I know ,it's been a long time since I Blogged anything!
Spring Banding at Innisfree was ...........................non-existent! The Nets were set up, but only one Night was put in and no Days due to poor weather or Work! That dreaded 4 -letter word seems to get in the way alot!
The Only Banding done was by Nigel under contract with the Lake Simcoe Regional Conservation Authority. Nigel banded 1 Owl and only a few Hawks ! There seemed to be no Flight due to the North Winds and Snow/Rain that came far to often . In April Nigel turned his attention to "Dickie " Birds . He got off to a good start with many new Species for the LSRCA. He banded his 2nd ever Pileated Woodpecker in over 25 years of Banding!
At the end of June I banded 5 Young Kestrels at the Innisfree Station ! They were a couple weeks from Fledging.
The next day Nigel and I banded the Osprey Chicks , of which there were 3 ! 
This is the 3 rd year out of 4 that we have Banded them that they had 3 Chicks. The other year produced only 1! An interesting note to the Osprey was the fact that we thought they had Fledged that day due to 4 Osprey flying in the vicinity of the Nest. After I climbed up an saw the Chicks(2-3 weeks before they would Fledge) we concluded that there was another Nest in the Vicinty, but all Adults came in quite close and were Vocal.
While on the Platform a 5th Adult Osprey came over for a look!
We then decided to check our other Kestrel Boxes . The 1st and 3rd had been used, but Fledged, the 2nd and 4th had been used by Starlings and the 5th surprisingly had 4 Chicks atleast 2 weeks younger than the ones at the Banding Station! They were old enough to sex and Band !
And now we are waiting patiently for the Fall Banding Season!
