The number of visitors to the station was both typical and atypical today: we had a fairly typical (for fall) number of bird visitors, and an atypical number of human visitors.
Three boatloads of SML 50th Anniversary celebrants (a total of around 110 people) arrived on the island in the morning, starting with the Gulf Challenger at around 9:00 and followed fairly shortly by the Heiser and the Kingsbury. Visitors trickled through the banding station throughout the day, around 35 or 40 total. Those who came earlier in the day were able to see some birds extracted and processed, but banding activity came to a complete halt shortly after lunch, with only two recaps in the nets after about 1:30. However, the afternoon stayed lively thanks to the 50th Anniversary activities and visiting with many island alums, including John and Louise Kingsbury, Jim Morin, Art Borror, Al Hansen, Rocket Getchell, Peter Randall, Lee Pollock, Jackie Webb, Patty McGill and others.
Anniversary celebration highlights included lots of outdoor programs, SML Director’s coffee, silent and live auctions, and a lobster dinner. We were also entertained at various points by flyovers from the drone that was photographing the events.
Despite the slow afternoon, the numbers picked up a bit from recent days, with a total of 23 birds banded.
Cheers from Appledore,
David, Peg, Kiah, and Liz
