Sunday was very much like Saturday, except instead of seeing the front end of boats bringing lots of visitors to the island, we saw the back end of boats taking them all away. Oh, and we had fewer birds.
In the morning, there were still some visitors coming around, although most found something a little more stimulating to do with their last few hours on the island when they discovered that there wasn’t much going on in the net lanes. One of our most enthusiastic visitors, Kelley (age 11), had told us on Saturday that she was planning to come down to the station at 6:10 and we were both surprised and impressed when she did! We just wished we had more to show her, but she and her sister Celia (age 6) and other visitors (including Charlie, age 11) were happy to see whatever they could.
The continuing SW winds had a predictable effect on the number of birds, with a total of 14 banded. It was a day when we were grateful for baby catbirds — they made up 57% of birds banded — but were also pleased to band a young Eastern Kingbird.
Liz and Kiah set up the Crystal Lake nets in the afternoon and saw 3 Northern Shovelers and a Yellow-crowned Night-Heron. The most interesting sighting of the day, however, was the Bluestripe Garter Snake Kiah found near net 3!
We were sorry to see Peg leave at noon but glad that she was heading to Concord, NH to meet her new granddaughter Samantha, who was born on Saturday!
Cheers from Appledore!
David, Peg, Kiah, and Liz
