Hot, hotter, hottest..!

At the moment it is really hot outside. It is about 34 degrees celsius orso together with a high humidity, which makes it a bit unpleasant to be outside!

The banding today was quite slow, with only 32 new birds banded this morning. We had a lot of recaps, about 20. We had to close the nets again at 10 because of the temperature. Amongst the recaps were some nice Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and also a Downy Woodpecker.

The totals:

Ruby-throated Hummingbird 5 -

Acadian Flycatcher 1 -

Red-eyed Vireo 5 -

Black-capped Chickadee 2 -

Wood Thrush 2 -

Gray Catbird 2 -

Magnolia Warbler 1 -

Black-throated Blue Warbler 3 -

Ovenbird 1 -

Common Yellowthroat 4 -

Hooded Warbler 5 -

Song Sparrow 1 -

Total 32, 12 species

So as today was a bit slow I'll show a couple of pics from some nets and the ringing area:

These are a couple of nets from the section called 'Long Lane'. A total of 10 nets are placed here in one line, hence the name.

This is the largest pond in the ringing area. A Belted Kingfisher has been at this pond for a couple of days now.

Today's bird species:

A Hummer hanging in the net!

Downy Woodpecker, hatching-year female; the dull brown eye and the brown (dull) primary coverts are a good guiding line for a hatching-year. A female lacks the red on the head, as with most woody's.

Wood Thrush, hatching-year

Rose-breasted Grosbeak, after hatching-year male; in heavy moult

As I already said we closed the nets early. This afternoon Brandon and I went to Ligonier, a town 10 miles from Powdermill to get some groceries. On our way we came across this Red-tailed Hawk:

Red-tailed Hawk

I also want to show you a picture of a Swallowtail I photographed yesterday: