Vestaburg Bog Field Trip
Words and pictures by Stan Lilly
As a follow-on to Mike Bishop's presentation at the potluck meeting on September 15th, several members of the group visited his bird banding at Vestaburg Bog on September 21st. The bog is on a tract of land owned by Alma College and Mike does both migration and MAPS (Monitoring Avian Productivity and Survivorship) banding there.
Here was Mike, hard at work.
It was a very interesting day. Mike had 30 new individuals of 10 species and 2 recaptures. Here was his list
Black-capped Chickadee |
Swainson's Thrush |
Wood Thrush |
Tennessee Warbler |
Nashville Warbler |
Blackpoll Warbler |
Black-throated Blue Warbler |
Magnolia Warbler |
Ovenbird |
Common Yellowthroat |
The highlight of the day was finding two male Black-throated Blue Warblers in the same net. Here was one of them:
Many of the visiting youngsters got the thrill of having a bird in hand. Here is Michael Sherman's youngest son, Mark, with a Magnolia Warbler playing dead in his palm before flying off to freedom.
gdf
We saw other wildlife too, including these salamander, a spotted and a blue spotted. Safe to say a good time was had by all and we apreciate Mike Bishop's generosity in sharing his expertise and his banding station with us.