJOY THE SUMMER EVERYONE!

Posted by mon@rch | 21 June 2007 | Categories: Birds | Tags: et al.., Fun | 16 Comments

Wordless Wednesday (macro edition)

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Posted by mon@rch | 20 June 2007 | Categories: Allegany State Park, Bird Banding, Birds, Flickr, Frog, Nature | Tags: discovery | 19 Comments

When we finally got the rain!

Never been so close to a Bullfrog before!

Today we had strong thunderstorms that moved through the area with two Tornado warnings in the county just to the west of us. The rain came down hard given us some needed moisture into the ground. Guess this means that I will have to mow the lawn here soon? Read the rest of this page »

Posted by mon@rch | 19 June 2007 | Categories: Allegany State Park, Flickr, Frog, Nature | Tags: discovery | 16 Comments

Spanish Day at CLDC Banding Site

Chestnut-sided Warbler

On Saturday we had a superb day at the CLDC MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding station. We banded 18 different species of birds, 23 were newly banded individuals, 9 were recaptured birds and we were able to collected 14 Avian Bird Flu samples. We had both Young Naturalist J and Young Naturalist C as my banding assistants for this banding session (including their parents). Young Naturalist C brought her friend Amy with her to the station and of course I also assigned some duties for her to do. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by mon@rch | 17 June 2007 | Categories: Allegany State Park, Bird Banding, Birds, bugs, Butterflies, CLDC Station, Flickr, Kids, Nature, Ornithology, Science | Tags: discovery, Fun | 16 Comments

SWAT Banding and RTPI Group

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Today the Roger Tory Peterson Institute brought a group of people to our SWAT MAPS banding station here in Allegany State Park. This is the same group that I had gone on the Owl walk just last week. Read the rest of this page »

Posted by mon@rch | 15 June 2007 | Categories: Allegany State Park, Bird Banding, Birds, Flickr, Kids, Nature, Science, SWAT Station | Tags: discovery, Fun, group | 12 Comments

Fishing for an Oriole Nest

On many occasions I have found birds using human made materials for and with their nest. Many of our nest boxes are not natural but made specifically for the birds to use. Other birds will pick up specific items for attracting the female into their territory like the Bowerbird (from Australia). They will take anything that is blue in coloring and build this elaborate structure and hope the female chooses his territory to build her nest. Then you can have many of our local birds will collect items for their nest like dryer lint, pet hair and even some string from your table cloth. One of these birds you might catching taking some of these items would be the Oriole!

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