Bird Banding and Otters || Wednesday, July 04, 2007

Today was bird banding day at Tremont (by the way--bird banding days are open to the public as part of the Citizen Science Program... if you're interested I can find out future banding days for this breeding season). For the 4th we did banding as a family outing today. Myers was content most of the time, but Bailey was a wee bit of a scaredy cat and wouldn't touch a bird for anything. In the yard she'll try to catch birds with a butterfly net, but with one 6 inches away being firmly held by a professional, she won't touch it. Oh well. Myers would have put it in his pocket if we'd loosen our grip. The highlight of the day came around 10am, however, when 3 river otters came down Little River immediately behind where we were banding. The first two were adults and the 3rd was a juvenile. As the came through they were separated and to reunite they did a "high pitched chirpy bark thing" (that's the official scientific terminology...) to try to get back together. Very cool. Pictures by Jodie After banding, we did the obligatory fireworks thing, hosting a cookout for my parents and Jodie's parents. Pictures of fireworks