Babies babies babies

It was all about baby birds this week. We banded ~160 young Tree Swallows in 2 days. They poop. A lot. Other than that though, we didn't catch or band very much. Now that all the migrating birds are gone, there are a lot less around.

Natalka and Casey came out for a day. So fun.


Natalka with a female Brown-headed Cowbird.


This might be the first ever male Yellow-headed Blackbird caught at the BBO (we also caught a female).


A porcupine awoken from his nap up in a tree. He's waving at me! And showing his big teeth.


I guess he wasn't that impressed with being woken up. This is his butt and tail with the spines all raised up.


Not-so-young swallows. These are ready to leave the nest.


Some flew for the first time right out of our hands. For the ones that couldn't fly well, we would chase them and put them back in their nest once they hit the ground. But others were off, landing on branches on nearby trees - we weren't catching them, so I guess they're ok. One of the most endearing things about these swallows is how the whole community of adults swarm to a fledgling in order to bump it up and keep it in the air, helping it to fly.


The grass is a lot taller now! It shelters many a mosquito.


Some younger swallows using their little legs and learning how to perch.



We noticed some young Clay-coloured Sparrows fluttering in the grass. They would fly for only a couple feet. We were able to corner and catch them, but we weren't able to band them since we didn't have the right size bands. It's like a bander's disease - this obsession to band every bird we see!


Look at his goofy long legs!