The spring season is off to a great start!!

Greetings from the Cabot Head Bird Observatory!

We (Kat St. James - volunteer, Dan Harvey – volunteer, Paul – visiting friend) are huddled by the wood stove while Stéphane (station scientist) and Al (visiting friend) gamely look for raptors in some cool April showers. The nets are closed down for the day early due to the rain, and we’re having one of our very few slow bird days of the Spring. For the most part the weather has been warm and we’ve been catching an enormous number of birds (Stéphane tells us the technical term is a crapload. At least that’s what they say in France). We’ve actually caught more birds in our first week than any other week of banding, EVER. In fact, we’ve banded more than half of what is usually caught in an average spring season.

Some records so far:
The lightest bird: 4.8 g for a golden-crowned kinglet
The most Golden-crowned Kinglets: 424 so far (previous record was 241
The most Eastern Phoebes: 9

Stéphane’s heart has been warmed by the sight of many of his beloved raptors, including golden eagles, bald eagles, peregrine falcons, merlins, kestrels, broad-winged hawks, sharp-shinned hawks, red-tailed hawks, red-shouldered hawks, rough-legged hawks, broad-winged hawks, coopers hawks, and osprey. Stéphane’s dream is to one day see a Mississippi Kite, for which he is saving a bottle of Champagne. I (Dan) saw one the other day in one of the mist nets, but quickly extracted it before Stéphane saw it....no need to ruin his joy of discovery. I was hoping to see red-necked grebes and got a raftload of them at the dock of Dyer’s Bay! Cabot Head, the place where your wildest dreams come true! Kat had always wanted to see a Hermit Thrush and was quickly satisfied when we caught one on the second day. Generally, whenever Kat expresses her desire to see a bird it either shows up in a net or on census in short order. Kat on demand we call her.

Life in the cabin is filled with reading, cooking, meditating, yoga, exercising, CBC, and learning about birds. We’ve gone on a few hikes around the area....to the pine barrens, up Middle Bluff, and to the lighthouse. I’ve been keeping my eye out for snakes (my area of study) and Kat for her salamanders but it’s been slim pickings so far (update on April 28: lots of snakes and salamanders in the Crane Lake area yesterday on a warm afternoon). In a week or so the weather is supposed to pick up and we expect rattlesnakes to start emerging from hibernation. We have seen an otter, raccoon, and beaver in the basin and a white-tailed deer and long-tailed weasel around the nets. There are also a couple of turkeys that are hanging around the property.

My favourite bird of the week so far? Hooded merganser. Kat: northern harrier. Stéphane: seeing one immature Golden Eagle soaring with 2 immature Bald Eagles and 3 Northern Harriers, while 2 Sandhill Cranes were flying not far…

Dan