I just got my hands on last fall's banding season data at Sand Bluff Bird Observatory (SBBO) at Colored Sands Forest Preserve in Winnebago County. While I won't go through each species banded, I will try to give some of the highlights.
First of all, there were two never before banded birds at SBBO: Bank Swallow and Cliff Swallow. Some of the rare birds caught and banded were Acadian Flycatcher, Harris's Sparrow, and LeConte's Sparrow. A large amount of Cape May Warblers were banded (17) and Dickcissels were captured for the first time in the fall (20). Dickcissels nest at Colored Sands. Another cool bird banded was a Whip-poor-will, a bird I've seen only once (at Colored Sands). We had thought the bird was being banded but we found it calling from the roof of the building.
While it is hard to come up with accurate trends (I will have to get my hands on more data), most of the "normal" species were well represented. There were 24 species of warblers, 9 species of flycatchers, 5 vireos, 15 sparrows, and a host of others. Total number of birds banded were 4,758 making up 105 species.
The spring banding has already begun and I hope to get some really excellent bird photos and hopefully some more detailed data.
