As of today (Saturday April 25, 2015) I've processed 41 birds this season. I'm using the word "processed" instead of "banded" because some of these birds have been recaptures from last year! It's been pretty exciting to see some of 2014's birds again - both for my study and for my own personal interest in seeing them survive another year.
One thing I've noticed this year is that the birds don't seem to be responding to the playback in the same way as last year. At first I was using the same set of songs I used last year but the birds seemed much more hesitant to charge the speaker. I would get some counter-singers and some full-fledged [bird humor] abandonment. I changed up my tactic and added site-specific songs to my iPod. These were much more successful!
Another interesting difference this year is the amount of females I've been catching along with the males. Last year yielded mostly male captures but this year I'm getting a lot more pairs co-defending their territory.
I also have to take a moment to thank Charlie, Erika, Pete and Linda - thank you so much for your help so far!!
Here are some birds from my four field sites this year:
San Francisco State University
Thanks to David Emmerson (aka Dad) for help on this first bird! He's been resited and recorded.
Not too many second year (brown-and-tan crowns) this year but this male is an avid singer from South campus:
Golden Gate Park
San Francisco Zoo
This bird is a recapture of the very first bird I caught at the Zoo. Dubbed very elaborately (sarcasm) "Zoo1" or "S/WYW", this male had a brown-and-tan crown when I first caught him - now he's all grown up!
Lake Merced
I cannot make any claim to these amazing photos. They're all from Pete - check out his other amazing bird photography (including many of Lake Merced's banded white-crowns) at his Flickr.
And my personal favorite:
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