Greetings,

Today the crew and I banded at Thompson’s Beach once again in hopes of capturing a few more Semipalmated Sandpipers for the current study. As expected we did well, but in fact, we did better than we had hoped. I think all in all nearly 100 birds were captured, flagged, and released into the wild. Banding so many Semipalmated Sandpipers is certainly a treat, and I enjoy doing it day after day, but it is nice when you catch something that isn’t necessarily expected. Today was a good day for that…

Our first surprise bird of the day was an adult Red Knot that was caught in the mist net at Thompson’s Beach. This particular site is not typical REKN habitat and this individual was believed to have been the first banded there in the past 10 years. The bird was foraging apparently with a larger flock of Semis and Dowitcher, but when those birds made a move (and a counter move) towards the net, the knot was the only one stuck.

The bird was a joy to extract from the net, and as I was extracting it, it gave a nice surprise as it was actually a previously banded bird. By looking at the flag color (orange), we could know immediately what part of the world this bird was banded, and as it turns out orange means Argentina! This was great to see not only to know that this bird has migrated that far already, but it goes to show that the handling and research of birds has no detrimental effect as long as it is done with care, caution, and an attention to detail. Some photos of this wonderful bird are below:

So as I said earlier, the rest of the day was spent mostly catching Semipalmated Sandpipers, and we had the fortune of having a school group join us this day. The group was a nearby advanced science group (although none knew the conversion of ounces to grams!), and we spent part of the afternoon telling them about the research that we do, and why it is important not only to birds, but to the nearby Delaware Bay, which is essentially part of their backyard. We caught a lot of birds while the group was there so they got to see many Semipalmated and Least Sandpipers in the hand, and even got to let a few go themselves.

The next and last highlight of the day came when we were closing the nets to finish. As we were closing the nets I was taking out a Least Sandpiper from the nets as Cesar was taking out a passerine that he was unsure of its identification. As I looked over, there was no doubt to it, it was an adult sharp-tailed sparrow, and when the bird was extracted the final piece was in place as the lack of streaking gave way to its full identification, an adult Nelson’s Sharp-tailed Sparrow. The fact that we caught this bird was a rare and unexpected treat, but what made it even more so was that earlier in the day I pointed out to David that a NSTS was singing in the nearby marsh. Maybe it was even the same bird!

So all in all it was a great, sunny, fun day to be banding. too bad they all can’t be that way!

~Chad