Eight of us visited the Foreman's Branch Bird Observatory Banding Station Sept 14, 2008.
Due to the high heat of the day, the bird count was lower than usual. That meant that Jim Gruber and his team were able to take more time to spend with us, answering questions and taking us around some of their 100 nets.
What I didn't know, is that this station is now part of a non profit organization called
Chester River Field Research Center
P. O. Box 421
Chestertown, MD 21620
They depend on donations to pay for nets, supplies and salaries for two staff who are paid. Jim and the rest of the crew volunteer their time, but the volume of work requires full time staff.
They send in all their data to Patuxent Research Center and also gather ticks removed from birds to send to another research group, I think at Harvard.
We will gather our photos soon and try to provide a short slide show of some of the birds we got to see up close and personal. The photo here is of Jim Gruber holding a brown thrasher covered in poke weed juice.
Dan provided us a list of what they banded that day --
Ruby-throated hummer- 3
American Redstart- 7
Least flycatcher- 1
Yellow bellied Flycatcher- 1
Acadian Fly- 1
E. Woodpewee- 4
Mag. warbler- 2
Am. Goldfinch- 1
Yellowthroat- 14
House Wren- 1
Black and white- 3
Field Sparrow- 1
Chickadee- 1
Red-eye vireo- 3
Indigo- 2
Phoebe- 2
Carolina Wren- 1
Veery- 4
Blue Grosbeak- 1
Yellow-breasted Chat- 1
Scarlet Tanager- 1
No. Cardinal- 2
Wood Thrush- 1
Catbird- 9
Thrasher- 2
Mockingbird- 1
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