Author: aims_admin

Oh hello! We thought we were going to get royally slammed because we looked at the wind direction. We are now guessing that the wind blew too hard. Actually, we thought it was fall and we had a very nice day. The weather was late August like – absolutely gorgeous and warm! No season “Christmases” but the Black-billed Cuckoo and Indigo Bunting (female) were 2nd. bandings for the spring. The Blackburnian Warbler was a dapper young dude so got his quota of “OOOO’s and AAHHHH’s”. We had nothing exciting observed although the drake Northern Shoveler is still around and it is always fun to hear Alder Flycatchers. We totally enjoyed the atmosphere and the view.

Lauren, Sally, and David send you remembrances of such days.

Happy greetings! We awoke to clouds, fog, and an occasional rain spit but decided to open anyway thinking we would catch nothing because while the winds were nice, the lower atmosphere was not. On the first round we caught flycatchers! By the end of second round, the raindrops while still small were becoming more frequent and the birds were using the bags for towels. We closed. The forecast all day rain was completely gone by just after 11:00 so we opened and had a very unusual day. We had 7 new warblers and 8 warbler retraps – NO COYE’S! 31 flycatchers and 30 Red-eyed Vireos provided bulk to the list. The most amazing event is pictured. We’ve only had both cuckoos during a season in spring once since we started banding in spring in 1982. To have both in the same round is simply incredible!! I can’t remember that ever in the fall! The singing Alder Flycatchers, drake Shoveler, and flock of 14 Semipalmated Plovers were the observation highlights.

Katherine (our aide from MARS) closed the trailer and left us. So Bill, David, Lauren, and Sally are sending you a larger than usual dose of Appledore wonder! See you on Island.

Shivery greetings from a day of cold and incipient fog – all day!! That said, the day produced more than expected. There were no points of excitement in the nets. Both returns were from last fall. The female Cardinal was interesting because we have not heard one singing consistently on this end of the island. The most exciting event was Lauren’s sighting of an adult Long-tailed Jaeger as her boat approached Appledore. I had left Robin off our cumulative totals list so I checked all these totals against our computer chart totals this morning so now they all match. Sleep deprivation was at work!! Andy, Hannah, Martha, & Peggy went back to America and the return trip brought Lauren. Our day’s lists should improve substantially!

Bill, David, Lauren, and Sally send you the mental warmth we would rather have had physically.

Hello again! You can infer from message timing that today is not yesterday – or the day before that – or the day before that! So, Saturday was almost “summer on Appledore” again – mostly sunny, warm, and really comfortable to work in. Once again, the birds flew – in handleable numbers. 3 species, Blue Jay, Gray-cheeked and Hermit Thrushes were new for the season. A Catbird and a Yellowthroat from last September reappeared. But the bird of the day was the SY Gray Catbird that was banded on 4 Sept. 2015 as a HY-U at Braddock Bay, the bird observatory just west of Rochester, NY. David Bonter has their data base with him and confirmed the original data although the Banding Lab website has some sort of glitch in it that prevented our sending the corroborating pictures. We took pictures of band to show all numbers and bird with embedded date. D. Bonter also reported our 2 banded Red-breasted Nuthatches going up and down the walls of the tower foraging on the lichens growing there.

Once again, Andy, Bill, David, Martha, Peggy, and Sally along with our favorite aliens, Hannah and Katherine send you glorious Island warmth.

It’s already Sunday! Can we even remember Friday? You can see that it was a good day – thank goodness, not a repeat of Thursday. The Acadian Flycatcher was “Christmas”. The Orchard Oriole was a delight – it’s been many years since I’ve held one. We catch very few Philadelphia Vireos or Am. Robins in the spring so those were fun. A Gray Catbird that we banded as a youngster on 28 August last fall received more colorful bling. The fog snuck in around 3:00 in the afternoon and stayed with us for the rest of the day. Most interesting observations were the Northern Shoveler that David Bonter flushed out of the Northern Valley and the 7 Glossy Ibis whose silhouettes glided through the gray behind the dorms.

