Over the past several weeks, Renee, John and Ross, a CVWO volunteer about to graduate from Old Dominion with a degree in Biology, have been busy locating, cleaning and checking the 80 boxes which CVWO placed at First Landing last year in an effort to recover the numbers of Prothonatory Warblers breeding in the Park. On Tuesday afternoon, we visited several of the boxes which earlier scouting had indicated Prothonatory nesting activity.
Indeed, using her home-made net, Renee, after quietly wading into the swamp in her hip boots, captured an incubating female at a nest box. The bird was then banded, aged, measured and weighed before being released back near the nest box. The pictures show it all!
It was a fine start to the 2007 chapter of the project which will continue through the breeding season. Chicks will be banded as well as adults. The goal of the project is to restore this wonderful warbler, a symbol to many of the southern cypress wetlands, to First Landing State Park.
Peter
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