Two Weeks Left

With two weeks left things have been crazy. My dad visited last week. We went wine tasting, to the Giants game, and to Alcatraz. I also finished up my NABC testing and I am officially a certified Bander. Nicole, will be here in one week and then I'm off back across country. 

Here are some pictures since the last time I posted. 

4th of July Tug-of-War!

Acorn Woodpecker float

Spotted Towhee Nestling

Juvenile Steller's Jay 

Allen's Hummingbird

Adult Male Allen's

Hatch-year Allen's

Barn Swallows

So two posts ago I added some photos of barn swallow nestlings that we banded. This is what they now look like! They're about to fledge any second. They keep teetering on the edge about to fly out, but seem to scared. The parents are literally constantly flying back and forth carrying them food. 

Faithful parents watching over. 

It's been awhile since my last post. My computer was in the shop. But things have been pretty much the same. Catching birds and what not. On my day off this week I hiked up to the top of Mt. Tamalpais. It was awesome! I had a beautiful view of San Francisco from the top. My dad visits in one week and I am very excited! 

Also, I just have one short month of work left here and then I am headed back across country and then down to Auburn for grad school. 

Next week Amanda and I start our North American Banding Council (NABC) banding certification exams! AHH! Lots of studying! 

If you want to see better and cooler pictures than mine you should check out this blog > http://sambobbing.blogspot.com/

Female European Starling

Male Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Look at that crown!

View of the Golden Gate Bride and San Francisco from the top of Mt. Tamalpais. 

Pretty trees along my hike. 

Juvenile Brown Creeper

American Goldfinch Nestling

Female Cliff Swallow

Summer!

It has been a pretty busy and enjoyable past 2 weeks. Yesterday we caught 52 birds in one day! We've been catching some cool new birds and I FINALLY got my wish of catching a swallow!!! We also banded some Barn Swallow nestlings today! :)

Hairy Woodpecker

Golden-Crowned Kinglet

Juvenile Swainson's Thrush

Tree Swallow!

Northern Mockingbird! This guy was very exciting to catch. They're very rarely ever caught here. In fact this was only the 9th time in history that we've caught one!

Barn Swallow nestling!

So happy!

Day of Diversity

Today we had a lot of diversity at Palo. Caught an adult male Cooper's Hawk! So pretty! We also caught a male California Quail. Quail are one of the few birds we actually do not band because they are a game bird. I also saw my first baby quail today running around. They were so tiny and absolutely adorable!

A juvenile Bushtit. 

BABIES!

This past week we have been catching a good amount of juvenile birds! They often look similar to an adult, just uglier haha! Also, yesterday we went with one of our permanent biologists who studies Northern Spotted Owls to see some fledglings. We were told it could take up to 2 hours to find them. We got there and I spotted an adult right away! Then we found a fledgling! They look like little cotton balls! We later found another adult. Pictures will be posted on here shortly of those guys! 

Mourning Dove. Such a handful!

The tail of an Allen's Hummingbird. This bird was born this year and you can use the pattern of colors on the inner 2 tail feathers to determine the sex. Because it goes orange, black, green we know that this is a male. A female would not have black between the orange and green. 

No, the bird is not dead! This is how we weigh hummingbirds. Because of the way their wings move, if we place them on their backs they cannot flip themselves over and fly away. 

An adult Orange-Crowned Warbler. 

A fledgling Orange-Crowned Warbler. 

An adult Wilson's Warbler.

A fledgling Wilson's Warbler. They look so different!

Another shot of the adult Orange-Crowned. 

A female Bushtit. A couple posts ago I had a picture of a male Bushtit. You can determine the sex by the color of the eye. This is a female because of the white eye. Males have a dark-colored eye. 

For those that are curious, this is the type of net we use to catch the birds. 

Me and a Wilson's Warbler!