Andy, Bill, David, Martha, Peggy, and Sally join the Mars people, Hannah and Katherine in sending belated waves from Appledore Is.

Greetings from a really wiped out crew. This day was long and the night was short. We’re not yet praying for rain but a chance to recover would be welcomed! On Wednesday night, the sky was busy. On Thursday, we were busy. We banded 356 new birds and had a single retrap. The Yellow-bellied Flycatcher, 2 Red-breasted Nuthatches, and 3 Mourning Warblers were “Christmas” (new for the season). 164 of our birds were Common Yellowthroats many of which got their bands from Andy. She was a real trooper with those birds!! Neither the “Threat” total nor our total individuals were records but they certainly out-performed most of our days on Appledore! Sally joined us in the morning and even with all our helpers, we were shut down completely for about 2 hours mid-morning to clear out the volume of jiggling bags. David Bonter recaptured one of his geo-locater equipped Yellow Warblers in the evening but probably will not have access to the data until sometime in the fall.

Andy, Bill, David, Martha, Peggy, and Sally , and the Martians, Hannah and Katherine are all lifting their heads off their pillows just enough to say “YOU SHOULD have been HERE!!

NO PICTURES TODAY – TEAM TOO BUSY!!

Hi all!! How wonderful to be back on Island!! The timing of this report should tell you something about yesterday’s activities. That report will follow shortly. But first – !

The reported morning weather was dismal – cool and foggy with nearly no birds. By the time I arrived in Portsmouth, the day had become unseasonably warm but the birds apparently didn’t anticipate the pleasantness. Totals were scant. Traill’s Flycatcher and Common Grackle gave us “Christmas in May” (new species for the season) and possibly the most enjoyed observations were of the pair of Bobolinks. Very unfortunately, Anthony left on the departing food run and no bander was on Island until David appeared on the returning food run about 4:30 so the station was closed for 7 1/2 hours. No wonder totals were scant!!

Marygrace left with Anthony and Martha appeared with David so by the end of the day, Andy, Bill, Martha, David, and Martians, Katherine and Hannah were here to send you elements of “summer on Appledore”.

We have very little to report today, as we were closed for most of the day due to wind, drizzle and rain. We opened the core 5 for an hour in the morning before the rain came in, then were able to open for a few hours in the afternoon. We had a grand total 1 bird banded, 1 recapture and 1 return – a Gray Catbird originally banded in Spring of 2013.

Bill gave a most entertaining talk about the gull project and Anthony spoke about the banding station to a group of 14 high school students and their 2 teachers, who are visiting from Ithaca, NY.

We are all hoping for better weather and more birds in the morning.

the AIMS crew

Well, what a difference a day makes (for those of us old enough to remember that song). We did not see the sunrise but the morning sky was quite wonderful anyway, and we did have a productive day at the nets. Bill, Marygrace and Peggy ventured to Crystal Lake after breakfast and set up that net, which was open for most of the day, thanks to the indefatigable crew willing to provide courier service for birds captured there. We ended the day with a respectable total of 117 newly-banded birds, somewhat more interesting than the 21 from Sunday!

As for today (Tuesday) we send you foggy, wet, 22-knot NE wind-driven Appledore greetings as we battle with ennui and cabin fever and closed, wet nets . . . There may not even be enough for a daily report at this rate.

Andy, Bill, Hannah, Katherine, Marygrace, Peggy and Anthony

Hello –

To coin a phrase, today was not yesterday. Birds banded today totaled 11.6% of birds banded yesterday. Lauren and Liz migrated to America and Andy, Marygrace and Peggy came to join us. We hope they bring us good luck!

Appledore greetings from Andy, Bill, Katherine, Marygrace, Peggy and Anthony

Some things Katherine does when it’s slow in the banding station…