With rain holding off until ~9 am, 8 hardy souls joined John Lloyd and me early this morning at the Mystery Trail, site of VCE's new citizen science project on color-banded Gray Catbirds (GRCA) and Song Sparrows (SOSP). Although activity was a bit quiet overall - and no Golden- or Blue-winged Warblers were found - we managed to mist net and uniquely color band another GRCA (our 8th) and resight one male of each species: GRCA green-orange(left)/red-aluminum(right) and SOSP blue-aluminum (left)/red-white(right). We also mist-netted a Red-eyed Vireo, Willow/Alder Flycatcher (both species were heard singing, and they are indistinguishable in the hand), a male American Redstart, and 6 Am. Goldfinches. A White-throated Sparrow nest that had 4 eggs on May 17 today contained 1 egg and 3 newly-hatched chicks. We'll plan at least one more workshop within the next couple of weeks to net and color band a few more individuals of each species (we saw several unbanded birds) and practice resighting with anyone who would like to participate. We'll announce the time and date, but in the meantime, we encourage birders to visit the site and try your hand at finding color-banded birds and accurately recording their combinations. It's challenging, fun and rewarding work, and the data will be invaluable to test whether or not this pilot citizen science project can be expanded across the landscape. Learn more at http://vtecostudies.org/projects/forests/citizen-scientist-pilot-project/. Thanks in advance to all of you who can contribute your time, patience and sharp eyes! Chris ________________________ Chris Rimmer Vermont Center for Ecostudies PO Box 420 | Norwich, Vermont 05055 802.649.1431 x1 http://vtecostudies.org/ <http://vtecostudies.org/> To post messages, send e-mail to: [log in to unmask] Set your e-mail application to PLAIN TEXT ONLY to post messages. To contact the list owner: [log in to unmask] To unsubscribe: E-mail this command to [log in to unmask]: UNSUBSCRIBE UV-Birders To change your e-mail address: E-mail this command from your old address to: [log in to unmask]: CHANGE UV-Birders [new e-mail address] Web based archives and subscription management are available at: http://listserv.dartmouth.edu/Archives/uv-birders.html