Annie won!
Annie won!
Bob Leberman, the man responsible for bringing us all to this moment, did the honors of removing the catbird,
and then took a moment to reflect on a common bird of decidedly uncommon significance to the Powdermill banding program that he began more than 40 years ago.
The catbird was placed, ceremoniously, of course, into a paper bag, and, after checking the remainder of our nets, we headed back to the lab to make the 500,000th banding record official.
Back at the lab, Annie did the honors of placing band #8108-34671 on the catbird and passed it on to Bob L. for processing.
As Bob made the determinations and measurements, Brian dutifully (and neatly!) recorded all of the particulars--age, second year; sex, male; wing, 85.0mm, fat, none; weight, 31.1g.
the color highlights were added later!
As it turned out, #8101-34671 was uncharacteristically quiet and well-behaved for a catbird, which helped to make the whole occasion go very smoothly (absolutely no feathers were ruffled!), and for the second time this year, we broke out the sparkling grape juice to drink a toast to a special bird and the program for which it represents a major milestone.
We had no sooner rinsed our glasses and swept away the confetti than an eager group of children showed up at our door ready for their banding demonstration--they missed the 500,000th bird by less than 15 minutes but seemed quite happy with the Rose-breasted Grosbeak, Scarlet Tanager, Downy Woodpecker, Louisiana Waterthrush, Yellow Warbler, and Red-eyed Vireo that followed!
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