We placed some GEO's on martins at Wendell Rogers colony today. While attempting to trap a SYM in his gourd we accidently caught his mate, a ASYF GEO bird. Fortunately we read the band--SCH810 before we released it assuming it was this year's GEO bird. (We had recovered our last GEO returnee Apr. 21.) After discussing and researching it, we decided it was a returnee from last year that we were unaware of.(Wendell has a Super colony of 100 plus gourds--all occuppied.) So we recaptured it and recovered the GEO. A very pleasant surprise and bonus.
The second photo is of Wendell's ingenious 3-pronged predator guard consisting of a baffle, netting and live wiring.
Our season locally will wind down about July 4. Enjoy those martins!
I know the importance of these geo locators but I bet she is relieved to get that thing off of her. I enjoyed reading about all the places these birds traveled and overwintered. Thank you for sharing.
2015 69 pairs 418 eggs 396 fledged
2019 I have 148 openings now
2016 100 pairs 600 babies fledged added another t-14 and have 126 openings now
2015 Jun 24 360 babies and 58 eggs also found one that had died
2017 632 babies 11died and 20 were killed by hawks
2015 74 pairs and 9 eggs 5/14
2010 3pairss
]JOINED PMCA JUNE 6,2018
2018 651 babies 5 hawk kills 11 floater kills 25 died in houses and 610 fledged
This is a photo of a martin with a Geolocator we attached today. The black blob over the GEO is a stack of Super glue gel first, then black liquid electrical tape over that to secure the teflon harness knot that holds it on.
Jim
Attachments
GEO attached 6-13-2013
GEO attache 6-13-2013.JPG (34.34 KiB) Viewed 3126 times